This is where Backed by Humans found its mission. Bringing human insight to support those two thirds of British businesses to realise the power of AI.
We’re Backed by Humans
Late in 2025 Scott and James met in a café on London’s Southbank to discuss what was to become Backed by Humans. Over their drinks - a tea for Scott, coffee for James - they mused about how they were both seeing lots of hype about the potential of AI, but the success stories of how people (and businesses) were successfully applying it to improve things seemed fewer and farther between.
To compound things, much of the mainstream media tended to focus on the negative aspects of AI. Highlighting its likelihood of making us jobless and the impending burst of the AI bubble.
“AI was proving to be brilliantly helpful”
Scott and James however, felt different. From their own experiences they were learning that, when used correctly, AI was proving to be brilliantly helpful. Whether that be through helping research deep topics rapidly, or to build nifty tools to help solve small problems. It was at this point that a lightbulb moment occurred.
The hype around AI wasn’t completely baseless. It is incredibly powerful. And it can be for everyone. But only if people knew how to use it, which seemed to be where the big challenge currently was.
“Two thirds of British SMEs have yet to start implementing AI”
SMEs account for 99% of all the businesses registered in the UK (businesses of fewer than 250 people), and account for over 50% of the turnover. As of a poll in 2025, more than two thirds currently don’t use AI in their operations, vs. one third of larger enterprises.
They had both seen first hand in large organisations the money, energy and resources that went into implementing AI, and understood that many smaller businesses simply don’t have access to the same. This felt unfair, and overtime is expected to leave many SMEs behind. However, with AI and their knowledge and know-how, this imbalance can be addressed to powerful ends.
A main frustration of many smaller companies is that much of the off-the-shelf software and tooling available to them on the market isn’t built for smaller operations. Compromises are therefore inevitable, leading to frustration for the staff using it day to day, and often at high costs to licence and use for tools that don’t fit right.
Supporting fellow SMEs succeed
This is where Backed by Humans found its mission. Bringing human insight to support those two thirds of British SMEs to realise the power of AI. Working with SME, Backed by Humans can scope, build and deploy bespoke AI powered tools and technical solutions quickly that are affordable to use, effective to operate with, and support the businesses to compete and succeed through this AI revolution.
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