This Is How You Deploy Useful AI in Your Workplace
- Chris Gore
- May 18
- 5 min read
The Future Workplace podcast: how to deploy genuinely useful AI in your workplace. Chris Gore in conversation with AI expert Erik Schwartz. Listen now.
Chris Gore \ Updated 2026
The Future Workplace Podcast This Is How You Deploy Useful AI Within Your Workplace — Chris Gore in conversation with AI expert Erik Schwartz, founder of theaiexpert.ai. |
The latest episode of The Future Workplace podcast is now live on Spotify. Chris Gore sits down with Erik Schwartz, AI expert and founder of theaiexpert.ai, for 52 minutes on how AI can be deployed in a way that is genuinely useful to a real business.
This is not a conversation about what AI can do in theory. It is not about 3D render images or AI-generated social posts or copy-paste prompts. It goes deep into the practical question that most AI conversations skip entirely: the so what. What does useful AI deployment actually look like for a mid-sized business? Where does it make a real difference and where is it just noise?
If you have been meaning to get into AI but every article, video and LinkedIn post has left you with more questions than answers, this is the one to listen to. Available on Spotify now.
The Question That Most AI Conversations Never Answer
The AI hype cycle has been running long enough now that most business owners and leaders have sat through a demo, nodded politely and walked away no clearer on what to actually do. The demos are impressive. The use cases shown are rarely the ones that matter to a specific business. And the question everyone leaves with, yes, but what does this do for me specifically, almost never gets answered.
Erik Schwartz works with businesses on exactly this question. Not what AI can do in general. What it can do in a specific context, applied to a specific identified problem, measured against a specific outcome. That framing changes the conversation entirely and it is where the episode spends most of its time.
What can it actually do for your business?
Not what it did in the demo. Not what it did for a company in a completely different sector. What can it do for your processes, your bottlenecks, your team structure. The answer requires understanding your specific workflow before it requires understanding AI.
Where is the time being lost right now?
AI is most useful when it is applied to a real identified problem rather than deployed because everyone else is deploying it. If the time-loss is in repetitive data handling, AI can help. If it is in meeting room technology that does not work, AI cannot fix an infrastructure problem. Knowing the difference matters.
What does good look like after implementation?
This is the question most AI projects fail to answer before they start. If success cannot be defined in advance, it cannot be measured after. The conversation with Erik covers how to set up an AI deployment so that the organisation can actually tell whether it worked.
Useful AI vs Pointless AI in the Workplace
The episode draws a clear line between AI that delivers genuine operational value and AI that is used because it is available and visible. The distinction is not always obvious from the outside but it is consistently visible in the outcomes.
Pointless AI use looks like
• Copy-paste prompts fed into ChatGPT with no business context
• 3D renders and generated images that replace no actual work
• AI-generated content that sounds like AI and serves no audience
• Summarising emails that should just be read or not sent
• Replacing human tasks without any productivity gain
• Deploying AI because leadership asked if you were using AI
Useful AI deployment looks like
• Automating genuinely repetitive processes that consume skilled time
• Surfacing patterns in data the organisation already holds
• Reducing friction at specific identified points in a workflow
• Enabling faster decisions with better context at the point of decision
• Handling volume work so people can focus on judgment work
• Applied to a specific problem with a defined metric for success
The same principle applies to workplace technology more broadly. If the meeting rooms do not work reliably, adding AI to them does not fix the underlying infrastructure problem. The foundation needs to be right before the intelligence layer adds value. This connects directly to the DITAM framework covered in more detail in buildings are broken and here is how to fix them.
Listen Now and What Is Coming Next
The episode is live on Spotify now. 52 minutes. Worth the commute.
The Future Workplace podcast covers the full range of workplace topics, technology, productivity, AI, hybrid working and the physical environment. The episode with Erik Schwartz on AI deployment is one of the most practically useful conversations the show has produced. If you want more like it, the back catalogue covers everything from Microsoft 365 productivity data to the return to office debate.
Chris Gore's book Work Isn't Working is due for release late summer 2026. It uses the DITAM framework to give business leaders a structured approach to workplace technology — the same thinking that underpins the podcast conversation. Join the waitlist at work-isnt-working. For the newsletter covering the thinking between now and publication, sign up at work-isnt-working-newsletter
And if the productivity conversation resonated, the free guide at 5-productivity-killers covers the five most common productivity blockers in UK offices and what to do about each one.
Listen to the Full Episode on Spotify
This Is How You Deploy Useful AI Within Your Workplace — 52 minutes with Chris Gore and Erik Schwartz. Available now on The Future Workplace podcast.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Future Workplace podcast?
The Future Workplace is a podcast hosted by Chris Gore, CEO of SPOR Group. It covers workplace technology, productivity, AI, hybrid working and how businesses can build environments that actually perform. Episodes feature Chris in conversation with industry experts and are available on Spotify.
Who is Erik Schwartz?
Erik Schwartz is an AI expert and the founder of theaiexpert.ai. He works with businesses on practical AI deployment — applying AI to specific identified problems rather than deploying it for its own sake. He joined The Future Workplace podcast for a 52-minute conversation on how to use AI in a way that is genuinely useful.
How do you deploy AI usefully in a workplace?
Start by identifying the specific problem you are trying to solve. Define what success looks like before you start. Apply AI to genuinely repetitive or data-heavy processes where it reduces time without reducing quality. Avoid deploying AI because it is visible or because competitors are doing it. The most effective AI implementations are invisible — they just make the work faster and better.
What is the difference between useful and pointless AI?
Useful AI is applied to a specific identified problem with a measurable outcome. It reduces time on genuinely repetitive work, surfaces useful patterns in existing data or enables better decisions with better context. Pointless AI is deployed because it is available — generating images, summarising emails that should not exist, producing content that sounds like a machine wrote it.
What is the Work Isn't Working book?
Work Isn't Working: Why most companies get workplace technology wrong and the 5-step fix is a forthcoming book by Chris Gore, CEO of SPOR Group. It is due for release late summer 2026. Built around the DITAM framework, it gives business leaders a structured approach to building a workplace that performs. Join the waitlist at spor-group.net/work-isnt-working.
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