From tab roulette to teamwork: AI’s next leap for UK businesses

UK business leaders know the story all too well: no matter how advanced your CRM, CMS, or portal, the daily work still happens across four tabs — emails, file explorer, internet, and Word/Excel. These tools underpin every department, yet they demand constant manual effort and oversight. Prepping meetings, chasing emails, analysing reports: this is where hours vanish.

OpenAI’s latest upgrades to ChatGPT — shared projects, smarter connectors, and enterprise-grade compliance — are designed to tackle exactly this reality. And when paired with gecco’s secure AI assistants and hands-on training, these features stop being abstract capabilities and start becoming practical time-savers for SMEs.

The hidden cost of ‘tab roulette’

When gecco rolled out an AI workspace to a UK SME, the challenge was painfully familiar: staff were spending huge amounts of time toggling between tools and manually reconciling tasks. Previous systems hadn’t fixed it.

The solution? Deploying a secure, GDPR-compliant AI workspace built on ChatGPT Business, tailored through gecco’s five Core Documents, and enhanced with 50+ specialised assistants. These helpers wrote minutes, analysed data, drafted emails, and even edited training courses.

The results spoke volumes:

• 1,000 working days saved per year
• £650,000 worth of time freed up
• Staff morale boosted by moving from repetitive tasks to more strategic, creative work

The biggest lesson wasn’t just about technology. The breakthrough came from pairing the secure AI workspace with training and a bottom-up approach. When adoption focused on staff needs, the results stuck. By contrast, early attempts to build AI in-house or push top-down mandates had failed.

Shared projects and smarter connectors in action

OpenAI’s new features fit neatly into this story:

• Shared projects mean teams no longer need to re-explain context. They can add files and instructions once, and everyone benefits from consistent outputs.
• Smarter connectors link directly with Gmail, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Google Drive, Dropbox, and more — letting ChatGPT pull in the right context automatically.

On their own, these upgrades are impressive. But with gecco’s assistants and training layered on top, SMEs move from talking about possibilities to actually cutting admin at source. Instead of wasting time searching across tabs, teams get accurate, on-brand answers in seconds.

Why compliance and security are non-negotiable

For SMEs, GDPR and data protection aren’t optional extras — they’re existential risks. OpenAI’s new ISO, SOC 2, and expanded SSO support bring enterprise-grade reassurance. But SMEs also need practical safeguards.

That’s why gecco deploys every assistant inside a secure workspace hosted on Microsoft Azure. Data never leaves the UK, and nothing is used to train public models. For leaders worried their staff might otherwise turn to unsafe free tools, this security-first approach is a game-changer.

A practical roadmap for adoption

The story across these examples is consistent. Digital transformation succeeds when companies:

1. Get a secure workspace first – whether ChatGPT Business, Claude, or Copilot, ensure your team has compliant tools before they resort to free apps.
2. Poll staff on pain points – find the 20% of tasks wasting 80% of time.
3. Run a pilot – tackle one workflow, measure the improvement, and show results.
4. Repeat and scale – build confidence, expand to more assistants, and keep adoption staff-led.

The pitfalls are also clear: prioritising tech over training, going too fast, or relying solely on top-down mandates.

Ready to stop tab roulette in your business?

OpenAI’s new features show what’s possible. gecco makes it real for UK SMEs. From reducing admin by 1,500 working days to boosting marketing reach by 15%, the gains are tangible and fast.

If you’re ready to explore a secure AI workspace for your team, in just a few weeks, you’ll see how practical AI assistants can transform the way your organisation works — safely, securely, and with measurable ROI.