Grosvenor Flooring & Merchi.ai Named Finalist in the National AI Awards 2026

Independent flooring retailer recognised for end-to-end AI ecosystem driving 976% online revenue growth — with a single full-time employee

London, UK — 30 April 2026: Grosvenor Flooring, an independent Cheshire-based flooring retailer, and Merchi.ai, the AI technology partner behind the company’s transformation, today announce they have been named a finalist in the AI SME Business of the Year category at the National AI Awards 2026, with the winners being announced online on June 9th and the celebrations being hosted on June 10th at The AI Summit London, the UK’s premier gathering for AI professionals and innovators.

The joint entry, titled “Omnichannel AI Revolution: How Grosvenor Flooring & Merchi.ai Digitised Inventory, Automated Sales, and Launched the 24/7 Smart Showroom,” recognises a multimodal AI deployment spanning product cataloguing automation, generative AI imagery, AI-written SEO and AEO content, customer-facing visualisation tools, an automated sample-tracking system, a Gen AI WhatsApp sales assistant, and a 24/7 unstaffed Smart Showroom. Grosvenor Flooring is the only independent flooring retailer to be shortlisted in the category, alongside Available Car, Brdge and Entopy.

The National AI Awards recognise the individuals, teams and organisations driving meaningful progress in artificial intelligence across the UK, spanning innovation, leadership and real-world application. It’s also an event which brings together leaders from across business, technology and investment at a time when AI adoption is scaling rapidly across the UK.

Being named a finalist places Grosvenor Flooring & Merchi.ai among a select group of organisations recognised for delivering AI in live environments, where performance, accountability and measurable outcomes are under increasing scrutiny.

A “digital ceiling” broken by an end-to-end AI ecosystem

Before the initiative, Grosvenor Flooring faced what the team describe as the SME digital ceiling. The company had a backlog of more than 1,000 products invisible online, growth capped by physical showroom hours, and a website serving as a static brochure rather than an interactive sales tool. Working with Merchi.ai, the company built a holistic, multimodal AI strategy across three operational layers:

Layer 1: The digital shelf. AI agents replaced manual data entry, generating SEO and AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) optimised descriptions, titles and specifications for over 1,000 Amtico products at scale. Generative AI created unique lifestyle imagery for products previously displaying “Coming Soon” placeholders. AI-written copy and FAQ content was deployed across 150+ category pages, with optimised rich snippets sitewide. Automated synchronisation jobs push the optimised inventory to the Google Merchant Centre every morning.

Layer 2: The customer experience. A Gen AI room visualiser on every product page lets customers upload a photograph of their own room and preview flooring installed digitally in seconds. A Gen AI mood-board matcher within the Grosvenor+ trade and design programme converts an inspiration image into matched product suggestions across the company’s full range. An automated QR-code sample system prints stickers linking each sample directly back to its product detail page, removing friction from the path between handling a sample and placing the order.

Layer 3: Business model transformation. The company launched a 24/7 unstaffed Smart Showroom, an access-controlled physical store where customers request a single-use access code through the website and let themselves in via secure smart-lock outside conventional opening hours. Supporting it is a Gen AI WhatsApp sales assistant that handles customer enquiries round the clock. Together they expanded the customer service window from 45 hours per week to a full 168 — a 270% uplift in availability.

Headline outcomes

• 976% increase in online revenue year-on-year, contributing to a total revenue uplift of approximately 50%.
• One full-time employee operates the entire business — the showroom, online fulfilment and customer service — with the AI ecosystem performing the work of digital marketing, data entry, content production and frontline sales teams combined.
• Negligible increase in marketing spend: growth has been driven by the organic performance of AI-generated content rather than paid acquisition.
• 60x productivity gain in product cataloguing — from approximately 45 minutes per SKU to around 45 seconds per product.
• 270% expansion in customer service availability — from 45 hours per week to 168.
• 3-day build cycle for the Grosvenor+ trade and design platform, including loyalty tiers and project management tools, using AI code editor Cursor — described internally as the company’s “speed-to-innovation” capability.

Adam Williams, Founder of Grosvenor Flooring, said:

“We’re a small independent retailer in a category historically defined by Saturday-afternoon showroom visits. The reality is that most of our customers now buy online, and the technology has to meet them where they actually are. Building this AI ecosystem with Merchi was the most direct way we could find to scale the business without scaling the overhead. The numbers — 976% online revenue growth with no increase in headcount, a 1,000-product backlog cleared in a fraction of the time it would once have taken, the showroom open round the clock — aren’t the result of any single tool. They’re the result of treating AI as something that runs through the whole business, not just bolted onto a corner of it.”

Ross Williams of Merchi.ai said:

“Being named finalists at the National AI Awards alongside some of the UK’s biggest household names is a massive achievement, but for us, the real victory is seeing the ‘Grosvenor x Merchi’ model in action. Achieving a 976% revenue surge with a team of one isn’t just a business win; it’s a total reimagining of what an SME can be. We’ve moved beyond simple automation into true agentic commerce, and this nomination proves that agility and AI-first thinking can level the playing field against even the largest competitors.”

The collaboration is also a family one: Adam and Ross Williams are brothers — a partnership that allowed for an unusually direct iteration cycle between founder and AI specialist, and informed the depth of the integration recognised in the awards entry.

Fergus Bruce, CEO of The National AI Awards, said:

“We are pleased to recognise Grosvenor Flooring & Merchi.ai as a finalist in the National AI Awards 2026. The shortlist of finalists reflects the strength of work happening across the UK to move AI from ambition into practical impact. The diversity of entries and applications of AI have been fascinating and we expect this to only continue into 2027. This year’s finalists represent an impressively high standard of innovation, leadership and execution, and we look forward to announcing the winners and celebrating the overall achievements of the industry in June.”

For more information, visit thenationalaiawards.com.