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For senior leaders & business owners

Education, strategy,
execution

Practical, hands-on engagements that help owners and senior leaders work out what AI can actually do, where to start, and how to think clearly about the risks. No jargon, no hype, no slides for the sake of slides.

★★★★★

Highly recommended. Nik and team delivered an inspirational and practical workshop at our event at Stonehouse Court in April.

Peter Doggett, Enable Group
★★★★★

Nothing beats a practical session for understanding what’s actually possible. Most businesses don’t need more AI theory. They need a moment like that one.

Nick Borrie, AI & Technology Consultant
★★★★★

Our team took a lot from the session and have since been experimenting and building apps to help the business.

Stephen Holbrook, Solum Surveying
★★★★★

A really interesting, educational and engaging presentation, with loads of great takeaways.

Stephen Griffiths, DWA Accountants
★★★★★

Inspiring, educational, and also played a role in team building. A thoroughly worthwhile day away from ‘business as usual’.

Audley Villages participant
★★★★★

Really love the experience you provided. I’m amazed what everyone came up with. Every company needs to do this.

Patient Choice participant
★★★★★

Highly informative, interactive and enjoyable morning… demonstrated the power of AI in assisting to transform your business.

Stuart Calvert, Fractional People & HR
★★★★★

It was extremely well thought out and very engaging. I came away very impressed, even as someone already familiar with AI who uses it daily.

Patient Choice participant
The Approach

Education · Strategy · Execution

Most AI events talk at you. The Versantus approach is different. We help senior leaders move from “I’ve heard about AI” to “I’ve built something with it,” then plan what to do next with a clear-eyed view of both the opportunities and the risks.

01
Education

What AI can actually do in 2026

An honest tour of where AI actually is in 2026. Not the hype, not the fear. Live demos, real tools, and the mental models leaders need to make sense of what their teams are about to start using.

  • The State of Play: capability, agents, and what’s coming next
  • Think / Build / Automate: the tools that matter
  • The Free Tier Trap: why most people are judging AI by the wrong version
  • Governance, security and the people question
02
Strategy

Think clearly about AI

Frameworks that help leaders decide where AI fits in their business, and where it doesn’t. Built for boardrooms, leadership teams and owners who need to set direction, not write code.

  • Quick Parts / Slow Parts: what to automate, what to protect
  • The Three Phases of AI Adoption (after Rory Sutherland)
  • The Autonomy Spectrum: placing real tasks on the human / AI scale
  • 30/60/90 day roadmap planning
03
Execution

Build something real

You cannot learn AI by listening to someone who already gets it. You learn by doing. Every engagement ends with something your team has built with their own hands, and a plan for what to do on Monday morning.

  • AI building for teams: working prototypes in a day, no coding required
  • Live build sessions inside half-day events and keynotes
  • Show & tell from real attendees, not slideware
  • Follow-up paths from prototype to production
Featured

AI for SME leaders

A hands-on half-day for SME business leaders who want to move from “I’ve heard about AI” to “I just built something with it,” in a single morning.

Half-day · Open enrolment or private

Everyone can build now.

This is not a pitch. In one morning, you’ll go from “I’ve heard about AI” to “I just built something with it.” No jargon. No slides-for-the-sake-of-slides. Just practical, honest, hands-on discovery, designed for people who run businesses, not tech teams.

You’ll leave with a working prototype, a clear-eyed view of what AI can (and can’t) do, and a practical plan for your first 90 days.

FormatOpen day · mixed audiences
LengthHalf-day (4hr) or full-day (6–8hr)
AudienceSME owners, MDs, senior leaders
OutputWorking prototype · 90-day plan · AI Starter Pack

The morning: The State of Play → The Build (60-min hands-on) → Your AI Roadmap → The Honest Conversation → Panel Q&A.

