AI for small businesses in Surrey. Where it saves time, and how to use it safely.
Practical AI advice for firms with 5 to 50 people. No hype. We’ll tell you where AI genuinely gives your team hours back, which tool to use, and how to keep client data where it belongs. Start with a free Discovery call.
60 to 90 minutes, remote. We look at how your team works and where time goes, and you come away with a short list of things worth looking at in more detail.
No cost, nothing to signSix places a small firm loses time that AI can give back.
The useful AI in a 5 to 50 person business is rarely dramatic. It’s the repetitive admin that eats an afternoon a week. These are the areas where we see it make the biggest difference.
Processing emails and orders
Pulling details out of emails and typing them into another system is one of the most common time drains we see. Monitoring and triaging an accounts mailbox is a typical Small build.
Meeting notes and follow-ups
AI meeting summaries and automatic follow-ups mean actions get recorded and sent out without anyone taking notes by hand, so fewer things get missed.
Drafting proposals and emails
AI drafting tools turn your team’s bullet points into a solid first draft. People review and personalise it rather than starting from a blank page every time.
Onboarding and document generation
Welcome packs, reports and standard documents assembled from information that already lives in your systems, started by the right trigger rather than by hand.
Invoice and approval chasing
Automated reminder flows handle the tracking and escalation of outstanding invoices and approvals, so nobody keeps a spreadsheet of chasers.
Monthly reporting
If your monthly reports mean pulling data from several systems and formatting it by hand, that’s a job for automation. The report is ready when you need it, not half a day late.
Notice what isn’t on the list: replacing people. The goal is efficiency without adding headcount: the same team getting more done with less admin.
Your team is probably already using AI.
In most businesses we talk to, AI is already in the building. Someone signed up to a free tool. Copilot arrived with a Microsoft update. None of that is a reason to panic, but the usual questions about data security and GDPR now apply to tools nobody has checked.
That’s what Protect & AI is for: everything in our Core and Protect support packages, plus the policy, controls and training that keep your data protected. It’s £83.50 per user per month, and it brings AI inside your Cyber Essentials boundary.
- An AI policy your staff actually know aboutAgreed with you, set up in your systems, briefed to staff and signed off. New tool requests are assessed against it rather than decided on the spot.
- Finding the AI nobody told you aboutContinuous discovery of AI apps, browser extensions and cloud services in use, with unapproved ones flagged and blocked on managed devices.
- Your data ready before AI touches itA review of who can see what across SharePoint, OneDrive and servers, a permissions tidy-up, sensitivity labels and data loss prevention.
- Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude managed properlySingle sign-on, data-sharing controls, and access handled through the same joiner and leaver process as everything else.
For most businesses, Microsoft Copilot. But the tool is the easy part.
Microsoft Copilot: our default
Mainly for security. It works inside the Microsoft 365 you’ve already secured, on your existing files and permissions. No new supplier, no new data agreement, nothing extra to explain to customers or your insurer. Microsoft also sells Business Premium with Copilot as a bundle, which costs less than adding it separately.
ChatGPT: the best all-rounder
The most familiar, the quickest for staff to pick up, and it handles the widest range of everyday tasks.
Claude: writing and analysis
Strongest for writing quality, long documents and careful analysis, and for more technical, process-heavy work.
ChatGPT and Claude each bring a new supplier, a separate data agreement and another licence to manage whenever someone joins or leaves. Protect & AI takes that off your hands, and we support all three. Whichever you choose, tidy permissions, a policy people know and a bit of training decide whether AI saves time or creates problems.
Start with a conversation, not a sales pitch.
Every business loses time in different places, so before we recommend anything we talk to you about how your team actually works. From there, the next steps are usually two, and each stands on its own.
Automation Discovery call
60 to 90 minutes, remote. We find where your team is losing time and what’s worth fixing. You leave with a short list, and no obligation to do anything with it.
Protect & AI
Use AI safely, with the policy, controls and managed tools described above. Includes an Automation Roadmap: a senior engineer spends up to a day with your team and produces a written, prioritised plan.
BUILD
We build and look after automations and AI agents inside your own Microsoft 365 and Azure. Small (up to half a day) is £45 a month per solution, Medium (up to a day) £75 and Large (up to two days) £125, with support included. You own what we build.
An honest note on price: the tools have got better, and builds that used to take days now take hours, so we’ve cut our BUILD prices rather than charge last year’s price for less work. Licensing, Azure consumption and third-party costs are yours, and we’ll tell you what they are before we start.
Not sure where AI fits in your business?
That’s what the Discovery call is for. It’s free, it’s remote, and it ends with a short list of things worth looking at, or an honest “not yet” if that’s the answer.
Questions about AI in a small business.
Want the full detail on automation? See our AI & Automation page.
Do we need to be an ISS support customer?
No. The Discovery call and our BUILD service are open to any business, whether or not we look after your IT. Protect & AI is one of our IT support packages, so that one does come with our support.
Where should we start?
With the free Automation Discovery call. If your first concern is staff using AI safely, the answer is usually Protect & AI. If you already know what you want automating, we can go straight to BUILD.
Which AI should a small business use?
For most businesses, Microsoft Copilot, mainly on security grounds: it works inside the Microsoft 365 you’ve already secured, with no new supplier or data agreement. ChatGPT is the best all-rounder and Claude is strongest for writing and careful analysis. We support all three, and we’ll tell you plainly if one suits your team better.
Is it safe to use AI with client data?
Yes, if it’s done properly. Free and personal AI accounts can keep what’s typed into them; business accounts, set up with the right controls, don’t. The other risk is permissions: AI can find anything a user can, including the folder shared with everyone years ago. Protect & AI sorts both.
What does automation cost?
BUILD is priced per solution, per month, with maintenance, monitoring and support included: Small is £45, Medium £75 and Large £125. Anything bigger than two days’ work is quoted separately, though most useful automation rarely needs more.
Are there long-term contracts?
BUILD has a 12-month minimum term, then runs on a 90 day rolling basis. It’s the one exception to our usual approach, so we’d rather say so up front. Our support packages, including Protect & AI, run on our normal 90 day rolling agreement.
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