GUEST COLUMN:
Cai Gwinnutt
Co-Founder
Open Moove
When my co-founder Ross McKenzie and I set up Open Moove, it was because we were both frustrated with how slow and unclear property transactions had become.
Home movers felt in the dark, and professionals are increasingly spending time chasing updates rather than focusing on the job they were trained to do. We saw a clear opportunity to improve the process with better communication and smarter use of digital tools.
From the start, we were guided by a simple idea – to improve communication and build trust with home movers. Trust – that’s what we wanted to bring to the residential property market. Along the way we’ve learnt a lot about how digital transformation is reshaping professional services. Whether you’re a conveyancer, a surveyor, an estate agent or a mortgage broker, the right innovation can reduce risk, improve communication, and make your service more human – not less.
In the early days, we looked at where the pain points were. One stat that stood out to us was that conveyancers spend around 45% of their time on the phone. That’s an enormous amount of effort being spent just trying to get updates and pass them on rather than doing the work that requires their expertise. We built Open Moove to integrate with their case management systems and reduce the need for constant calls and chasing.
Of course, we weren’t sure how the sector would respond. The UK property market is built on top of 1,000 years of experience, innovation for innovations sake is naturally challenged. We found a positive response. Many of the firms we spoke to were equally frustrated about delays and duplication. The systems were there, the desire was there – what was missing was the connection between them. Open Moove is that connection.
What our platform does is quite straightforward: it helps everyone involved in a property transaction work together. That includes the professionals, but also the home movers themselves, who are often left feeling in the dark about what’s happening. By putting everything into one shared space – what we call the Moove Room – and using our AI assistant, Meredith AI, to provide nudges, reminders, and updates, we’ve been able to give people more visibility and reduce the number of repetitive questions flying around.
It’s not about replacing professionals – far from it. It’s about letting them do the work they’re good at. We use digital tools to handle the routine admin, freeing people up to focus on the tasks that need judgement, experience and that all-important human touch. That’s how we move away from drudgery and towards something more valuable for clients and for the professionals themselves.
We’ve seen this approach echoed elsewhere too. Startups like SeedLegals and FounderCatalyst began by addressing specific legal needs in the startup space and are now broadening their offer. It shows that innovation doesn’t always mean replacing the traditional model – often, it means enhancing it. We still need local law firms who understand contracts. We still need accountants who can guide you through more complex questions. But we also benefit from specialist digital tools that can take care of the groundwork and speed things up.
The real opportunity lies in the hand-off – where digital tools can take you 80% of the way and then pass the baton to a human who can finish the job with insight and care. That kind of orchestration is where I think we’ll see the most exciting developments in the coming years.
One of my favourite aspects of Open Moove is allowing the progression of a transaction even when everyone’s offline. For example, being able to prompt a home mover with a quick message in the evening – when they’re sat on the sofa – so they can confirm a detail or provide some information. That way, the conveyancer arrives the next morning with a property pack that’s already updated and ready to go. It’s about momentum, keeping things moving without always needing someone to chase.
These changes might feel small, but they add up. Every document submitted on time, every call that doesn’t need to happen, every client who feels reassured – contributes to a more efficient and human service. While our focus has been on property; the same principles can apply right across professional services.
These are the kinds of conversations we need to have and I’m glad that some of them will continue at Wales Tech Week. Events like that are a great chance to bring different sectors together and look at where innovation can take us next. Because if we want better outcomes for clients, better experiences for professionals, and better use of our time, we need to keep asking the question: how can we do this differently?
Cai Gwinnutt talks about this and more in The Wales Tech Week Podcast episode Advising the Future: Innovation at the Core of Professional Services. Listen to the podcast here.
Wales Tech Week takes place at ICC Wales, Newport from November 24 to November 26 2025. Find out more here: https://www.walestechweek.com/
