What I do
I'm the founder of Utilis Technologies (UtilisTech), a UK AI integration consultancy. I work with SMEs — typically 20 to 250 staff — on Microsoft 365 Copilot readiness and deployment, bespoke AI tooling where Copilot falls short, AI governance and acceptable-use policies, and the general IT plumbing that AI projects end up needing (Entra ID, Conditional Access, Purview, SharePoint hygiene).
Alongside the AI work I still run infrastructure and security hands-on: I am currently Infrastructure & Security Lead for a Premier League football club, and this year I have delivered Microsoft 365 tenant migrations and tenant segregation for a London hotel group. Before starting Utilis, I spent years contracting across IT infrastructure, Microsoft 365 migrations, and IT security. That background matters: most AI projects that fail, fail on the boring stuff — licensing, identity, data access, change management — not on the model.
Areas I work in
- Microsoft 365 Copilot readiness & deployment
- Azure OpenAI & Claude API integrations
- AI governance & acceptable-use policy
- AI readiness assessments for UK SMEs
- Entra ID, Conditional Access, Purview
- Bespoke AI on Graph & Power Platform
- Email triage & document intelligence
- UK GDPR & Cyber Essentials alignment
- Intune & Autopilot across Windows, macOS, iOS and Android
- Fortinet firewalls, FortiClient EMS, FortiNAC & network segmentation
- Microsoft Sentinel SIEM & security operations
- VMware, Hyper-V & storage migrations
- Microsoft 365 tenant-to-tenant migrations & tenant segregation
- Cyber Essentials Plus readiness & evidence
How I work
Opinionated and lean. I run small engagements — readiness assessments, focused deployments, or single-workflow custom builds — rather than multi-month transformation programmes. The work that lands well is usually the smallest version of the idea that proves value, then gets extended.
I don't resell Microsoft licences. I don't take kickbacks from vendors. I'm not an AI hype merchant. Most of the time I'll tell you whether Copilot is worth it for your team in the first 20 minutes of a call.
What I'm watching in 2026
Three things are actually shaping UK SME AI work right now. First, the 15 April 2026 Microsoft Copilot licensing change — Copilot Chat no longer gets you in-app Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote without a paid Premium licence. That's re-opened the "is Copilot worth it?" question for a lot of teams. Second, the shift to Agentic AI — clients are starting to ask for autonomous workflow agents, not just chat assistants, which changes how you scope and govern the work. Third, the UK’s settled position that there will be no standalone AI Bill in the short term. Instead, UKSI 2026/425 (in force 12 May 2026) requires the ICO to produce a binding statutory code of practice on AI and automated decision-making, expected in 2027, with the ICO’s final automated-decision-making guidance still expected in winter 2026. The regulator itself changed form on 30 September 2026, when the ICO became the Information Commission under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025; its functions and enforcement powers carried over unchanged and it is still called the ICO, so the practical job is to name it correctly in policies and privacy notices, not to rewrite them. If you're writing AI policy this quarter, align to UK government AI principles.
Writing
I publish practical guides on AI integration, Microsoft 365 AI, and the governance questions UK businesses actually need to answer.