Run one for our team
AI for SME leaders Open Day, 21 April 2026, Stonehouse Court
Stonehouse Court · April 2026
Featured

AI building for teams

Engage and educate in equal measure with a hands-on day that gives your team the skills and confidence to build with AI and transform your organisation.

Full day · Private team workshop

Real teams. Real missions. Real prototypes.

A focused, facilitated workshop where a client’s team spends a full day learning about AI and then building real tools and prototypes that solve genuine problems in their business. No coding experience required.

Each session centres on a mission brief tailored to the client. Teams include planners, designers, testers and presenters. Everyone has a role to play and something to learn. By the end of the day, every team has a working, demoable prototype.

Delivered for: Primeast (AI Coaching Platform), Audley Villages (AI-Powered Content Helper), Guides for Brides (Smarter Events & Lead Management), Patient Choice.

Book a build session
Primeast team planning on flipchart
Audley Villages build session
Guides for Brides whiteboard planning
Ways to work together

From a 30-minute call to ongoing AI partnership

Six ways to engage, sized to where you are. Topics are shaped around your sector, your audience and the conversation you want to start. Every format mixes the same three ingredients (education, strategy and execution) in different proportions.

Drop-in · Lightest touch

30-minute drop-in

A free, no-strings consultancy call. Bring one question, leave with a clear next step.

30 mins 1:1 or small group Virtual

Common reasons people book one

  • “We’ve been asked to do something with AI. Where do we start?”
  • “We’ve tried a few tools and we’re not sure if we’re using the right ones”
  • “We need an honest opinion on a tool a vendor is trying to sell us”
  • “What would you do if you were us?”
Best for: a fast, no-pressure way to find out whether a longer engagement is even the right next step.
Webinar · Education

Webinar or short seminar

Practical, jargon-free talks for member networks, client audiences and leadership teams.

45–90 mins Virtual or in-person Any audience size

Topics we’re asked to deliver

  • “If AI can save you 8 hours per week, what will you do with it?”
  • “The state of play: where AI actually is in 2026”
  • “Will AI kill or save your business?”
  • “How AI is changing customer search and buying behaviour”
  • “GEO? AIO? SEO? AI has broken search. Now what?”
  • “The honest conversation: AI security, cost and the question of people”
Best for: conferences, member events, lunch & learns, leadership all-hands.
Open Day · Mixed audience

Open Day

“Will AI kill or save…” An in-depth day for a mixed room of leaders from different organisations.

6–8 hours Up to ~50 delegates Mixed groups

The shape of the day

  • The State of Play: capability, agents, what’s real and what’s noise
  • Build Something: 60 minutes hands-on, every delegate builds a working prototype
  • Your AI Roadmap: Quick Parts / Slow Parts, Autonomy Spectrum, 30/60/90 day plan
  • The Honest Conversation: risk, governance, the people question
  • Panel Q&A and AI Starter Pack to take away
Best for: member networks, business clubs, regional leadership groups.
Build session · Single org

AI building for teams

A facilitated day inside one organisation. Your team, your problem, working prototypes by close of play.

6–8 hours Single organisation Your site or ours

How the day runs

  • Morning: a practical, jargon-free introduction to AI with live demos
  • Mission brief drawn directly from a real challenge in your business
  • Teams plan, sketch and build. Designers, planners, testers, presenters all contribute
  • Afternoon polish and UX improvements
  • Show & tell: each team demos a working prototype
Best for: any size team that wants to feel what’s possible together, from a small leadership group to a full department.
Execution · Build

AI development

When the prototype needs to become real, the Versantus build team takes it to production.

Project-based From prototype to live Designed, deployed, secured

Where we typically come in

  • Taking a build session or open day prototype and shipping it for real: branded, deployed, secured, plugged in
  • Custom AI tools and agents inside the business: research, triage, content, reporting
  • AI features inside existing websites, apps and platforms
  • AI-assisted content production at scale, like the 1,248 room visualisations we produced for Audley Bespoke
Best for: organisations that have run an internal experiment and are ready to make it part of how the business runs.
Support · Ongoing

Ongoing AI support

Treat AI as a capability, not a one-off project. A fractional AI lead for businesses that don’t need (or can’t justify) a full-time hire.

