Practical AI advice, with help to put it into practice
We help small and medium-sized businesses attract and look after customers, reduce repetitive admin and make better use of the information they already hold. We identify where AI and automation can help, then work with your team to make those changes happen.
- Two founders, and direct access to both of us
- Scope and costs agreed before work starts
- Based in Devon, working across the UK
What we help with
The kinds of change we design and deliver
We work with owner-managed firms through to businesses of around 250 people. We often start with something everyday: customers kept waiting, admin that soaks up time or information that’s hard to find.
You’ll work directly with the two founders. Max Johnson has spent more than 30 years building software for businesses of every size; James de Bass has a background in law, finance and business leadership. More about us
Attract and look after customers
Before customers get in touch, when they call, and when they email or fill in a form.
Websites and AI search
Help customers find you online, including through AI search, understand what you offer and get in touch. We agree the improvements with you and brief whoever looks after your website.
AI Voice Agents
Answer more calls, handle common questions and capture enquiries. Connect bookings and call transfers where your systems support them, with a clear route to a person.
Customer enquiries and follow-up
Sort email and web enquiries, prepare replies and keep the next action clear. Your team reviews responses unless you agree a particular type can be automated.
Make everyday work easier
Business reporting
Reduce the work behind recurring reports: information brought together, preparation streamlined and commentary drafted for your team to review.
Your existing systems
Finance, sales and operations
AI-assisted preparation
Reporting streamlined. Commentary drafted.
Your team reviews
Figures and commentary checked before sharing
Commentary is drafted where the data supports it. Your team reviews and approves the report.
Order, stock and delivery admin
Reduce delivery chasing, repeated updates and re-keying by connecting the systems that already hold the information. People step in where a decision is needed.
Knowledge and know-how
Make information easier to find and capture practical expertise so colleagues can use it too. Create guided tools for repeatable decisions and processes.
Planning and managing larger projects
When a project needs specialist skills, we prepare the brief, help you compare costed proposals and manage delivery. You’ll know who’s responsible for each part of the work.
Who we work with
Practical help for established businesses
We work with established businesses looking to reduce repetitive work, improve customer service or create capacity for growth. Often that starts with something specific: missed calls, orders re-keyed between systems, a shared inbox that’s hard to keep on top of, or answers that only one person can give. Sometimes it’s simply wanting to understand where the next opportunity is.
Our approach suits owner-managed firms through to businesses of around 250 people, and we adjust it to the size and complexity of each one. We build on the systems you already have wherever that makes sense.
Recent work has taken us into distribution, farm retail and hospitality, trades and community organisations.
In practice
A long-established family-owned distributor
What they wanted to understand
Where AI could help the business, and what to do first.
What we found
A day of conversations across sales, customer service, operations and IT showed three things. Orders arriving overnight by email were often incomplete, so each morning started with a round of back-and-forth before anything could be entered into the ERP, and internal forms had the same gaps.
Key know-how was scattered across documents in individual people’s folders, hard for anyone else to find.
A fast-growing part of the business relied on quality assuring work done by third parties, with no practical or economic way to check it at scale.
What we recommended
An order agent alongside the ERP. It would pick up out-of-hours order emails and ask customers for any missing details straight away, so by 9 a.m. orders are complete and ready to process. It would also guide staff through internal forms so information is captured first time.
An AI-led audit of internal documents, classifying them into a shared knowledge base so key information no longer depends on one person’s PC.
A properly specified project using Vision AI models for checking the third-party work, put to specialist suppliers rather than built in-house.
Max and James
Topsham AI is run by its two founders
You’ll have direct access to both of us.
Max Johnson
Max has spent more than 30 years building software for businesses of every size. He’s founded two technology companies and spent almost a decade at Amazon Web Services helping organisations solve practical problems with modern cloud technology.
James de Bass
James has a background in law, finance and business leadership. He founded and ran the education technology company Educate for more than 15 years, and is both a Chartered Financial Analyst and a qualified Solicitor.
How we work
- We build on the systems you already have wherever that makes sense.
- Where a project needs specialist skills, we bring in the right people and manage their work.
- Before anything goes live, we agree what information it can access, test it with your team, and make it clear when a person needs to take over.
- Scope and costs are agreed before work starts.
How we usually start
A discovery day with your team
We usually recommend starting with a discovery day. We spend a day with your team, then prepare a written report and talk through the findings with you. You’ll get a clear view of the opportunities, what each would involve and where to start.
The price is £2,000 + VAT, with no obligation to commission further work.
If you’d rather start with a conversation about a specific problem, that works too.
The discovery day
£2,000 + VAT
Fixed price, with no obligation to commission further work.
- A day of conversations with your team
- A written report within two weeks
- A working session to go through it together
Get in touch
Talk to Max or James
Tell us a little about your business and what you’d like help with. We’ll usually come back to you within one working day, often to suggest a call.
- 01392 321700
- hello@topshamai.uk
- Bowhill, Riverside Road, Topsham, EX3 0LR
