James Edwards
Business owner. AI builder. Based in Maidstone, Kent.
Business owner. AI builder. Based in Maidstone, Kent.
How a business owner ended up building AI systems for small businesses.
I run The Sonic Sanctuary, a sound therapy and sound bath practice in Maidstone. Performance Interpreting is a family business — my wife Marie founded it, and I built the technology that powers it. It's a BSL interpretation agency providing communication access for the Deaf community across the UK. Between the two, I was spending a significant chunk of my time on things that weren't the actual work — bookings, chasing payments, managing waitlists, keeping records up to date.
A few years ago I started using AI to solve those problems. Not because I was a tech person looking for a project, but because I genuinely needed it. The results were good enough that I kept going — building booking platforms, automated communication flows, event management systems, customer databases. Complete operational systems, built from scratch using AI tools.
I'm not a tech person selling AI. I'm a business owner who found it genuinely useful and now helps others do the same. The approach is always practical: no jargon, no hype, no solutions looking for a problem. If it doesn't make your business easier to run, it's not worth building.
Not demos. Not experiments. Real platforms running real businesses.
Booking management OS, staff portal, automated workflows, event coordination, and a complete customer database. Built to handle a full BSL interpretation agency without a dedicated admin team.
See the project →End-to-end business platform covering bookings, payments, events, customer comms, and a public-facing website. Stripe-integrated, automated, and runs largely without manual intervention.
See the project →Hands-on experience first. Formal qualifications to follow.
Currently exploring formal AI qualifications to complement hands-on experience. This section will grow as that happens.
In the meantime, the projects speak for themselves. Take a look →
Building a local community of small business owners who use AI practically.
Running informal meetups in Maidstone and Kent for small business owners curious about AI — no sales pitch, just real talk about what works and what doesn't.
Part of Anthropic's Claude Community Ambassador programme — connecting with builders, business owners, and teams exploring what AI can genuinely do.
Regular articles on the blog covering practical AI — how to get recommended by AI search, what Agent Optimisation actually means, and how small businesses can use AI without a tech team.
Whether you're curious about AI for your business, want to attend a workshop, or just want to chat — get in touch.
Email Me →