Serve First’s Justis Saayman on AI and smarter retail operations

Here we speak with Justis Saayman of TRB partner Serve First about building confident teams, turning real-time customer insight into operational action, and why AI should help people do their best work.

You’ve led marketing and growth teams across a range of fast-growing technology businesses. What do you believe are the most important qualities of a modern leader, and how have they shaped the teams you’ve built and the results you’ve delivered?

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For me, modern leadership starts with trust, accountability and giving people enough space to do their best work. I have always believed that smaller teams with more autonomy can be incredibly powerful, provided they are supported properly. My role is not just to set the strategy, it is also to protect my team, give them confidence and create an environment where they can be honest about what is working and what is not.

I see leadership as having broad enough shoulders to take the difficult conversations, while making sure the team feels the praise, the momentum and the belief. That does not mean avoiding hard topics. Quite the opposite. The best teams are able to talk openly about mistakes, fix what is uncomfortable and keep improving. But people should not feel that failure is something to fear. They should feel trusted enough to try, learn quickly and build better processes from whatever happens next.

That trust works both ways. I have people in my current team who have worked with me before, and I have brought them with me because I believe in taking people through their careers as I progress through mine. When people understand you as a boss and as a person, there is a different level of commitment and openness. For new people joining the team, it is my responsibility to build that same trust with them too.

I also think people should enjoy their work. Marketing and growth are creative disciplines, and creativity does not thrive when people are constantly worried about being criticised. If people feel safe, trusted and able to have fun, they become more creative, more productive and more willing to push things forward.

At Serve First, we have also built internal systems using AI agents to support the team. We are not replacing people with AI, we are augmenting them. It helps us spot anomalies earlier, deal with problems before they become bigger issues and increase the output of the team without taking away the human judgement. That has made marketing more transparent and more trusted within the business. We are not afraid to show how the work gets done, because the team understands the goal, the process and the action needed.

Throughout your career, you’ve helped bring innovative technology solutions to market. Looking back, which solution or project are you most proud of, what challenge was it designed to solve, and why does it stand out for you personally?

I have to talk about Serve First, because it is the work I am closest to now and it is genuinely something I am proud of. The challenge in our market is that a lot of software providers stop at analysis. They capture data, analyse it and then tell a business that something has gone wrong. But too often, that is where it ends. The person receiving the insight is left thinking, “What do I actually do with this?”

What we have worked hard to make clear at Serve First is the idea of capture, analyse and action. The action part is the real differentiator. If something has gone wrong, the platform does not simply flag the problem. It helps teams understand what they should do next, based on the retailer’s own standard operating procedures, customer promises and internal ways of working.

That matters because people cannot act on what they do not know. Training happens when someone joins a business, but two years later processes may have changed, documents may be buried somewhere, and the person on the ground may not have immediate access to the right answer. By using AI to connect insight with the correct action, we can help that colleague solve the issue quickly, confidently and without unnecessary escalation.

That is what stands out for me personally. It is not technology for technology’s sake. It is technology that helps people look better in their own businesses, reduces avoidable mistakes and gives teams the confidence to act. It also stops small problems being blown out of proportion. If the issue can be handled by the right person at the right level, with the right guidance, everyone benefits.

For retailers and businesses using that solution, what tangible difference does it make to their day-to-day operations, customer experience or commercial performance, and are there any customer success stories that particularly stand out?

We work with a lot of retailers, including food and beverage businesses, and the tangible difference is speed, clarity and better decision-making. When something happens in a store or hospitality environment, the time to action matters. If a coffee machine is broken, a till is down or queues are becoming too long, that operational issue is not separate from customer satisfaction. It affects how customers feel in that moment, whether they stay, whether they leave and whether they come back.

With Serve First, a business can connect those points. If customer feedback suddenly shows a spike in dissatisfaction, or an audit highlights a broken piece of equipment, the platform helps teams understand what may be driving the issue and what action needs to be taken. It also allows different teams to see their part of the same story. A customer experience leader may see one angle, an operations leader may see another, but the underlying problem is connected.

That is where the commercial value becomes clearer too. Long queues do not just create unhappy customers, they can mean people walking out of the store. A broken till or an empty shelf has a cost. The question is, how quickly can you understand that cost and reduce it? If you can fix an issue within two hours rather than leaving it all day, the revenue impact may be completely different.

We are also bringing more technology into the platform to help businesses understand the real-world value of these moments. For example, being able to see how many people stood in a queue, how many walked away, how many left the shop and how that links to a broken till, an empty shelf or another operational issue. That kind of visibility helps retailers move from estimates to more accurate commercial understanding.

Ultimately, this is about helping retailers live up to the promise they make to customers. We talk a lot about the high street being under pressure, but customers still value great service, good product knowledge and stores that work properly. If retailers can react faster, support their colleagues better and understand the real impact of operational issues, they are in a much stronger position to keep customers coming back.

As AI and data-driven technologies continue to reshape business, what opportunities excite you most, and how do you see organisations using these tools to create better experiences and stronger outcomes for their customers over the next few years?

AI has changed our business from the bottom to the top. We are AI-first, and I think organisations that do not start thinking in that way will struggle, not because they cannot keep up with technology, but because they will find it harder to replicate positive business traits quickly enough.

One of the opportunities I find most exciting is using AI to take what works brilliantly in one part of a business and make it available more widely. Look at the example of a travel company. When customers sit with a knowledgeable travel agent, the conversation is richer, the trust is stronger and the value of the sale can be higher. AI now makes it possible to bring some of that expertise into digital channels, so an online chatbot is not just a glorified search tool, but something that asks better questions, gives more relevant recommendations and creates a more helpful experience.

In retail, that same principle applies. A great colleague in a toy shop does more than tell you where a product is. They understand what else may be needed, what pairs well with it, what a child might enjoy and how to make the purchase feel easier. AI can help bring that expert guidance into more customer journeys, including for people shopping online who still want reassurance, choice and proper advice.

From an operational perspective, AI also has the potential to break down data silos. The marketing technology world solved some of this years ago through customer data platforms, but operations has often lagged behind. AI can help pull together different perspectives, from customer experience, operations, feedback, audits and store performance, and turn them into one clear message about what needs to happen next.

I do not see AI as a replacement for people. I see it as a way of allowing people to do more of the good work, the high-performing work and the work that customers actually value. It can help businesses become better, faster and more consistent, while also making the value of employees more visible. In retail, AI will not replace the store colleague who understands customers and products. But it can help create more consistent experiences across stores, websites and service channels.

That consistency is what excites me. For years, customer experiences have varied depending on channel, location or how easy it is for teams to access the right information. AI can help close that gap. It can support bespoke conversations for different people, generations and needs, while helping businesses use their own knowledge more effectively.

Retailers are understandably cautious, and some are still working out how to use AI well. But the pace of change is astonishing. What felt impossible six or 12 months ago is already becoming normal. Over the next few years, I think AI will help retailers become more responsive, more connected and more confident in the way they serve customers. The benefit is not just efficiency. It is better experiences, stronger outcomes and teams who are better supported to deliver the promise their brand has made.