Monthly retainer Strategic + practical For your team

What it typically includes

  • Regular strategy sessions with your leadership team
  • Hands-on support for the people actually using AI day-to-day
  • Governance refresh, tool reviews and a watch on what’s next
  • Build capacity when a new opportunity needs prototyping fast
  • An honest sounding board when a vendor is trying to sell you something
Best for: organisations that want to keep moving without taking on the cost or risk of building an AI team from scratch.
Feedback

What participants said

After each session we collect honest feedback. A selection from recent build sessions and workshops.

★★★★★

The day was well structured, engaging and really useful. Learned about useful AI tools, got to put them into practice and create something useful.

Elena Ciccotti
★★★★★

A really valuable day. It was great to step away from the day-to-day and think more broadly about how we approach digital solutions and problem-solving. We all came away with fresh perspectives and lots of ideas, without feeling overwhelmed.

Patient Choice participant
★★★★★

The day was inspiring, educational, and also played a role in team building. A thoroughly worthwhile day away from ‘business as usual’.

Audley Villages participant
★★★★★

You definitely taught an old(ish) dog new tricks which will be put into use within the everyday workplace. Their wealth of knowledge was extensive and I certainly left with oodles more confidence than I arrived with.

Neets, Patient Choice
★★★★★

Really love the experience you provided. I’m amazed what everyone came up with! Every company needs to do this.

Patient Choice participant
★★★★★

It was extremely well thought out and very engaging. I came away very impressed, even as someone already familiar with AI who uses it daily.

Patient Choice participant
★★★★★

Highly recommended. Nik and team delivered an inspirational and practical workshop at our event at Stonehouse Court in April.

Peter Doggett, Enable Group
★★★★★

Nothing beats a practical session for understanding what’s actually possible. Most businesses don’t need more AI theory. They need a moment like that one. Thanks to Nik and the team for putting together a great event.

Nick Borrie, Automation, AI & Technology Consultant
★★★★★

Highly informative, interactive and enjoyable morning spent at the historic Stonehouse Court Hotel where the guys at Versantus demonstrated the power of AI in assisting to transform your business.

Stuart Calvert, Fractional People & HR
★★★★★

A really interesting, educational and engaging presentation, with loads of great takeaways.

Stephen Griffiths, DWA Accountants
★★★★★

Great work to all involved, Nik Roberts you smashed it. Our team took a lot from the session and have since been experimenting and building apps to help the business.

Stephen Holbrook, Solum Surveying
★★★★★

Great session on AI, thanks Nik Roberts. With AI moving at such pace it’s hard to stay current.

Rob Goodman, Showplace Modular Spaces
★★★★★

Big thanks to Nik Roberts from Versantus for taking the time to meet with me today to talk about Anchor. He gave solid advice and insight, and made me think more about the steps I need to take to make sure I’m producing a secure and reliable SaaS. Truly an insightful meeting.

Kia Jacob, Anchor Applications
Your host

Who runs these sessions

Nik Roberts

Nik Roberts

Founder & CEO, Versantus

“I’ve spent the last two years living inside this. I’ve watched AI go from a clever autocomplete to something that runs a significant chunk of my business.”

Nik runs Versantus, a digital agency based in Kidlington, Oxfordshire. He speaks and runs hands-on sessions for boards, leadership teams, member networks and conferences, helping SME leaders and owners engage with AI rather than just hear about it. Practitioner, not theorist. Everything he teaches, he uses every day to run his own business.

Where would you like to start?

A 30-minute drop-in to talk it through. A webinar for your members. An Open Day or build session for your team. A development project, or an ongoing partnership. Get in touch and we’ll shape something that fits.

Get in touch