4 Roads shortlisted at the BIMA Awards 2026 for Acticare
4 Roads is shortlisted in the Business (B2B) category of the BIMA Awards 2026, for Acticare's B2B ecommerce platform. Winners are revealed on 19 November.
Our thinking
Thoughts & insights
What we have learned building online communities, apps and the software behind them.
Does anyone need an online community any more?
LLMs learned from community content, and now draw on it to answer questions. Why a community matters more than ever, and what good looks like now.
Protecting children online needs better regulation, not sledgehammer solutions
Banning social media or VPNs for under-16s won't protect children. Regulate personalised feeds, autoplay and infinite scroll; give parents simpler tools.
Why “Strawbery” Might Be More Correct Than “Strawberry”
LLMs don't lie or gaslight: they complete patterns from how people actually write. Why a common misspelling may be a word in transition.
Vision and LLMs for Moderation and Labelling
How 4 Roads is using a bespoke LLM and vision models to help communities meet the Online Safety Act: abuse detection, alt text and age verification.
Digital twins and heat pumps: lessons from an R&D project
4 Roads built a smartphone digital twin of a house to calculate heat loss. The lesson: sizing a heat pump needs accurate enough, not engineering-exact.
Agentic AI Testing – Why Developers Still Matter
Agentic AI still needs developers: mock the LLM to test the workflow around it, then test the model with prompt, tool, golden-answer and guardrail tests.
The hidden environmental cost of AI
A ChatGPT query uses about 0.34 Wh of power and 0.000085 gallons of water, by Sam Altman's figures. At a billion queries a day, it adds up.
The Dunning-Kruger Effect and Its Impact on Software Projects
How the Dunning-Kruger effect derails software projects, in developers and customers alike, and how feedback, data and open discussion counter it.
Good and bad bots: verifying the AI agents that act for us
AI agents that shop and sign in for people behave just like the bad bots sites block. A proposal: a verifiable identity for good bots, built on Web3.
11 ways to overcome common web development challenges
Eleven ways to keep a web project on track: clear goals, the right stack, performance, security, integrations, UX, scale, upkeep and smarter debugging.
The Power of Mobile Apps in Digital Transformation
How mobile apps drive digital transformation, the trends shaping them from AI to smart devices, choosing the right app, and measuring its success.
Retail is Rapidly Changing: How Technology is Shaping the Future
How customer expectations and technology are changing retail: chatbots, why AI in retail needs moderation, and voice commerce as the next step.
NHS 111: changing how we interact with healthcare
NHS 111 calls rose from 1 million in January 2016 to 1.9 million in January 2024. How automating health conversations could ease a service under strain.
Why a subscription needs a community
How a community makes a subscription worth keeping: exclusive access, experiences beyond the product, and feedback that never stops.
What is a capacity gap, and how can a partner close it?
What a capacity gap is, why it holds a business back as technology keeps changing, and how a strategic partner can close it.
What is information architecture, and why does it matter?
Information architecture is how a site's content is organised, labelled, navigated and searched. How to get each right, so people find what they need.
What is a headless CMS, and why use one?
What a headless CMS is, and why use one: the same content on every channel, each in its own way, better performance as you grow, and no lock-in.
What you should know about Interaction Design (IxD)
What interaction design is, how it differs from UX, and four things it does for a product: usability, engagement, trust, and fewer errors.
User-centric design: the four things that matter most
Four things user-centric design needs: an understanding of your users, usability first, consistency, and feedback that shapes what comes next.
Are you making one of these four knowledge base mistakes?
Four mistakes that hold a knowledge base back: content left out of date, a messy structure, turning answers into sales pitches, and poor design.
Four ways to gamify your community strategy
Four ways to use gamification to keep an online community engaged: know your users, offer incentives, reward and discourage behaviour, and take it offline.
Creating a knowledge base: four things that make it work
Four things that make a knowledge base work for customers: good UX, content that is complete and kept up to date, search engine visibility, and speed.
What can an intelligent virtual assistant do for drivers?
How intelligent virtual assistants can support car buyers and drivers, what they bring to the automotive industry, and why they are not plug-and-play.
Why your app needs updating after launch
Why an app needs updating after launch: to stay compatible and secure as Android and iOS change, and to keep giving customers the experience they expect.
