Use AI, but don't lose yourself in it

Our Co-Founder, Alex Brooks, was recently featured in TechRound's piece asking whether AI is making it easier to build a startup or just harder to stand out. It's a question we think about a lot at Shift7, and Alex shared some of the thinking that's shaped how we work.

AI is brilliant, but there's a fine line

When we were setting up Shift7, AI made a real difference. It helped us work through the less glamorous side of starting a business: understanding HMRC requirements, figuring out tax and payroll, building checklists so we actually knew what to do next. When you're starting a company, not knowing where to begin or who to ask is half the battle, and AI cut through a lot of that stress.

Beyond the admin, it's become a second pair of eyes for proofing content and sharpening our market research. It's also helped us build services we're proud of: GEO reports, media Share of Voice reports, market analysis, and more to come.

But we think too many are starting to fall on the wrong side of it.

We see businesses handing everything over to AI: websites, content, imagery, even the strategic thinking that should come from the people running the company. And it shows. When your brand looks, reads, and feels like it was assembled by the same tools everyone else is using, you've lost the thing that makes people choose you.

As Alex put it, AI hasn't actually made it harder to stand out. If anything, it's opened a window. Being genuine and doing the work yourself counts for more now, not less.

Give people a shot

There's one more thing Alex feels strongly about, and it's something we talk about as a team. Twenty years ago, someone gave him a chance in this industry. It became the foundation for everything he's built since. He learned the craft, developed his instincts, and built his career from that single opportunity.

We worry about what happens if agencies start cutting those roles because AI can handle the task list. Account executives, graduates, juniors: that's where the next generation of this industry comes from. Those leading agencies now or rolling out AI platforms won't be around forever. If we let AI close the door on early-career roles, we lose the people who'll one day be running agencies, advising clients, and building businesses of their own.

At Shift7, we see it as our responsibility to create those opportunities. Someone did it for us, and we want to pay it forward.