The Human Touch

Where should a business use AI, and how far should it go?

Across the high street, retailers are putting AI into their marketing, their stockrooms and their customer service. Some of it is paying off. Some of it is quietly going wrong.

You have just taken charge of Hartley's, a much loved high-street chain that sells clothes and homeware. It has fallen behind faster online rivals, and the board wants change. Your job: decide where AI helps Hartley's, how far to take it, and what you are willing to spend and risk.

Otto Mayton

Retail turnaround adviser, Mayton & Co.

"The clever bit isn't the machine. It's knowing where to point it."

Otto Mayton

Right, boss. I have seen a lot of shops rush out and buy the newest tech. The winners were never the ones who spent the most. They were the ones who worked out where it actually helped, and where it just annoyed their customers. The board will hand you a brief in a moment, one clear priority for the year, and that changes everything about where AI is worth it. You have a budget of £600k to spend. Let's put it where it counts.

About this scenario

Hartley's, Otto Mayton, Mayton & Co. and the rival "Nimble" are invented for teaching. The money figures are illustrative and kept simple so the decisions are clear. The scenario is a neutral setting for practising business judgement about adopting AI, aligned to AQA A-level Business (AI in marketing 3.1.3, AI in operations 3.2.2, technological change 3.3.2).

Six months on at Hartley's

Otto Mayton

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📄 Save your decisions

Download a tidy summary of the choices you made and how they turned out. Good to keep, or to hand in. Add your name first if you like.

🧭 Otto's playbook

Here is how a decision-maker weighs a choice like this one:

Match the tool to the task. AI earned its keep at Hartley's in some places (spotting demand for stock, targeting offers, answering simple questions fast) and cost you in others (handling upset customers, protecting the brand's voice). The skill is deciding, task by task, whether AI genuinely helps or whether a person is worth more.
Weigh the whole cost, not just the saving. Every AI move had an up-front cost and often a hidden one: staff morale, customer trust, or the risk of the machine getting it wrong when nobody checked. A saving that costs you loyal customers is not really a saving.
Read the outside pressure both ways. Rivals adopting AI is a real threat, so standing still is a risk. But copying them blindly can throw away the very thing that makes you different. Competitiveness cuts both ways.
The right answer depends on the objective. Your board brief changed what a good decision was. Cutting costs hard suits a business fighting to survive, but the very same move can wreck a plan to win back trust. Ask what this business needs most before you act.
Judge the decision, not just the result. Outcomes are uncertain. A sound choice can still get unlucky, and a reckless one can occasionally get away with it. A good decision is one that made sense given what you knew at the time.
Decide which way the balance falls. There is no "automate everything" win and no "keep it all human" win. Good judgement is placing AI where the upside beats the cost and the risk, and holding back where the human touch is worth paying for.

The Human Touch

The board hands you this year's brief

Six months on at Hartley's

🧭 Otto's playbook