ABOUT THIS EPISODE
AI isn’t just for big tech. Tom Laws and Richard Fraser-Smith are proof that small businesses can use AI to remove bottlenecks and build practical internal tools without technical teams.
In this episode of Unsung, Will Maunder-Taylor speaks with Tom, now Division Director (Fire Safety) at Cardo Group, and Richard, now Digital Transformation and Survey Director at Cardo Group.
Gunfire, a specialist provider of passive fire protection services, scaled into a £12 million revenue business before being acquired by Cardo Group earlier this year.
Tom led the growth of the business, while Richard drove digital transformation initiatives despite having no coding background. They discuss practical AI adoption inside a compliance-heavy construction business.
Key highlights
- Building internal AI tools without developers or engineering teams
- Reducing operational bottlenecks and fragmented email workflows
- Replacing expensive SaaS tools with lightweight internal systems
- Using AI to scale without proportionally increasing overhead
- Why small businesses may move faster than larger corporates adopting AI
Timestamps
- (00:00) Introduction
- (02:20) Operational complexity inside compliance-heavy construction
- (05:10) Existing tech stack and identifying bottlenecks
- (08:00) First AI experiments and discovering practical use cases
- (11:10) Watching AI turn spreadsheets into usable applications
- (12:00) Building the handover generator and automating workflows
- (16:00) “Vibe coding” and building software without technical skills
- (29:00) The future of AI for SMEs and scaling without adding overhead
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