How membership organisations can build value for members
How membership organisations can give members real value when the connection is more practical than emotional, and meet them wherever they are.
Can AI help people waiting for mental health care?
Can AI help people waiting for mental health support in the UK? What technology can offer, the risk of dehumanising care, and whether some help beats none.
AI is not always the solution
AI is not a golden hammer: it does not solve every problem, and before jumping on the AI bandwagon, ask whether a better or simpler solution would do.
Reflecting on Verint Engage 2023
Verint Engage 2023 in Las Vegas: AI used one task at a time with a person signing off, and digital-first tools joined up. 4 Roads sponsored the event.
Knowledge is power: knowledge bases, communities and AI
A knowledge base lets customers help themselves. Joined to a community and to AI search, it can also answer what it doesn't hold yet.
Connecting Technology Intelligently
Intelligent self-service should give customers the right tool in the right context, not necessarily the latest, nor whatever early adopters use first.
3D Environments: Making Electric Cars Accessible
A 3D environment lets EV buyers explore a car and how it charges, answering the doubts about range and charging that hold them back from switching.
Digital-First Engagement: Transforming Customer Support
What digital-first engagement is, what it does for customer support, from personal service to 24/7 help and insight, and how to put it in place.
Reducing travel anxiety using SLAM technology
How SLAM, simultaneous localisation and mapping, can guide visually impaired and disabled travellers through busy indoor spaces where GPS can't reach.
Conversational AI: 4 Use Cases In Banking
Four ways conversational AI helps banks: faster customer service, a more personal experience, more leads, and banking on the go.
How AI and self-service help insurers keep customers
AI and intelligent self-service let insurance customers buy, renew and claim without waiting, and help insurers assess risk, settle claims and spot fraud.
What Is Intelligent Self-Service?
Intelligent self-service connects the ways customers help themselves, from communities to chatbots, so each knows what the others know. Why it pays.
Augmented Reality in Retail: How AR Boosts Foot Traffic
How augmented reality brings shoppers back into stores: buzz, in-store experiences, less friction, every product on view, specs on the spot and navigation.
The Growth Engine: Getting Ahead of Evolving Customer Experience
How customer experience has moved from company to content to community, and how to tell where yours is and get ahead of it.
5 Tips for Choosing Your Community Forum Software
Five things to weigh when choosing community forum software: features and extensibility, long-term cost, the roadmap, integration and the admin.
How to build a brand community that lasts
What a brand community is and how to build one that lasts: build for now, embrace conflict, own the platform, avoid surprise costs, know your members.
Why Community User-Generated Content Matters
Why content from a community's members matters: support, search visibility, trust and brand ambassadors, and why giving customers a voice pays.
Why do people join online communities?
Why people join online communities, from belonging and growth to a seat at the table and a shared passion, and what that means for managing yours.
The Cost of Managing the Customer Experience
What managing the customer experience end to end really costs, why happy customers repay it, and how customer experience management differs from CRM.
The ROI of Increased Audience Engagement
How engaged customers raise revenue: targeted selling, word of mouth and lower support costs, and how to measure the return.
The ROI of Better Community Management
How to measure the real return on a community, beyond vanity metrics: its value to customer service, marketing, legal, events, product and referrals.
7 questions to ask before starting an AR project in retail
What a retailer should ask before an AR project: gimmick or useful, will it last, how to win buy-in, app or browser, and is the audience ready.
6 ways to monetise your online community
Six ways an online community can earn money beyond membership fees: research, recruitment, paid content, search, advertising and merchandise.
How virtual communities will help your business find its voice
Why a business should run its own online community: honest feedback, new ideas, peer recommendations, customers helping each other, and owning the data.
Robots v humanity: in a post-COVID world, customers need both
Intelligent self-service is not only automation: chatbots and communities give customers speed, and a person handles the nuanced questions.
Facebook group or your own community: which is better?
Why a platform you own beats a Facebook group for a brand community: engagement, member experience, retention, support, search and risk.
4 Roads wins a BIMA award for Hitachi Vantara's AR/AI stand
In 2019, 4 Roads won a BIMA award for Hitachi Vantara's AR and AI display: a 3D configurator for its hardware racks, and a chatbot to answer questions.