Paul Butler is Director of School Improvement at Exceed Academies Trust – a 14-school trust of primary, secondary, special, and alternative provision academies in Bradford. Paul has led research into the one-to-one deployment of iPad in a disadvantaged community and gained Apple Regional Training Centre accreditation for the trust and Holybrook Primary School. Exceed Academies Trust formed a working group in Autumn 2023 to explore how to utilise Artificial Intelligence to help reduce leader and teacher workload. In 2025, the trust designed and delivered two 'Taking Your First (or Next) Steps with AI' conferences. Currently, Paul is working with the University of Leeds to undertake research into the impact of an AI agent the trust created to help teachers apply pedagogy research to the next lesson they teach.