Mediazoo Group has appointed John Gordon as Chief Product Officer, a newly created role overseeing the company’s product vision and AI roadmap.

He will lead the development of tools, platforms and workflows across the group’s learning and communications business, while also taking on a role at Finer Vision, Mediazoo’s recently launched AI unit.

The appointment comes as Mediazoo looks to turn its in-house AI work into products for corporate clients, with a focus on learning and development tools for organisations using AI in training and communications.

Finer Vision works with enterprise learning and development teams on AI use across programme design, needs analysis and marketing. It sits alongside Mediazoo and Uncertainty Experts within the group.

Before joining Mediazoo, Gordon held lead software engineer roles at Atos and Capgemini. He later ran his own consultancy while working alongside the company. His background also includes military service, air traffic control and cyber security.

Chief Executive Giles Smith said the company spent two years refining its internal approach to AI before expanding the offer to clients.

“We spent two years transforming how our own teams work with AI before we offered this to anyone else. We built the skills, deployed them across our workforce, and measured every result.”

John brings the product rigour and the technical depth to take that further. His appointment is central to where Mediazoo is going,” said Smith.

Gordon’s remit will involve taking the organisation’s existing internal AI initiatives and transforming them into structured products and scalable systems that can be deployed more broadly across its client base.

This includes not only the development of new AI-driven products, but also the design and implementation of operational frameworks that enable businesses to integrate these tools effectively into their day-to-day processes.

The role will require a focus on making AI adoption more practical, repeatable and aligned with real-world business needs.

Mediazoo positions itself as a creative learning and communications company, working with organisations to deliver training, engagement and behavioural change programmes. The company says it has developed more than 180 client case studies across a range of sectors, reflecting its experience in delivering tailored solutions.

Its sister business, Uncertainty Experts, has also contributed to this work through research involving more than 20,000 participants, providing insights into decision-making, communication and performance under uncertain conditions.

Gordon said that while many organisations now have access to leading generative AI tools, a significant gap remains in terms of understanding how to apply them consistently and effectively across workflows.

He noted that without clear processes and internal alignment, businesses risk using AI in a fragmented or ad hoc way, limiting its potential impact

“The AI skills gap is not about tools. Most enterprises already have access to Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini. The gap is in knowing how to deploy them effectively across the full programme lifecycle.”

With the right skills, teams can achieve in hours what currently takes weeks. This is about giving L&D professionals the capability to operate as genuine strategic partners to their organisations,” he said.

The Blewbury Bread Co was launched to immediate success six years ago from the garage of its founder, Jack O’Nolan, where every loaf and treat has been baked since then.

Since then, the bakers have expanded to stock the Bread Shed at Savages Garden Centre in Blewbury, Root One Garden Centre near Didcot Mr & Mrs Park’s Butchers in Cholsey and Brightwell Village Stores.

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They’re now preparing for their biggest expansion yet, into their very own bakery and shop in St Peter’s Place, Wallingford.

Jack O’Nolan (centre) and team at the old bakery premises (Image: Blewbury Bread Co)

With their final bake in Blewbury finished off on Saturday, April 18, the new opening is imminent.

A statement from head baker said: “I can’t lie, it was a bit of a moment – almost bang on six years to the day when we started, the first loaf being baked in our domestic ovens in April 2020.

“It was sadly time to say goodbye to the garage bakery, as we look to move forward onto our next step, on St. Peter’s Street in Wallingford.

“While the baking is moving to our new premises, I want to reassure you that will keep our site at Savages Blewbury going.

The Blewbury Bread Co bakers (Image: Blewbury Bread Co)

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“We couldn’t have made it this far without the support of our Blewbury customers, and we’d very much like to continue to serve you from the village it all started in.

“This journey has also certainly been a team effort, with a lot of support from family and friends, helping with baking, shaping, market stalls and all the team we’ve had over the last few years.

The new shop in St Peter’s Place, Wallingford (Image: Blewbury Bread Co)

“We look forward to seeing you all very soon in Wallingford, and to continue to serve you in Blewbury too.”

The Wallingford premises will now become the independent business’ only baking space, and will offer loaves, pastries, savouries, sweet treats and more over the counter, too.

