AI Hype vs Reality: Four Founders on Websites, Retainers, Public Speaking and the Human Touch

On The Legacy Bench, every guest brings a real story, challenge or idea, and the rest of the bench responds with support, recognition and practical next steps. In this episode, four guests brought four very different challenges, but one theme ran through all of them: AI is changing how we work, and the human touch matters more than ever.

As Carl put it, quoting a recent article on how people feel about AI: everyone loves using it, but "everyone's very unhappy to receive an AI message." Faith's reply got one of the biggest laughs: "I hate getting it."

On the bench

• Darren Ratcliffe, founder of Courageous, an award-winning ecommerce agency in Manchester. He has built websites since 1997 and will soon mark 20 years running his own agency.

• Carl Phillips, managing director of The PMC, a fractional marketing team and web development company that has worked with B2C and B2B brands.

• Aliya Rajah, founder of AR Consulting and an executive presence and communication coach since 2017, working between the UK and the UAE.

• Faith Sodipe, a software engineer of six to seven years, open source contributor, speaker and mentor with a master's in cybersecurity.

Starting again in a new city

Darren opened with a personal challenge. Having been to 65 countries, he plans to move to the North East this year to be closer to his dad, and needs to build a network where he knows no one. His team will stay in Manchester, and with clients across the country, he admitted "I could move and not tell anyone and no one would ever know. But that'd be quite lonely."

His plan is wonderfully practical: join cycling and running groups, and deliberately hold off on padel "so I can be bad at it in a new place where nobody knows me." He is also training to become a business coach so he can give back two decades of experience.

Will AI replace the web agency?

Our host asked Darren directly whether AI will replace him. He told a story about his accountant, who rang to show off a website he had built himself with AI. "If you're one of these businesses that do websites for £500... there's a direct threat there," Darren said. But for more complex work, experience still counts. He compared it to flying: you can get on a plane, "but you don't actually know how to pilot the plane."

Courageous is now building its own internal system to replace several software subscriptions, freeing his team to give better customer service. And when things go wrong, he explained, developers know how to investigate and ask the right questions, rather than getting stuck "in this infinite loop where you're just spending credits."

When AI flattens the retainer

Carl brought a question many agencies are facing. As AI takes over work that consultants used to bill for, retainer fees are flattening across marketing and other industries. How do you keep quality, and your day rate, high?

He also challenged a common myth: "There's this fallacy in marketing that by outputting more you'll get better results." AI gives "a very formulaic, good enough answer," he said, but without the right strategy, doing more of the wrong thing won't bring a return. Talking it through, Carl answered his own question: move up the market to bespoke, quality work that cheap AI tools can't match.

Our host shared his own view that the businesses that succeed in fintech and beyond will be the ones that keep the human factor and trust.

Beating public speaking nerves

Aliya's session was a masterclass. She helps leaders and teams become confident communicators, often people who are brilliant at their jobs but have missed promotions because they lack visibility. When Darren admitted that his heart still races before big talks, she shared her approach: start with the mindset and write down the stories you are telling yourself, then reframe them. "If your friend was scared, what would you say to your friend in that situation? Say those things to yourself."

Her most reassuring story was her own. In 2016, she spoke at a national conference in front of 200 people, "shaking", head down, reading from a script. "I didn't die, I survived," she laughed. Her advice for finding opportunities: ask hosts and podcasts if they need speakers, even unpaid at first, and share it afterwards. And on nerves, she was clear: "It's not about not being nervous, but it's about working with the nerves."

One thing or many?

Faith described a full life: mentoring five mentees through a women's coding community, coaching people into tech through an international nonprofit, teaching AI and cybersecurity awareness, running track and planning a fitness concept called The Lab, which she shared publicly for the first time on the bench. When asked what she is truly a master of, her answer was instant: "Solving problems. It doesn't matter."

She was candid about how she got here. Years ago, at a large fintech company in Nigeria, she was the engineer who stayed in the background and turned down presentations, until she watched someone else take the opportunity. "I need to move away from the back seat," she told herself.

The bench encouraged her to bring her worlds together through her personal brand. Carl suggested it could look like a Venn diagram, built around her story, while our host advised that being known for one thing first can open doors to everything else.

The takeaway

The hype says AI will do it all. The reality on this bench was more nuanced. AI is a powerful tool, but experience, strategy, trust and genuine human presence are what clients still pay for. Whether you are moving cities, protecting your rates, stepping on stage or building a personal brand, the advice was the same: know your why, show up as yourself and keep people at the centre.

If you are building a business, growing your career or wondering where AI is taking us next, watch the full episode and join the conversation.