Interview with Steph Locke, CEO of Nightingale HQ

We caught up with Steph Locke, CEO of Nightingale HQ, to hear the latest on her brand new tool: GoSmarter.ai…
 

Tell us about GoSmarter.ai

 
GoSmarter.ai is a project funded by the UK government under Innovate UK to help SMEs recover from the impact of COVID 19. It gives free access to six AI-powered tools to automate time-consuming business tasks across their operations.

GoSmarter.ai gives free to access for all SMEs and includes tools for Social Media Listening, FAQ Chatbots, Productive Meetings, Sales AI, Invoice Processing and Robotic Process Automation (RPA). As well as free access, SMEs get expert support to get up and running and feel the value of the tools quickly.
 

How did you come up with the idea for the project?

 
At Nightingale HQ we are developing a platform that integrates training, strategy, and AI project execution under the umbrella term ‘AI-Ready’. Pre-COVID we had a very healthy pipeline and then everything slowed, and we started to look for new opportunities. As a small tech startup, we try to automate pretty much everything including many back-office tasks such as invoice processing, meeting management, and that is why we developed GoSmarter.ai.

We believe that automation is not just for large scale companies and that there are lots of tools that SMEs can take advantage of, regardless of technical knowledge and restrictive budgets. GoSmarter springs from these core values, is backed by Innovate UK and is an opportunity for SMEs to automate repetitive and manual tasks and save tonnes of time and money.

 

How has the need for GoSmarter.ai evolved during the pandemic?

 
Many SMEs like ourselves are having to look at new ways to do more by using automation tools to streamline and increase productivity. There are 5.8 million SMEs in the UK impacted by COVID and one of the major positives that the global pandemic has brought about is an accelerated level of digital transformation and automation to business. There is a much greater emphasis on adopting AI and automation tools to help them scale, innovate and become more agile.

This is good news for Nightingale HQ and our GoSmarter project as the benefits of adopting practical AI leads to time saving and freeing up valuable company time to work on more high value and productive tasks. Businesses of all sizes are now adopting AI not because they want to but because they must in order to remain competitive.
 

What can we hope to see from GoSmarter.ai in the future?

 
GoSmarter.ai has the potential to provide a real boost to SMEs across the UK and beyond, so we want to scale and share its impact. We are also working on growing our Supporter network to share the word as wide as possible and we are constantly seeking out new partnerships.

If the rapid changes and uncertainty of the pandemic have taught us anything it’s that businesses need to be able to adapt as quickly and as efficiently as possible. This is why AI adoption is increasingly seen as a must rather than a nice to have. Our Nightingale HQ platform will be live by the end of this year and we continue to grow our customer base organically. In 2021 we plan to raise funds and expand the team. It’s exciting and very busy times ahead.
 
To find out more visit www.gosmarter.ai