An hour saved through artificial intelligence can leave a business owner with a commercial decision: whether to take on more work, improve the service the business delivers or reconsider how it charges clients.
Helping owners make those decisions is the focus of Otinga.io’s upcoming AI Accelerator Workshops at Henley Business School Africa in Johannesburg. Aimed at business owners and directors across sectors, the workshops help participants identify where AI can deliver a return and develop a practical plan for using it.
The one-day workshops bring an owner and one senior colleague together to assess their firm’s use of AI, prioritise business opportunities and establish clearer rules for staff.
Participants leave with a map of where AI could generate value, a draft AI policy and their top three business cases.
Francois van der Merwe, founder of Otinga.io, says the format addresses a problem familiar to owners who have attended AI presentations or invested in subscriptions but still struggle to identify what has changed in their businesses.
He describes this as the “AI action gap”: the distance between learning about the technology and using it to change how work gets done.
The process begins with a short staff survey before participants arrive at Henley. This provides a starting point for understanding how employees already use AI and where the business needs greater clarity.
For an owner, that visibility matters. Staff may have found ways to complete tasks more quickly, while management has little information about which tools they use, what information they share or how the resulting work is checked.
The workshops use the firm’s own circumstances to guide decisions about where to focus. According to Van der Merwe, the approach draws on Otinga’s work with large South African banks and insurers, adapted for smaller businesses, including firms of around 40 people.
“I think AI earns its keep in unglamorous places, like taking cost out of work you already do.”
Those opportunities also raise questions about capacity and pricing. Time saved on routine work could allow employees to serve more clients, improve analysis or respond more quickly. Owners need to decide how that time will be used and how the improvement will be measured.
A firm that bills by the hour also needs a position on how faster delivery affects its fees. A business charging an agreed fee needs to understand whether AI improves its margin while maintaining the quality promised to clients.
These decisions give the workshop’s business cases a practical purpose. Each proposed use needs a clear benefit, an understanding of its costs and someone responsible for taking it forward.
Alongside the commercial opportunities, participants work towards a draft AI policy. This gives owners a basis for setting expectations about staff use of the technology, including the handling of client information and responsibility for checking AI-assisted work.
Van der Merwe advises firms to establish who reviews figures and citations before material reaches a client. Faster production still needs to result in work the firm can stand behind.
The intention is for participants to leave Henley with priorities they can act on when they return to their businesses.
“Then pick one workflow, one owner and one number, and run it for 30 days.”
That measure could be proposal turnaround time, the cost of completing a recurring task or the amount of work a team can deliver to the required standard. A defined trial gives the owner evidence on which to continue, adjust or stop an initiative.
Otinga reports that, for one client, its approach helped put more than 10 business cases into use within 90 days and tripled the proportion of staff using AI.
For owners considering the upcoming AI Accelerator Workshop at Henley Business School Africa, the focus is on leaving with decisions about where AI can pay, how its use should be managed and which business opportunities deserve attention first.
Business owners can book a 30-minute call with Francois van der Merwe to discuss whether the workshop suits their firm and find out about the next available date.