ChatGPT? Claude? Copilot? Something else entirely?

When we started looking at which AI platform to use across Garwood, we didn’t begin with a comparison of models and features. We started by looking at how our team actually works.

Where were people losing time? What were they already using AI for? What information would we need the platform to handle? And what would make people actually use it once we’d chosen one?

Adam and George talk through the process, from surveying the team and turning the findings into a set of requirements through to researching the market, making the choice and working out how the different pieces of our setup would fit together.

They get into:

• Where our consultants were actually losing time
• What people were already using AI for
• How the need to protect client and commercially sensitive information shaped the decision
• What we needed from an AI platform
• Why Claude Team came out on top for Garwood
• Where Microsoft 365 and meeting transcription fit alongside it
• What we’d already do differently if we ran the exercise again today

A choice for now, not forever

We carried out the assessment in May/June 2026 and landed on Claude Team as the best fit for Garwood.

But we’ve deliberately built the wider setup so we’re not too dependent on any one model. The market is moving quickly, and some of the factors that shaped our decision have already changed.

That’s part of the point of the episode: not why every firm should choose Claude, but how we went about making the choice.

Next time

Choosing the platform is one thing. Then you have to work out how people can actually use it safely.

Adam and George will be talking governance, acceptable use, data, policies and training – including what you really need in place without making AI so difficult to use that nobody bothers.

Follow the series

We’ll be adding new episodes of Professional Services Tech Talks regularly, starting with AI and then moving into the wider technology questions that come with running and growing a professional services firm.

Follow the series to catch the next conversation.

And if there’s a technology problem you’re currently wrestling with in your firm, let Adam and George know. It might just make its way into a future episode.