We hit Easter ready for a break, though I’m still working from my parents’ house in Broad Haven.
I’m immensely pleased with progress at Distinctive over the last year, while feeling intensely busy as the team continues its growth spurt.
We’re hiring again, in response to client requests to provide new services. We’re constantly learning and investing in training, tech and additional support to help us to work better.
It’s a challenging time, but there’s plenty to celebrate every day. Clients value what we do. Our work makes a positive difference and is turning heads. And we’re recognised as a good employer at a time when inclusive practice is under pressure.
But when you’re busy and keen to move forward, it’s often the small things that get in the way. Considered in isolation, they seem a manageable cost of doing business. Taken together, day by day, they add up to a lot.
Hello, bad tech. A constant irritant and frequent roadblock to getting things done. While we’ve hit on some areas with AI that help us, I regularly rub against the same frustrations with tools that make me question the hype around it.
What bad tech looks like for us
To give you a flavour of what I mean, all these things recently happened to our small team in the space of a couple of days.
- Hosting outage makes booking and cancelling meeting rooms at our office impossible.
- We contact two big companies via their website contact forms (neither had phone numbers) to seek costs for a year-long piece of work. Neither responded.
- Travelodge website takes a wrong booking for a colleague and leaves them stranded in London at 10pm. We booked a new room booked last minute at additional cost. Neither provider gave us a VAT invoice.
- I try to buy a suit online, and the website won’t complete the purchase because it needs a tie size. There is no option to provide a tie size.
- A courier provides running auto-commentary on delivery status by email and text – who asks for this? – then fails to deliver an important item on time. Then the commentary stops as the provider goes to ground.
- A party dinner online booking disappears. The restaurant doesn’t answer the phone.
One team, two days. Hours wasted. Thousands of pounds left on the table. With the economy flatlining, I find this level of aggravation hard to forgive once you multiply the cost across all businesses caught up in this mess.
Why the hell do we think this is OK?
It stiffens my view of what good customer service looks like in 2026 – and it’s not one that’s run by a chatbot. It’s not one with – and I quote – ‘handy support material’ to wade through which won’t answer your question either.
A better way to use AI
I think the organisations that use AI to help their teams do great work are the ones that will win in 2026.
They’ll answer the phones. They’ll do what they say they’ll do on time. They’ll put things right quickly. All while AI works in the background.
Those that focus on cutting headcount by stripping back service are locked in a race to the bottom, even if they don’t see it. This is enshittification writ large. And we’re starting to see a pushback against this everyday sloppiness.
The Norwegian Consumer Council captures the problem brilliantly. I feel seen watching it.
There must be a better way to do this.
I’m up for embracing change. I always have been, ever since working in newsrooms when updates arrived by fax. I just question whether rushing in the same direction as everyone else, without thinking about the people who depend on your services, is the right way to go. How is that different, purposeful or innovative?
Maybe this is what a luddite looks like in 2026. But others have raised these questions for years – see Professor Gary Marcus here, Cory Doctorow here, and Ed Zitron here.
While regulators and ministers slowly start to understand the impact that a free-for-all has in areas like privacy and child safety, it’s largely up to us to make sense of this in the meantime.
We can’t turn back the tide. But we can recognise the problems hiding in plain sight and manage tech properly.
Where I am with AI
As we approach our fifth year in business, I’m looking to forge fresh partnerships with businesses who share our values and want to make things better for us and the communities we work in. Most of our spend is with local suppliers, some of whom have been with us since day one. We’re stronger because of those relationships. I want more of them.
For the avoidance of doubt, that means no to ‘handy support material’ that replaces human relationships. It means no to automated services that act as cover for making us to all the work. And bots get short shrift.
I’m also very keen to work with an expert over the coming months to refine our AI approach and build on the progress we’ve made to date. I’m particularly interested in how AI can support our public engagement offer, business development and day-to-day operations.
I want it to help us continue doing great work, while giving me time to support my team and work on Distinctive rather than in it. It needs to provide me with space to think, rather than replace one form of admin with another. I remain to be convinced that tech will make this possible.
If you think you can show me the way, I’m happy to discuss a short project during April and May. My contact details are on LinkedIn.
Please, though, don’t talk to me about how brilliant AI is and why we need to take it seriously. I don’t need the sales pitch. I just need help to remove the blockers. To coin a phrase, we need to move fast and fix things.
If you’ve read this far and think you can help, thanks for taking the time. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.