With AI adoption amongst SMEs cautiously growing, Liberti Club spoke to Urfaan Azhar, Jungle IT’s Head of Cloud & AI, about how to improve optimisation and what scaling businesses should prioritise with this transformational technology.
LC: What is the difference between Assistant and Agentic AI?
UA: An assistant is a very good graduate who never leaves their desk. Ask it a question, get an answer. It surfaces and organises information with tools like ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini. It saves time per person and per task. It changes how the week feels, but it does not change the accounts.
An agent doesn’t wait to be asked; it watches and acts. It does the work, like invoice matching, order entry or reconciliation, and escalates the exception. A supplier invoice lands, for example. It’s read, matched against the PO and the goods-received note. If it reconciles, it’s posted. If it doesn’t, and only if it doesn’t, it goes to a human with the discrepancy already highlighted. Assistants save minutes. Agents move numbers.
LC: How can SMEs decide where best to use Agentic AI in their business?
UA: There are three main tests. The first is high volume, low variety. Repetition is where Agentic earns its keep, automating the same tasks done hundreds of times a month that look the same each time.
The second test is where rules already exist, so it’s easy to write a correct version. This is the one many skip, but if two people in the same room would process the same order differently, you don’t have an AI problem, you have a process problem.
The third rule is having the data in one place, which is where most SMEs actually get stuck. For most, the first six weeks of an AI project is getting the information into one system. This is the foundation, and it pays for itself even if you never touch AI.
LC: What should SMEs prioritise with AI, and what can wait?
UA: Is the work frequent, repeatable, based on information you already have, and measurable? The SMEs that benefit most will not automate everything; they will know which work to remove, which decisions to protect and where human judgement creates the most value. The tool is the last decision, not the first.
LC: How is Jungle IT supporting SMEs in their optimisation of AI?
UA: Whether it’s building an AI roadmap, identifying opportunities to automate repetitive tasks, or implementing tools like Microsoft Copilot, AI assistants and emerging agentic AI solutions, we help organisations adopt AI with confidence. Every solution is built on secure foundations, designed to improve productivity and aligned with compliance requirements. The result is less time spent on manual processes, better-informed decisions, and more capacity to focus on growth. The real power of AI comes from combining technology with human judgement.
LC: Why did you decide to offer your IT solutions fractionally?
UA: We regularly meet organisations where day‑to‑day IT demands pull senior people away from the roles they’re actually meant to be performing. We also see businesses that know where they want the business to go, but without the technical clarity to diagnose issues or chart the right path, so progress becomes slow. Our Fractional IT Manager service is designed to remove that pressure.
We act as an extension of our client’s team, providing the guidance, oversight and hands-on support needed to keep their technology moving in the right direction – shaping the IT roadmap, managing vendors, strengthening governance and leadership without the cost of a full-time hire.
LC: Why are partner ecosystems important for scaling SMEs?
UA: The businesses that scale most successfully aren’t the ones trying to do everything themselves, they’re the ones building trusted ecosystems around them. We’ve used partnerships to extend our expertise, strengthen our service offering and create more value for our clients. The real advantage comes from building an ecosystem of trusted partners who complement each other’s strengths. When specialist expertise is available through a trusted network, businesses can move faster, reduce risk and focus on what they do best.
LC: The population of fractional professionals has exploded in recent years. Why is it important to be a specialist versus a generalist, and why should business owners work with networks rather than ‘lone rangers’?
UA: The rise of fractional leadership is a positive thing. Businesses have more access to experience than ever before. That said, technology has become incredibly broad. A single person might have deep expertise in one area, but it’s difficult to stay at the leading edge of cyber security, AI, Microsoft platforms, governance, compliance and business transformation all at the same time.
That’s why we believe businesses should look beyond the individual and consider the network behind them. A strong fractional leader brings strategic direction, but the real value comes from having access to a trusted team of specialists who can challenge ideas, fill knowledge gaps and provide additional expertise when needed. For business owners, that means less risk, better decisions and more resilience than relying on a single person’s experience alone.
Jungle IT has produced a practical AI roadmap and tailored prompt to help SMEs improve their adoption and optimisation of AI. To request it, fill in this form.