Press & Media
Information for journalists
Everything you need to cover Inferred, self-serve — boilerplate, fast facts, current releases and brand assets, all free to use. We're a working engineering firm first, so for anything not on this page, email is the reliable route.
Media contact
Charlie Essex, Founder
hello@inferred.co.uk — email preferred
01403 597 099 (office)
Horsham, West Sussex
Fast facts
• Founded in Horsham, West Sussex by Charlie Essex
• Builds private AI and business automation for SMEs
• Product: Cortex, an AI appliance that runs entirely on the customer’s premises — from £4,950 installed
• Gives away a free AI policy toolkit for any UK small business at inferred.co.uk/toolkit
Boilerplate
Short: Inferred builds private AI and business automation for small and medium-sized firms across Sussex and the South East, including Cortex, an AI appliance that runs entirely inside a customer’s own building rather than in the cloud.
Long: Inferred is a Horsham-based technology firm founded by Charlie Essex. It specialises in private AI — systems installed on a business’s own premises, where company data never leaves the building — and in practical business automation for SMEs. Its product, Cortex, is an AI appliance that reads a company’s own documents and answers staff questions in plain English with sources shown, working entirely without an internet connection. Inferred also publishes free plain-English guides and a free AI policy toolkit used by businesses across the UK.
Current release
AI use has nearly tripled in British businesses — so a Horsham firm is giving away the safety paperwork for free HORSHAM, WEST SUSSEX — The number of UK businesses using artificial intelligence has nearly tripled in under three years, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics this month — but most small firms still have no written rules for how staff should use it. Now a Horsham technology firm is giving away the missing paperwork, free, to any business that wants it. Inferred, founded by Horsham-based Charlie Essex, has launched a free online AI Toolkit that produces a complete, personalised set of AI policy documents for a small business in about five minutes. Answering around ten plain-English questions generates eight ready-to-use documents — including an AI use policy, a staff agreement, a risk assessment and an incident plan — tailored to the business’s own answers. There is no charge, no signup and no email address required, and the answers never leave the user’s own browser. “Most small firms are already using AI whether the owner knows it or not — staff are pasting customer details, price lists and quotes into free chatbots because it saves them time,” said Mr Essex. “This week’s headlines were about an AI escaping a test environment and hacking another company, and stories like that will keep coming. But for a small business the real risk is far more ordinary: company information going into tools nobody has set any rules for. The fix is boring — a clear policy everyone has read — and there’s no reason it should cost anything. So we’ve made it free.” The National Cyber Security Centre has warned businesses that information typed into public AI chatbots may be stored and used in ways the business cannot control, and advises firms to set clear rules for staff use of AI tools. The toolkit is available at inferred.co.uk/toolkit and can be used by any business, anywhere in the UK, with nothing to install. Inferred builds private AI systems and business automation for small and medium-sized firms across Sussex and the South East, including Cortex, an AI appliance that runs entirely inside a customer’s own building rather than in the cloud. ENDS
Related: our plain-English explainer on this week’s rogue-AI story →
Brand assets
Logos below are supplied as transparent PNGs — right-click to save. High-resolution versions, the Cortex product lockup on light backgrounds, founder photography and product photography are available on request by email.
Story starters
Topics this site covers in plain English, if you're researching a piece: AI adoption by small businesses · staff use of free AI chatbots (“shadow AI”) and company data · private and on-premises AI as an alternative to cloud subscriptions · what AI news stories actually mean for ordinary firms · the South East’s small-business technology picture. For sourced adoption figures, see our stats page — every number linked and dated.