Blue Llama featured in Connect Magazine: The AI pragmatist

Blue Llama was recently featured in Connect Magazine’s Working Lunch series. Founder Phil de Gruchy sat down with Connect over lunch at Michelin-starred Bohemia to talk AI, Jersey business, and why it’s not too late to get started. Here’s the full article.

Generative AI that understands and produces human-like text has only been available to the public since November 2022, but it has already had a huge impact on our lives. From our phones to the way we work, AI is shaping how we use technology. But for those bewildered by AI and who fear they’ve been left behind, it’s not too late, according to Phil de Gruchy, Founder of Blue Llama. He caught up with Connect over lunch at the Michelin-starred Bohemia restaurant…

If you look on the Blue Llama website, you might be intrigued to see that the team is referred to as a “herd” and that only its founder is based here in Jersey. But that’s the nature of tech businesses, taking the working-from-home model to its obvious conclusion. The herd is spread across eight European cities from London to Varna in Bulgaria, a deliberate approach designed to get the very best digital specialists working for Blue Llama’s clients.

“We’ve been a web agency for fifteen years, but the last three have been about AI. The business grew steadily – first a developer, then a designer – and over time we built the whole team across Europe for language and time-zone reasons. When ChatGPT launched, we could see how powerful it was going to be, and that businesses would find a way to use it. That’s where most of our work sits now.”

Most people’s understanding of AI starts and ends with ChatGPT. The bigger opportunity is what comes next, where AI takes whole processes off teams’ hands rather than just helping them write faster emails.

“If we can remove two hours of admin from someone’s day, they get that time back to focus on higher-value work. For some clients, the maths is simple. Within three or four months, they’ve made their money back.”

Phil sees himself as an AI pragmatist. His team builds real AI and automation solutions for local businesses every day, helping to build clients’ confidence so they can realise AI’s full potential.

“I host a webinar series called AI in Action with our AI lead, Anish Bagga. We show how Jersey businesses are using AI, so people who aren’t sure where to start can see what’s possible. We get around 60 people joining us each month. For us, it’s part of helping Jersey businesses move forward with confidence rather than be left behind.”

Being an AI pragmatist means looking at a business and the processes behind it, and identifying which ones are right for AI to assist with. Rather than going straight in with a plan spread over years, the idea is to gradually build momentum.

“A lot of companies know they need AI but they don’t know where to start. They might be experimenting with off-the-shelf tools like Copilot, but the cleanest way to save time and money is to integrate AI into your existing processes. We work primarily within the Microsoft ecosystem so data sits inside the tools clients already trust.

“We do operational audits, either across a department or the whole business. We start with each process owner, who walks us through how things are done and how long they take. We’ve achieved at least 70% time-saving across processes for D2 Real Estate, All Island Media and Rubis. Other times we’ll say leave it alone, because it’s better done by a person.

“Our approach is to find the quick wins first and get the team comfortable with AI. Once they see what it can do, they become the champions. They start spotting the opportunities themselves, and it snowballs from there.”

For many businesses though, that snowball doesn’t start on its own. Watching how Jersey firms have struggled to get going with AI has shaped Blue Llama’s newest offering, launched this year. They call it the Delegate partnership, and Phil leans forward when the conversation turns to it.

“What we kept seeing was the same thing. Senior leaders know AI matters but no one in the business has the time or the skills to lead it. And there’s so much hype out there it’s exhausting trying to work out what’s actually useful. People are scared of getting it wrong, or spending money on something that doesn’t deliver. Delegate is our answer to that. It’s like having your own Virtual AI Director. We handle the strategy, we build the tools, we train the team, and we put the governance in place. And we only work with one business per industry, so while a client’s working with us, their competitors can’t.”

Returning to the question posed at the beginning of this article, it’s easy to see why some businesses feel they’ve been left behind.

“Those starting now, or a few months ago, will be in a better place than those who’ve done nothing. It’s not necessarily about immediate return,” Phil says. “It’s about educating yourself and understanding what AI can do. The time to act is now. The AI Playbook for Jersey, developed by the Jersey AI Council, says the island can’t just stand and look. It’s those who act first who will reap the rewards.”

Phil isn’t speaking theoretically. He worked in IT for several years at Mourant, RBC and the Jersey Financial Services Commission before starting Blue Llama fifteen years ago. The name came from South American travels and his favourite colour.

“I just wanted to create something, and it was exciting to control the direction it goes in,” he says. The team is fully remote across eight European cities, with Phil running things from Jersey. He works from home, occasionally heading into the DJX, Digital Jersey’s co-working space in St Brelade, although a new puppy keen on chewable wires has paused that for now.

The herd talks every day via video, but has never all been together in the same room. A planned Prague reunion was postponed when war broke out in Ukraine, where several of the team are based. They mark Christmas remotely instead.

“We’ll get the Christmas hats on and a beer, and the photos go on social media every year,” Phil says.

As Jersey businesses figure out where they sit on the AI curve, Phil’s view is straightforward: those moving now will look back and be glad they did. And Blue Llama’s herd, scattered across Europe, will be helping them get there.

This article originally appeared in Connect Magazine, June 2026, as part of their Working Lunch series.

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