At our most recent Senior Leadership Roundtable for COOs, one of the hottest topics was how AI is shaping modern operations. Leaders across industries are experimenting with different tools, testing their effectiveness, and discovering where AI really adds value, and where it still has room to grow.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the discussion.

 

AI Tools Making an Impact in Operations

Senior leaders shared the tools they’re currently using and how they’re driving results:

•    Fireflies AI – capturing meeting notes, surfacing actionable points, tracking close probability, and sending email summaries.
•    Gong – monitoring customer health, deal health, and improving visibility of close probability.
•    ChatGPT API, Wooshi AI, Rovo Chat – powering everything from automation to content generation and customer interactions.
•    Microsoft CoPilot – widely available but often underutilised due to lack of awareness and poor internal marketing.
•    Iris HR – offering role-based prompts that streamline HR operations.

 

The Key Challenges

While the tools are powerful, leaders agreed that adoption is not always straightforward. Lack of awareness, limited internal training, and ineffective rollout can prevent businesses from realising the full potential of AI.

This is particularly true with widely available tools like Microsoft CoPilot, many teams have access, but few are using it to its full capability.

 

What This Means for Leaders

The consensus from the Roundtable was clear: AI in operations has huge potential to improve efficiency, visibility, and decision-making. But for businesses to see real impact, leaders need to:

•    Invest in adoption and awareness, not just licences.
•    Build clear processes around how tools are used.
•    Share best practice across teams to drive confidence and uptake.

 

Join the Conversation

This was just one of many thought-provoking discussions at our Senior Leadership Roundtable. At Maxwell Bond, we host these sessions regularly, both virtually and in-person, for senior leaders across the UK, EU, and US in Tech, Sales, Operations, and TA/HR.

If you’d like to join future sessions and connect with peers on challenges like this, reach out to Andy Holt to learn more about our upcoming roundtables.

Get in touch with Andy today to reserve your place.