AI – Our new superpower

There’s no escaping it. Our future runs on artificial intelligence (AI).

How successful that future is, however, will not depend on this transformative technology alone, but rather how we use it.

Success is not AI-shaped, but more dependent on how we shape it around our business and our people. Not just in terms of maximising the business benefits, but also its human impact.

AI twins, for example, can act as an extension of our workforce, ‘partnering’ with employees to improve their knowledge and skills, and help them provide a better service. AI is no longer merely a tool. It’s a connected, autonomous system that understands context and acts on our behalf. But it’s important to note that our influence is vital. How we use it will determine its impact and value.

New possibilities

At Mindera, we use generational AI and agentic AI to both improve the way we work and deliver better outcomes for our customers – continually learning and improving, constantly opening new possibilities for business and society.

We are also looking at how AI can streamline every element of the software development lifecycle (SDLC). From aiding product owners and increasing engineers’ productivity to automating quality assurance testing, deployment and performance monitoring. This will help our customers increase time to market.

Our recent internal research, reviewing the work we’ve been doing with our broad range of clients across the globe, shows that this will also drive a fundamental change in software development. It will release engineers from the more repetitive, mundane tasks to focus on where they can add most business value. It will also enable them to work smarter, faster, and more efficiently and productively.

Changing minds

However, transforming the SDLC depends not only on AI, but also on a shift in our mindset. This holds true across all organisations looking to get the most from the technology, and must be driven by our senior leadership teams.

We’ve been helping companies to accelerate this transition through hackathons with our customers, including iconic major UK retailer Waitrose. Some believe the hackathon is past its sell-by date, but we found that, with something as new as AI, it is a real enabler of collective innovation. We worked with Waitrose to bring software and leadership teams together to identify where AI can deliver the most benefit, coming up with concepts that will soon be available on the shopfloor.

Meanwhile, through our charitable foundation, we are teaching new generations what tech is all about. This includes holding regular AI workshops to help charities get the most from the technology tools they are often given for free.

Practical and humanistic

Just like we have with Waitrose, the work we do helping businesses get the most from AI focuses firmly on the challenges they and their customers are facing. We then evaluate if and how the technology can help. This business-first approach, ensures we build practical solutions by creating intelligent systems that drive efficiencies, increase product value and unlock growth. But we incorporate AI only when necessary, never just for the sake of it.

Recent examples include making it quicker and easier for online fashion shoppers to find what they want and inspire related purchases. Instantly turning written grocery lists digital for faster, easier online ordering. Helping companies get more from their financial data, faster. Combining data modelling and generative AI to enable a major UK retailer to process data faster, saving up to 45 hours a week.

AI is undoubtedly the future. But those businesses that embrace it in the most appropriate and humanistic way, optimising the experience for both the customer, employee and society, will be the winners.

Get in touch to find out how you can optimise AI for your business, your people and society.

About the author

Paul Evans is the founder of software development and consultancy business Mindera.

Key takeaways

• Future business success is not purely down to artificial intelligence (AI), but more dependent on how we shape it around our business and our people. Not just in terms of maximising the business benefits, but also its human impact.
• AI is no longer merely a tool. It’s a connected, autonomous system that understands context and acts on our behalf. But it’s important to note that our influence is vital. How we use it will determine its impact and value.
• It will drive a fundamental change in the software development lifecycle (SDLC), enabling engineers to work smarter, faster, and more efficiently and productively. This depends not only on AI, but also on a shift in our mindset and must be driven by our senior leadership teams.
• Taking a business-first approach to AI, using it only when necessary, never just for the sake of it, ensures we build practical solutions by creating intelligent systems that drive efficiencies, increase product value and unlock growth, .