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Fewer Than 1 in 5 Devon Businesses Are Using AI. Here's What That Actually Means.
Written by Keira Redmond ・ May 2026 ・fiftyminds
The figure came out of Digital Devon, an event held in Torquay this week, where hundreds of local business owners gathered to have honest conversations about where they stand with technology. The BBC reported it plainly: fewer than 1 in 5 Devon businesses are actively using AI.
It's a striking number. But before you read it as a story about businesses falling behind, it's worth understanding what it actually reflects - because the picture on the ground is more nuanced, and more hopeful, than a headline suggests.
What We Heard in the Room
We were at Digital Devon. We had conversations with business owners across sectors: hospitality, professional services, trades, retail, creative industries - and what struck us wasn't apathy. It was something closer to paralysis.
The businesses not yet using AI weren't dismissing it. Most of them had tried a tool, watched a LinkedIn video, maybe even signed up for something and then let the tab close. What they couldn't articulate was where to actually start in a way that would make a meaningful difference to their specific business.
That's a very different problem to solve than "they don't know AI exists."
The Devon Chamber of Commerce CEO said at the event that it is "not too late" for businesses to start. That's true. But the window for starting without a meaningful competitive disadvantage is narrowing, and the businesses that are building capability now are compounding their advantage month by month.
Faster processes, lower operating costs, better and more consistent client experiences - these returns don't stay still while others catch up.
What the 20% Are Doing Differently
Across the 80+ businesses we've worked with at fiftyminds, the ones using AI effectively don't share a budget level, a sector, or a technical team. What they share is a starting question.
They didn't ask "how do we use AI?" They asked: "What is costing us the most time right now, and could AI remove that friction?"
That reframe matters more than it sounds. "How do we use AI?" is a technology question, and it leads you toward tools, demos, and decision fatigue. "What's costing us the most time?" is a business question, and it leads you somewhere specific and actionable.
The highest-impact starting points tend to cluster around three areas:
Repetitive administrative tasks. Drafting responses to enquiries, writing up meeting notes, formatting reports, creating job adverts, responding to reviews, these are tasks that require competence but not deep expertise, and AI handles them well. The time savings here are often the most immediately visible.
Customer-facing processes that need speed and consistency. First responses, FAQs, proposal templates, and onboarding sequences are places where a slow or inconsistent reply costs you business without you always knowing it. AI doesn't get tired, doesn't forget the tone of voice guide, and can respond at 11 pm on a Sunday.
Data that exists but isn't being used. Many businesses are sitting on months or years of customer data, feedback, booking patterns, and sales trends, and making decisions by intuition rather than insight. AI tools can help surface patterns from this data without needing a data analyst on staff.
None of these requires a large budget. None requires a technical hire. What they require is clarity about the problem you're actually trying to solve.
Why Most Businesses Are Stuck (And It's Not What You Think)
The narrative around AI adoption often frames slower businesses as risk-averse or technophobic. That hasn't been our experience. The businesses we speak to that haven't
started yet are typically dealing with one of three things:
Information overload. There are thousands of AI tools now. The marketing around them promises everything. When you can't distinguish a genuine signal from noise, inaction can feel like the rational response.
Fear of getting it wrong publicly. For customer-facing businesses especially, there's a real concern about AI output that's off-brand, inaccurate, or that damages trust. This is a legitimate concern - but it's one that a thoughtful, supervised implementation addresses, not one that justifies waiting indefinitely.
No internal mandate or starting point. Without someone in the business who has responsibility for exploring AI, it stays on the "things we should probably look at" list indefinitely. It doesn't have to be a full-time role. But it does need to be someone's job this month.
The businesses pulling ahead aren't doing so because they have better tools. They're doing so because they made a decision to start, picked one specific problem, and learned by doing.
The Compounding Gap
Here's the dynamic worth understanding clearly: AI adoption isn't a one-time catch-up exercise. It's a capability that builds on itself.
A business that started using AI for content and communications eight months ago has now refined its prompts, built its templates, trained its team, and is starting to look at automating parts of its client onboarding. A business starting from zero today isn't just eight months behind; it's behind on the learning curve as well.
This isn't cause for panic. It is a cause for moving with intention rather than waiting for a "right time" that doesn't arrive.
The Devon Chamber CEO was right that it's not too late. We'd add one qualification: it's not too late if you start this month. The gap between the 20% and the 80% widens every quarter, and the compounding effect of early adoption is exactly what makes it difficult to close later.
One Thing You Can Do This Week
No conference attendance required. No consultant needed yet. Just this:
Pick three to five processes in your business that are manual, repetitive, and time-consuming. For each one, write down roughly how many hours per week it takes across your team. Then ask honestly: Is this something that AI or automation could reduce?
That list is your shortlist for a first pilot project. You're not committing to anything yet. You're just identifying where the friction actually lives in your business, which is the question the 20% answered before they did anything else.
If you're not sure where to go from there, that's exactly what fiftyminds works on. We help businesses at this precise moment - the point between "we know we need to do something" and "we know what to do."
Where to Go From Here
If you attended Digital Devon and want to continue the conversation, or if you're a Devon business owner who recognises the sticking point described in this post, we'd welcome a conversation.
There's no obligation and no pitch deck. Just an honest conversation about where AI could move the needle for your business, and what a practical first step looks like.
If you would like some resources to help you know where to start...
We have a whole resource hub here on the fiftyminds website, giving you FREE access to our AI readiness Checklists per Industry, our AI Strategy Framework and much more.
Check it out here!
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