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He used AI to kill his parking ticket

  • By Phyron
  • Feb 28, 2023
  •  – 2 min read

When Shaun Bosley dropped off his Swedish boss at Gatwick’s drop-off parking zone he had no idea that it would make him a nationwide celebrity. Or that it would give his company a small fortune in free publicity.

Hi Shaun. First, what on earth happened at the airport?

I had used the drop-off zone many times before, and did the same this time. Not leaving the car and I was in and out within just 3 minutes, it used to be free. So I happily drove away. But nearly 3 months later I got a “final warning” and a hundred-pound ticket. I never received any first or second warning so I was actually a bit … upset about the whole thing.

I could have written a letter of complaint myself, but to save time and make sure that I got the terminology right I went online and asked the new AI tool ChatGPT to write it for me. It looked a bit more official than I would have done it but that must have been a good thing. Because the following day the sum was reduced from £100 to £15 which is more like a regular parking fee. 

That’s fantastic! Have you used AI before? 

I use AI everyday, working with AI video ads. As for letter-writing I have helped my dad who is dyslexic to write a letter to his MP. That worked fine, too, the whole idea is that it is easy to get it right.

So, what happened next? 

A journalist called Jack Evans saw my LinkedIn post about contesting the ticket with AI and suggested we have an interview as it might make for an interesting story. So we did the interview and the day after the story had spread to national news media. The last time I checked it appeared in more than 60 different publications and even landed me a live interview on LBC National Radio, the largest talk news radio show in the UK. 

It was really fun and towards the end of the radio interview I dared to be a bit naughty and said something about our business, AI video ads. I actually thought they might cut me off before I could finish but the radio host giggled and made a joke about it. A good PR deal for £15 pounds, don’t you think?

Shaun Bosley
Account Executive

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