'Wake up call' over AI era from Harrogate tech consultant who made his name in billion-pound London tech world
A Harrogate entrepreneur who left the billion-pound London tech world of Euan Blair’s high profile company to launch his own AI firm says “most businesses know they should be doing more with AI”.
Harrogate technology consultant Will Ascough has spent the last decade building revenue and sales systems for fast-growing technology companies.
He served as Head of GTM Systems at Multiverse, the apprenticeships and AI-skills platform founded in 2016 by Euan Blair, son of former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair.
After more than two years at the British EdTech company, which was valued at $2.1bn in its most recent funding round, Ascough decided to launched his own AI advisory firm called Voltt.
Located at Copthall Bridge offices in Harrogate, Ascough believes that most companies are still not making the most of the business opportunities that AI can deliver – and they know it.
“Most businesses already know they should be doing more with AI,” said Ascough.
“The gap isn’t awareness, it’s execution.
"They’ve got the tools and they usually have the data, even if it’s sitting in a data model that isn’t fit for purpose.
"What they’re missing is the expertise to architect it properly and a clear sense of what’s actually possible.
"That’s the bit I bring.”
According to recent figures from the Lloyds Business Barometer, three in five Yorkshire businesses have now invested in AI.
But UK wide data tells a more complicated story.
A recent report from Amazon Web Services found that while nearly two-thirds of British organisations now use AI in some form, only around a quarter have managed to embed it into their core business processes.
The same report estimates that closing that gap could unlock an additional £35 billion in UK economic growth by 2030.
Voltt works with companies trying to embed AI into their commercial operations: automating manual work, integrating modern tooling with legacy systems, and rebuilding the data infrastructure underneath revenue teams.
Beyond the consulting work, Ascough is candid about a broader ambition: building AI-native products informed by the operational patterns he is seeing repeat across client engagements.
More information at: https://www.volttconsulting.co.uk/