Artificial Intelligence & Emerging Technology
How should a mid-size firm start with AI without hiring a data science team?
Operations director, Lisbon · 18 Oct 2026 · Sample discussion
We have about ninety people, a decent CRM, and three teams already pasting work into chat tools. I need a first year that is useful, not a laboratory.
Answer
Hana Ito, Technology correspondent · 21 Oct 2026 · Sample answer
Do not hire a research team to discover your first use. You already have one: the copying. Pick a single internal queue — proposal paragraphs, meeting notes into the CRM, or a weekly report assembled by hand — and give a model the same written instructions you would give a careful junior.
Keep a person in the loop who already understands the work. Their job is to reject bad output, not to marvel at good output. Track hours saved and mistakes that nearly left the building. If you cannot name that reviewer, wait.
Leave anything customer-facing until the internal habit is boring. A ninety-person firm does not need a platform strategy in year one. It needs one workflow that is cheaper and no less accurate by the spring.