AI Fundamentals for Small Businesses
How Small Businesses Can Improve Productivity, Efficiency, and Decision-Making with AI
Explore this course
The course at a glance
Build skills you can put to work.
Many small business leaders hear about artificial intelligence every day but remain unsure how to evaluate its business value, manage its risks, and decide where to begin. This vendor-neutral executive seminar explains how AI can support productivity, decision-making, customer care, marketing, sales, finance, and operations. Participants examine the differences among basic assistants, enterprise AI tools, and agentic workflows while considering prompting, data security, responsible use, governance, and organizational readiness. The session helps leaders identify practical use cases and think more clearly about a realistic, responsible path to adoption.
Course objective
This seminar provides small business owners, managers, and decision-makers with a practical understanding of artificial intelligence, its potential business applications, associated risks, and adoption considerations. Participants will learn how AI can support productivity, decision-making, customer service, marketing, sales, and operations, enabling them to identify opportunities, evaluate solutions, and make informed decisions about responsible AI adoption within their organizations.
Who is this course for?
This seminar is designed for small business owners, entrepreneurs, executives, managers, department leaders, and professionals who want to better understand artificial intelligence and its potential impact on their organization. It is ideal for decision-makers who are evaluating AI opportunities, exploring ways to improve productivity and efficiency, or seeking a practical, non-technical introduction to responsible AI adoption in business operations.
What we'll cover
Key topics
- Understanding Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, and Generative AI
- Types of AI Used by Small Businesses
- How Small Businesses Are Using AI Today
- Leading AI Platforms and Business Applications
- Risks, Challenges, and Responsible AI Use
- Building an AI Adoption Roadmap
What you'll take away
Learning outcomes
- Explain the differences between Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Generative AI (Gen AI) and understand how these technologies are evolving.
- Identify the most common types of AI used by small businesses, including AI assistants, AI agents, conversational AI, and AI-powered business applications.
- Recognize practical business use cases for AI across marketing, sales, customer service, operations, finance, and workforce productivity.
- Evaluate the capabilities and limitations of leading AI platforms such as Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude.
- Develop a high-level AI adoption roadmap by identifying opportunities, understanding risks, and determining appropriate next steps for their organization.
Before you join
Come prepared
Materials & tools
No specific materials or tools are required.
Prerequisites
No prerequisites are required for this course.
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