​I travelled by plane to France last week to set up our apartment for the season. I again upgraded to business class to benefit from the advantages I explained in my blog Reducing Hassle at Work. These include fast track check in at Heathrow which if you have bags avoids an hour’s queue. However, this time I was the beneficiary of a cacophony of unsolicited and largely unhelpful online noise related to my travel generated no doubt by some AI engine. 

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​Here are some examples.

• The business class check in was closed for refurbishment 
• The flight departed from the satellite gates at Terminal 5 which adds 20 minutes to the transit time. 
• My travel to the airport would be affected by the closure of the London Piccadilly tube line. Not particularly relevant as I was travelling by taxi from Surrey! 
• Constant updates on the day of flying from something called Microsoft Live Activities about my and other flights I had no interest in at all.
• The new biometric immigration system for non-EU citizens would mean 3-hour queues at immigration in Nice, and leaving would take so long I might miss my flight.
• European airlines would run out of aviation fuel in a matter of days because of the crisis in the Straits of Hormuz.  

 
AI and the current way news is pushed at us and exaggerated in this way is both helpful and annoying. Like the weather warnings of storms in Surrey or wherever you live which pop up on your phone but rarely materialise in any severe form. As a result of the predicted hassle at Heathrow, I moved my taxi earlier. I need not have bothered. The work on the check in was Monday to Thursday only - which to be fair the notification did say in the small print – but it did not draw this to my attention even though it seemed “to know” I was travelling on a Sunday. The flight also did not depart from the satellite terminal - in fact this particular flight rarely does. I reserved and paid for a seat at the front of the plane and at Nice Airport was third off and almost ran to passport control - where there was no queue whatsoever! Once I presented my passport the right way round it was quicker than the old system. Leaving was also reasonably fast. The planes there and back also seemed to have enough fuel as they made the journey both ways. 
 
AI and its associated information and newsfeeds can easily result in this sort of overload. It reminds me a bit of an over eager junior professional rushing to please a client or speed up a transaction. The result is often too much information including incomplete or irrelevant work. Decisions then get taken precipitously which are later regretted or are at the very least counterproductive. I have been using AI like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and its underlying search engine Bing for some time and just started trying Claude. I find these very useful in my personal and professional life, but they need careful direction and management rather like the younger professional learning the ropes - if he or she can find a job which has not been replaced by an AI engine in order to do this!  
 
So how can we as professionals filter all this (sometimes helpful and at times annoying or downright wrong) electronic data and information which is constantly being pushed at us? It is after all as demanding and complex in our working as in our personal lives if not more so. I certainly find this running my consultancy practice and letting out our French property. It seems to me we need an electronic amanuensis (I have long wanted to use this word!) performing the tasks that secretaries and PA’s used to do managing our calendar and daily contacts and organising our busy daily lives. It used to be as important to know and get on with your boss’s secretary as the man or woman themself!
 
I know that there are lots of discrete ways we can use AI to help us in our work such as:
 
1. Intelligent scheduling and time-blocking
 
2. Streamlined communication and meeting management
 
3. Automated project and task management
 
4. Research and document synthesizing
 
5. Task automation.
 
However, I propose we need to go beyond this and use a thief to catch a thief as it were and have our own personal dedicated AI assistant we can talk to which filters all the unwanted noise and provides only the information and assistance we want and need that is relevant to our particular professional lives. To some extent this capability exists and is reasonably helpful. I tried asking ChatGPT: “I need to go for Nice on a business trip with the least hassle possible travelling out on a Sunday morning and returning on a Saturday a week later. Please provide me with the options and when I agree organise everything for me”. It did come up with a sensible range of proposals for travel and car hire, though it was a bit on the expensive side. What it could not yet do is book anything for me. It also would need to know more about my personal circumstances to be truly helpful. And it would not block out the unwanted AI chatter.
 
This 2024 article A complete guide on AI-powered personal assistants with examples explains the key features such as Natural Language Understanding observing that “Bill Gates has commented that soon, everyone will have their very own personal assistant through Artificial Intelligence (AI). He believes that as Information Technology develops and improves, we’ll move away from having separate apps for specific functions, and we’ll be able to vocalise to our devices what to do.” It identifies leading AI powered personal assistants and explores use cases and concludes that “the acceleration of AI personal assistants, including AI assistant devices, is reshaping our professional and personal lives, offering transformative benefits”. 
 
Coming more up to date see this useful April 2026 article AI Personal Assistant: We Tested The 10 Best Apps (Free & Paid). Although written by one of the providers Saner it is reasonably informative and objective. It proposes that there are “Two Types of AI Personal Assistants 

• Work-focused assistants are built to integrate directly with your tools - like calendars, emails, notes, and docs. They offer a workspace where you can actually get things done, not just talk about them.

 

• Chat-focused assistants, like ChatGPT or Gemini, are mostly built around a chat interface. You have to manually upload files or paste notes to give them context, which makes them less seamless for everyday workflows.”

 
It then carries out a comprehensive review proposing that “The best AI Personal Assistants are: Saner.AI, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, OpenClaw, Pi, Motion, Akiflow, and Reclaim.” and concludes:

• Need help organising thoughts, remembering tasks, and planning your day? Try Saner.AI - it’s made for people juggling messy info from everywhere.
• Need help writing, thinking, or summarising? ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are powerful conversational partners.
• Just want a low-pressure space to think out loud or talk it through? Pi gives you that calming space.

 
It still however seems to me we have quite a long way to go to replace that efficient, friendly and effective PA – who if you asked nicely might even get you a coffee!
 
