Store layout matters more than most shoppers realise. Get it right and sales rise, aisles stay clear, and customers find what they came for.

At a major UK retailer, one team decides where every product sits across every store. One of its members owned the feedback loop: gather responses from stores, spot the recurring issues, then summarise it for the senior team.

The process was slow.

"The sheer volume of data across two different platforms was a problem," Georgina explains, "and it was taking two hours to complete."

Two hours each round meant updates landed late and inconsistently. He needed a faster route - and AI gave him one.

"The team built a game-changing AI tool," says Georgina. "They open Copilot, upload the Excel file with all the feedback, and use a master prompt to analyse it. Then it creates a PowerPoint to send straight to the senior team for final decisions."

The tool sorts feedback into categories, writes the summaries, and sets out clear actions for the right colleagues in store. The learner still plays a crucial role - using his expertise to sense-check the findings and themes.

"The impact has been significant," Georgina says. "Besides turning a two-hour task into a fifteen-minute one, he can analyse store feedback daily rather than weekly. The senior team gets what it needs immediately, actions go out quicker, and stores feel like they're being heard."

One tool. Fifteen minutes. Better shop floors across the country.

Speedy Services, the UK’s leading tool and equipment hire services provider, is accelerating its digital transformation with the launch of a new AI Academy. The academy is designed to equip employees with the skills needed to operate more efficiently and elevate the customer experience.

Delivered in partnership with upskilling platform Multiverse, the academy will see 21 employees enrol on a 13-month AI-Powered Productivity programme. The training will help employees automate repetitive admin tasks, such as complex purchase order approvals, freeing them to focus on higher-value, client-facing work, including advising customers on complex machinery.

By mastering tools such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, employees will be able to streamline workflows, reduce administrative delays and deliver more consistent customer service. The programme will also support Speedy Services' broader goal of reducing revenue leakage by 50% through improved, standardised delivery. 

Dan Thompson, Managing Director, Power & Energy at Speedy Hire, said: “At Speedy, AI is reshaping how we operate. This partnership with Multiverse is about building AI capability with the individuals who'll help set the standard for how we work. By giving our people the confidence to use tools like Copilot, we can eradicate inefficient processes, standardise our service delivery, and ensure our workforce has the skills to thrive in a digital-first world.”

The launch builds on Speedy Services' award-winning "People First" culture. Having recently placed 57th globally and 11th in the UK as a Top 100 Inspiring Workplace, the business is ensuring employees feel supported, confident, and skilled in navigating the quickly evolving digital era. 

Jay Richman, Chief Technology and Product Officer at Multiverse, said: “Many companies buy AI tools and hope adoption follows. Speedy Hire is going a step further, building the capability to actually put those tools to use. Twenty-one employees are now getting hands-on with Copilot, learning it inside their actual jobs, not in a classroom. That's how you close the gap between what a business buys and what it actually gets out of AI.”

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Yesterday, the government announced that public spending will judge suppliers on the skills and jobs they create. From January 2027, local social value's weighting on government contracts worth £5m or more doubles, from 10% to 20%. Every organisation bidding for a share of the £90bn spent on public contracts each year will now score points for building good jobs, tackling local skills shortages, and helping young people into work.

We welcome it. Here's why, and what it means if your organisation bids for public sector contracts.

Why we welcome the government's procurement changes

For years, social value in procurement has worked like a form to fill in rather than a promise to keep. First Secretary of State Louise Haigh put it plainly: it's "been a tick box exercise that fails to deliver the positive change that people feel in their pocket and see in the places they live." Skills and jobs are now worth a fifth of the score on major contracts: enough to decide who wins.

Two priorities stand out to us.

The first is the focus on young people not in education, employment or training (NEET). Over a million under-25s in the UK currently fall into this group and we’ve published our own plans to support that group here. A procurement rule that specifically rewards suppliers for building pathways for young people is a direction worthy of support.

The second is the accountability mechanism. For major contracts, government departments will increase transparency for performance against these goals and publish annual progress reports. This makes it doubly important that social value commitments are actually upheld.

This is procurement finally rewarding the organisations that build real capability in their workforce, not just the ones that write a good bid.

How Multiverse already invests in skills and early talent

We've worked in this space for ten years, training over 40,000 learners with 1,600+ employer partners, including more than 150 public sector organisations such as NHS Trusts, local councils and police forces. In June, we announced a new AI-first early talent apprenticeship launching this September, aimed at exactly the group this policy is designed to reach: young people who need AI and data skills to compete in today’s job market.

None of this is new work for us. It's the same work, with government now backing it through how it spends £90bn a year.

What the new social value rules mean if you bid for government contracts

If your organisation supplies central government, or wants to, this is worth building into your strategy now.

From January 2027, a fifth of the score on contracts of £5m or more will come from local benefit, including skills development, apprenticeships and support for young people. That means the strength of a company’s commitment to workforce development, backed by real numbers, becomes a genuine differentiator in the bid itself. Vague commitments to social value won't hold up against a competitor who can show concrete plans. 

Three things are worth doing before the rules take effect:

• Get your skills investment measurable. If you can't show pay rises, promotions, or productivity gains linked to training, you can't evidence it in a bid.

• Build youth pathways now, not after you've won the contract. Suppliers will likely benefit from a credible pipeline for NEETs and young people before they're asked to prove one.

• Treat public reporting as part of the deal. The government will hold suppliers to their commitments publicly. Bids should only promise what can be delivered and shown.

This is the same discipline we apply to our own impact reporting. Our 2026 Impact Hub shows what that looks like in practice: 57% of our learners gain a promotion, pay rise or increased responsibility, and 77% say their programme made them more productive.

Backing British jobs and skills, together

Public spending backing British jobs and skills, in every postcode, is a change worth supporting. We've built our business around the same premise: that skills investment produces measurable returns for people, employers and the country. Government just decided to score for it.

If you're preparing a bid and want to talk through what a credible skills and early talent story looks like, get in touch.

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