York businesses are looking to use AI to help them grow as the council’s deputy leader called on the city to get ahead of the curve.

Businesspeople at the York Google Digital Garage told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) AI could help them with marketing, analytics and to free up time for more interesting work.

City of York Council's deputy leader Cllr Pete Kilbane said embracing AI showed the city’s ability to innovate but they were aware the new technology also came with its challenges.

The event held in the Museum Gardens’ Hospitium on Tuesday, July 16, marked the second time the Google training and education event has been held in York.

The Digital Garage which York council helped to put on saw Google trainers host a series of sessions on using AI-powered tools in productivity, data and problem solving.

The event also allowed people from different businesses to network with each other.

Tim Sinclair, director of the Ambiente Tapas restaurant chain, told LDRS AI would be able to help his business sift through data collected on customers to find trends in spending.

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He added that he did not share concerns about AI taking jobs, seeing it instead as a means to take on more menial tasks so people could do other things.

Mr Sinclair said: “I don’t think it’ll impact our headcount because we’re mostly customer-facing as a business.

“Our marketing manager’s looked at using it from that perspective to help us write newsletters.

“Up until now there hasn’t been anything specific to our industry that’s allowed us to go through all the data we have on customer spends but we think we can do that with AI now.”

Jill Andrews, director of Andrews Signs and Engravings, said she felt AI would free people up to do more effective and valuable work.

The director said: “This is brilliant for York because with events like this there tends to be a North-South divide.

“We’ve always been online as a business but this allows us to do more specific things and help us expand.”

Cllr Kilbane said AI would help small businesses which would in turn help York’s economy grow.

He added that while the council recognised there would always be a place for physical work and traditional jobs, the city also needed to move with the times.

Cllr Kilbane said: “York has always been open to change, our UNESCO designation is as a City of Media Arts, all the special effects for House of the Dragon were done here.

“AI can’t be underestimated, it’s is here and we need to get ahead of the curve, though these developments will be full of challenges that need to be dealt with on a national basis.

“It will impact middle class jobs and that change needs to be managed, but the lessons of the past are that we need to embrace change.

“This event is about people upskilling, changing direction and finding out what’s out there.

“We can adapt to this change or we can go the way of other historic settlements and decline.”