What's the difference between Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus?

Cyber Essentials is a verified self-assessment against five security controls. Cyber Essentials Plus tests the same controls with a hands-on technical audit by a licensed assessor. You must hold Cyber Essentials before doing Plus.

Do you do the work, or just assess us?

We do the work. Foresight runs the gap analysis, carries out hands-on remediation, prepares the evidence and liaises with the assessor, so you pass first time rather than paying to re-sit a failed audit.

How much does Cyber Essentials cost?

The IASME assessment fee is tiered by size from around £320 + VAT and includes £25,000 cyber liability insurance for eligible UK businesses. Cyber Essentials Plus is scoped to your estate, typically from around £1,380 + VAT.

Retail & Hospitality

AI for Retail & Hospitality: where can retail & hospitality use AI safely?

AI can save your team real hours — here’s where it genuinely helps retail & hospitality, where to be careful, and how to use it safely.

Book an AI Readiness Audit Call 0161 738 1399

Why Foresight

Cyber Essentials Plus certified
Microsoft CSP & Copilot specialists
Greater Manchester, since 2006
Honest advice — not licence-selling

Quick answer

Retail and hospitality businesses can use AI for marketing and social content, answering common customer questions with an agent, summarising reviews and feedback, and handling rotas and admin — while analysing sales to spot trends. Protect customer and payment data, and keep a human on anything that affects guests directly.

Where AI helps

Practical uses for retail & hospitality

Area	Where AI fits
Marketing	Social posts, menus and promotions — Copilot
Customer service	Common questions — an FAQ agent
Insight	Summarising reviews and sales — Copilot
Admin	Rotas, reports and emails — Copilot

Doing it safely

Governance first

Customer and payment data must be protected — keep it out of public tools and PCI-compliant. Before rolling anything out, tidy permissions, put a simple AI usage policy in place, keep sensitive data out of public tools, and keep a human in the loop — all part of our AI Adoption service. See also IT support for retail & hospitality.

Free downloads

Start today with our templates

The same free, ready-to-use templates we use in our audits:

“Day in the Life” AI template

Find exactly where AI will save your team time.

Download →

AI Usage Policy template

A short, practical AI policy to keep your data safe.

Download →

FAQs

Common questions

Can retail and hospitality businesses use AI?

Yes — for marketing, answering customer questions, summarising reviews and handling admin. It frees your team to focus on guests.

Is AI safe for customer and payment data?

Payment data must stay in PCI-compliant systems and out of public AI tools. Marketing and admin uses are low-risk with a simple policy.

What can AI do for a shop or restaurant?

Create marketing content, answer common customer questions, summarise reviews and sales, and take the load off rotas and admin.

Will AI replace hospitality staff?

No — it removes behind-the-scenes admin so your team can spend more time with customers and guests.

Put AI to work — safely

Start with a fixed-fee AI Readiness Audit and get a clear, honest plan — and the licences you actually need.

See AI Adoption as a Service Call 0161 738 1399