Mark Apter, Co-Founder of Roomix, who has integrated artificial intelligence (AI) into the business and says it’s like having a superpower, will be presenting WOTSO’s second Skill Swap Session in support of NSW Small Business Month.
“AI has massively expanded our capability and velocity in terms of how much we can do as individuals, and how fast we can do it,” he says.
“It’s almost like it’s given us a superpower in the way we do things – everything is just sped up.”
Apter, a member of WOTSO North Sydney, is presenting ‘Running your business with AI’ at 11am on Tuesday October 27. Skill Swap Sessions are designed to support small and micro businesses by sharing skills, knowledge, and tools. All free and interactive. Register here.
Despite broader concerns that AI will cost jobs, he explains that for Roomix, an online furniture retailer, it’s about empowering people.
“How do we give our people this superpower, enable them to do more and not replace them.”
He says AI capabilities are accelerating exponentially and that, in his view, it’s important to have guardrails.
“In my experience you get the most impact out of it in a business when you have experts in the subject matter reviewing the output because it’s not always right, and doesn’t always have the context,” Apter says.
Roomix uses Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant.
“Automation was our gateway to AI, using it for small menial tasks or workflows. At the same time a lot of the tools were getting better, and technology was advancing a lot quicker.”
That was when Mark decided he needed to learn more and started using AI to develop handy home apps such as family meal planners in his spare time.
“By doing that I learned how it worked and started applying some of the principles into my work,” he explains.
“We still run automations in our operations and order management, but now there’s AI within those workflows.”
AI also supports weekly reporting and content production, including room-setting imagery built from real product photography.
“Customers need to trust what they see. AI should help us show our products, not misrepresent them.”
Roomix connects Claude to its own business knowledge, with access managed by the team.
“For these tools to be useful they need access to business context. If they don’t have access to context or a knowledge base, they’re just the same tools as everyone else is using,” he says.
“You need to make it different and tailored to you.”
- Reserve your free online spot for ‘Running your business with AI’ at 11am Tuesday, October 27. Register here. To learn more about Roomix, visit www.roomix.com.