A proposal to refit and refurbish the ground floor retail unit, on the corner with Wood Street, was submitted to South Oxfordshire District Council in March.

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New signage and branding has now gone up at the shop with a teaser that it is ‘opening soon’.

Mr O’Nolan added that the first-ever brick and mortar site has come at the right time for the business, from its humble beginnings delivering loaves during the pandemic, selling flour for charity and hosting pop ups at pubs and garden centres.

No official opening date has yet been announced but customers are advised to ‘watch this space’.

Employment Hero has launched HeroForce in the UK, a managed employment model for small and medium-sized businesses.

HeroForce lets businesses hire and manage staff while Employment Hero acts as the legal employer. The client business retains operational control over who is hired, how work is carried out and how long the engagement lasts, while Employment Hero handles payroll, tax and compliance.

The launch brings a model more commonly used for overseas hiring into domestic UK employment. HeroForce is positioned as an evolution of the Employer of Record structure, which businesses use to employ staff in foreign markets without setting up local entities.

In the UK, Employment Hero manages PAYE, National Insurance contributions, pension auto-enrolment and statutory payments including holiday pay, Statutory Sick Pay, and Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay. Workers employed through the arrangement keep their employment contracts and statutory protections under UK law.

Cost pressure

The launch comes as smaller employers assess the impact of changing employment rules and rising administrative costs. Employment Hero cited commissioned research showing that one in five SMEs planned to increase their use of contractors or temporary staff in response to the Employment Rights Act, while others had become more cautious about hiring.

The same research pointed to a broader burden on smaller firms, citing estimates that regulatory compliance costs SMEs £36 billion a year and accounts for 379 million working hours. That backdrop underpins the company’s pitch for a model that shifts formal employment obligations away from the client business.

AI layer

HeroForce uses Employment Hero’s in-house Hero AI system to automate compliance checks, payroll calculations and administrative tasks across the employment cycle. It also includes AI-assisted candidate matching and screening tools designed to help managers rank applicants against set criteria.

The service therefore covers both recruitment and ongoing employment administration. For customers, the proposition is not only about hiring workers but also about managing the legal and payroll framework once those workers are in place.

Employment Hero already provides HR, payroll and recruitment software, and says it serves more than 350,000 businesses and manages more than 2.5 million employees worldwide. HeroForce is available in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Kevin Fitzgerald, UK Managing Director, Employment Hero, said: “Employment is one of the world’s oldest and most common legal contracts used by businesses. We all depend on it, yet the infrastructure behind it remains highly manual and fragmented. The EOR model transformed international hiring by simplifying complexity.”

“HeroForce helps bring that same clarity to UK employment,” said Fitzgerald.

“Today, compliance and cost risks, especially in light of the Employment Rights Act, are the number one concern for SMEs,” added Fitzgerald. “Many are so worried about getting it wrong that they’re resorting to workarounds or avoiding traditional employment altogether. HeroForce is built to help restore confidence and backed by Employment Hero’s team of experts in payroll and employment law, so SMEs never have to navigate employment alone.”

Market shift

The launch reflects a broader shift in how employment services firms are trying to support smaller businesses facing tighter labour regulation and higher administrative costs. Software suppliers and outsourcing groups are increasingly moving beyond HR systems alone towards models that take on more direct responsibility for compliance and payroll execution.

For UK employers, one attraction of these arrangements is the transfer of legal and administrative risk. Businesses can still direct day-to-day work and staffing decisions, but the formal employer assumes responsibility for statutory processes and documentation.

That distinction may matter most for smaller firms without in-house HR or employment law teams. It also creates a different competitive position for providers such as Employment Hero, which is seeking to combine software, automation and direct employment administration in a single offering.

According to the company, HeroForce operates as an employment business under the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003. Workers engaged through the model are entitled to key information documents and retain protections covering paid holiday, pension entitlements, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal.

Employment Hero says the system behind HeroForce has been built on 12 years of regulatory integrations, payroll infrastructure and employment law expertise. Its argument is that while the technology layer can reduce manual work, the core of the UK offering is the transfer of employer obligations from the SME to Employment Hero itself.