Grassroots Intelligence exists to help organisations genuinely get to grips with AI, through workforce upskilling, senior leadership coaching, practical tool implementation, and clear policy design.
Our approach is always people focused: giving teams the skills and confidence they need, while creating sustainable AI-powered solutions that keep working long after we’ve gone. No gimmicks, no expensive flashy tools: just actual, measurable benefits, delivered safely.
You can read the principles we hold ourselves to further down this page: made to fit, sustainable, simple, transparent, and never AI for AI’s sake.
Every Grassroots programme is designed by Dr Joe Watkins, an AI specialist and educator who helps organisations adopt AI in ways that put people first.
Joe holds a PhD in Mathematics and lectured in the subject for many years, where he built a strong reputation as both an educator and innovator in public engagement with STEM. He ran many local and national outreach programmes in mathematics and science, working with organisations such as the Royal Institution, Maths Hubs and STEMnet.
He has since led major AI initiatives, including serving as AI Strategy & Solutions Lead for a large adult education provider, where he designed and delivered large-scale rollouts of AI tools and worked closely on workforce engagement and upskilling. He is also a Lead Assessor for national AI apprenticeships, and regularly gives talks on Leadership with AI, tailored to audience needs, which consistently receive excellent feedback.
Previously, Joe directed national data programmes, integrating generative AI into learning design and content creation to improve efficiency and personalisation. He is particularly motivated by work across the charity, not-for-profit and NHS sectors, and has supported the professional development of teachers in AI, with consistently excellent feedback from participants. Otherwise, by his own admission, there is not a great deal to report.
Our solutions will be tailor-made by your own team, focusing on the actual needs of your organisation. We will never try to impose an easy, crude solution just to make our own lives easier. We work with the tools that you, or your Data Protection Officer, allow us to.
With every solution we support your team to develop, we will be 100% confident that it can run perfectly well without us. We will never leave you in the position where your team are grappling to maintain a solution that we’ve provided.
We recognise fully that most people are not experts in AI. The solutions your team develop will be simple and elegant, fully transparent for your team. We will never leave you with a Frankenstein solution that is impossible to maintain.
A lot of the time a good data solution does not involve much AI. Often the best approach is much more about good data practice, good process, and creating safe methods of automation. We will never suggest the use of AI unless there is some clear benefit to your organisation.
We will ensure your team document any new process to the very highest standards, then make it accessible to the relevant parts of your organisation. We will never hide our workings or try to conceal our approach. You will always know exactly what’s happened, and why.
Often the best data-driven solutions are just a matter of good old-fashioned graft. We will not shy away from projects where we need to put in a lot of groundwork ourselves. We will never take a lazy approach or take shortcuts, and are always happy to explain clearly where our time has been spent.
A short conversation is all it takes to work out the right mix of training, clinics and coaching for your organisation.