According to the latest data from the Bank of England, almost 30% of businesses had made ‘new significant or transformative AI investments’ as at October 2024. Here, London Loves Business sits down with Hardy Sidhu, the Founder and CEO of digital product studio, Format-3, to discuss the types of challenges his growing team help solve through the power of tech, while touching on his own growth plans during 2025 and beyond.
You describe Format-3 as a ‘digital product studio’. What sort of digital solutions do you deliver for your client base?
Format-3 is dedicated to creating positive experiences through the power of technology.
We achieve this by embedding ourselves into organisations through an incubator type model, where we work closely with our clients to understand where technology would create the most impact or what would drive positive change, to ultimately enhance stakeholder experience and drive both revenue and business growth.
‘Service’ isn’t the correct term for us as a business as we don’t have transactional relationships with our clients. Instead, we focus on collaboration and value by building impactful digital experiences through end-to-end solutions, which could range from streamlining internal operations to improving customer experience and engagement.
For example, we have recently been working with a health tech company in Tennessee where we are looking at how technology can aid the business in scaling its delivery – which has ranged from operations to patient handling.
What are the main business challenges you and the Format-3 team aim to solve through the power of tech?
Ultimately, our main focus is to ensure technology is perceived and utilised as a key partner in both professional and personal life, as opposed to a friction point or something to be afraid of.
In building impactful end to end solutions, we take pride in showcasing exactly how technology can aid the daily life of customers and users, while also bringing value to internal employees and stakeholders
You are about to celebrate your second year in business, having already accelerated to a headcount 20+ and expanded overseas into the US and Middle East. What has been the secret to your early success?
I genuinely believe that it isn’t the end output that drives our success – it’s the process of collaborating with our talented team to build and create amazing digital solutions that is the real driver of our early growth and success.
Aside from the fact we boast a proven track record in enabling organisations to accelerate growth through innovative digital solutions, we have also worked hard to hone an unrivalled business culture, where all team members are encouraged to work closely together to spark idea sharing and encourage all those involved to contribute the very best of themselves – extending beyond our growing team to clients and partners too.
Furthermore, I am true believer of the fact smaller companies and startups, perhaps struggling for growth within the current economic climate, should benefit from our expertise too, particularly when there’s disruption potential. As such, we work hard to support startups through our own, unique incubator model which has really set us aside from any potential industry competitors.
What are your plans for growth and development in 2025? And what steps are you taking to achieve your objectives?
One of our main objectives is to build more incubators focused on helping start-up founders bring visions to life across the US, Europe and Middle East.
By focussing on supporting startups and smaller businesses that may not have access to the digital and ideation required from traditional agencies due to cost barriers, we believe we can help build out new, exciting and transformative technologies all while potentially driving societal change and improvement.
Furthermore, we also want to focus on truly educating business leaders and wider stakeholders on the important role technology is and will continue to play for organisations – while reinforcing its role as a partner, not a threat.
What part will AI and automation play in your business strategy next year, if at all?
AI is evolving at an exciting pace and for us we will be leveraging it to help businesses scale, even when maxed out with their own resource.
A great example of this is our recent work with the health tech company in Tennessee. Prior to working with us, the organisation was completely overwhelmed with patient requests and didn’t have the resource in place to fulfil growing demand. We worked collaboratively with the team to build digital solutions that have successfully streamlined operations and improved patient experience, while cementing foundations for continued and accelerated growth.
What challenges do you foresee both impacting and shaping the UK business sector in 2025?
I think the economy will continue to be a challenge for UK organisations in 2025, meaning business leaders will need to be more nimble and agile to truly leverage their budgets for growth.
In recent years we have seen more and more entrepreneurs migrate to the middle east to drive growth and innovation – particularly through the power of technology. This has partly been driven out of frustration but also the opportunity for something more beyond the constraints of corporate red tape.
However, I believe 2025 could be the year to really focus on driving this innovation here in the UK – particularly as growing numbers of business leaders are starting to really embrace and leverage the power of tech and AI. In failing to do so, I do think British businesses will start to face the risk of being left behind.
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