In this context generally I like this Forbes article 12 Quotes About AI—And How It Makes Us Better which include:
 
“AI won’t replace humans, but humans who use AI will replace those who don’t”--Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI.
 
“AI is about amplifying human potential, not replacing it”— Fe-Fei Li, professor, Stanford University.
 
“AI is not a robotic apocalypse; it’s a tool for a better future”— Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of DeepMind.
 
As a parting thought there were very good reasons why The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, created so presciently by Douglas Adams many years ago and containing a plethora of information about travelling around the entirety of the known universe, had the words “DON’T PANIC” inscribed “in large friendly letters on its cover”.

Last weekend I played, and lost, a tennis match. It was only a club handicap tournament so hardly Wimbledon and the other pair were better, so we deserved to be defeated. Nevertheless, losing any game in sport still rankles a bit. However, it made me think of the parallels with professional life. For example, a significant part of my work as a lawyer is acting for clients in-house or in private practice during the process of bidding as a potential supplier for an IT outsourcing service contract. These can be very intense periods in our work preparing for the process, submitting several offers, participating in extensive negotiations, refining the draft contract and creating and delivering a final tender. This can go on for 6 to 18 months and during this time subsume a large part of our working lives. We typically become, or certainly should, as lawyers and commercial or procurement advisers, critical members of the bid team often working long hours in client offices or at customer premises. Close working relationships are established with others at your client and indeed the customer. Statistically however, whoever our client may be and no matter how experienced and competent the team no business can win all of the bids it competes for. So, when you get that dreaded letter saying you have not been down selected for whatever reason it is to say the least an anti-climax and a failure and all the hard work appears at first sight to be wasted.
 
However, I suggest this is the wrong way to look at it. In sport at any level if you lose you try to work out why and strive to play better next time. In business valuable lessons can be learned from a failed bid to enhance the chances of future success. Instead of despair we should rather find ways to learn from losing. Key relationships in your organisation created during the process can be fostered and improved for next time. Analysis of the process including seeking honest and open feedback from the would-be customer improve the chances of success on the next bid. For example, sometimes you lose because your bid price is too high, sometimes because your technical solution is not considered viable, but also perhaps because the customer decides not to take any risk and stay with an incumbent supplier. Each can be considered in the context of continuous improvement.
 
AI suggests that “Key lessons include securing detailed, honest feedback, analysing competitor pricing and strategy, and ensuring the submission focused on solving the client's problems rather than just listing company features.” This last is really important. I have seen clients convinced their “standard” solution was what a customer wanted, when in reality it was far from meeting expectations. See this short but to the point blog  Win-Loss Analysis: How to Learn from Every Tender Outcome which observes “Understanding the outcome of a tender—whether a win or a loss—can be one of the most powerful tools in your bidding strategy. Yet, many organisations move on too quickly, failing to extract the valuable insights that come with a structured post-bid analysis.” It proposes a post bid audit including an internal debrief and seeking client feedback.
 
While this more detailed Harvard Business Review article How to Learn from a Failed Negotiation suggests we should avoid protecting egos and reputations, blaming others, (does that resonate!) and instead “step back, take ownership, and invest time and energy in understanding what went wrong so they can do better in the future.” It cites a book on the topic Getting Back to the Table and proposes you should first understand the reasons for failure which could include:
 

• Failure by design – expecting to fail.

 

• Not reaching agreement when it was possible.

 
It then proposes Five Steps to Improvement such as:
 

• conduct a deep dive and analyse what happened and why

 

• pinpoint and fix your weaknesses that contributed to the failure

 

• come back to the table with confidence.

 
See also this Forbes article How To Reflect, Learn And Win After Losing A Contract which sagely observes that “Losing contracts is part of doing business. And, unfortunately, most organizations lose more contracts than they win.” It proposes three steps to improve performance and answer the question “Where did we go wrong?”
 
1 Politely request a debrief from the client to see what you could have done differently, or better, to win the contract.
 
2. Rereview your proposal through the eyes of the client.
 
3. Schedule a postmortem meeting with your team. 
 
I think we often forget that it is very much in our would-be customer’s interest to provide effective and meaningful feedback as this enhances the chance of improving competition in the market for future bids. I would recommend perhaps using somebody in your business not involved with the bid as this removes any lingering emotions and enhances the opportunity for full and frank feedback. 
 
I would also add that winning is not necessarily a recipe for success. I recall some successful bids where our clients won but then really struggled to deliver, especially in IT projects intended to transform existing services. Believe me there is more pressure on a team that fails to deliver what transpires to be an onerous contract than one which loses a bid. There are lessons to be learned here like listening to doubts about the viability of the solution expressed during the final contract governance process, but ignored in the excitement of the bid process and the momentum built up in favour of submitting without any qualifications.
 
As we rightly applaud winning, we should also celebrate the successful conclusion of a bid process, even if not down selected. It is obviously not the desired outcome, but the experience and lessons learned are valuable and should be recognised and applauded. When I managed my son’s youth football team some years ago, we went a whole season without winning BUT the team learnt, got fitter and better – and next season we started winning. It is as the saying goes as much about the journey as reaching your destination.
 
Nick Saban, the US college football coach said, “Never waste a failure.”
 
While Bill Gates observed “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”
 
And returning to tennis and a great quote from Venus Williams, one of the most successful tennis players of all time. “Losses have propelled me to even bigger places, so I understand the importance of losing. You can never get complacent because a loss is always around the corner. It’s in any game that you’re in – a business game or whatever – you can’t get complacent.”