City of Marion funded The AI Shift workshop for businesses in its area - giving local operators a common language for AI and a structured way to separate real opportunities from hype.
City of Marion
Local Government - Economic Development
Local businesses are under pressure to respond to AI, but awareness alone does not produce a responsible plan - or tell an operator where their own data can safely be used.
The AI Shift - executive AI education, opportunity discovery and strategic facilitation
City of Marion funded The AI Shift, a facilitated workshop we delivered for local businesses. Rather than beginning with tools or vendors, it explored where repetitive work and fragmented processes create opportunities, whether existing workflows and data are ready for automation, the risks of public, semi-private and private AI, governance and human oversight, and practical first use cases.
Participants left with a common language for discussing AI and a structured way to evaluate opportunities. The conversation shifted from general interest to specific processes, readiness gaps and actions worth investigating - the outcome a council is actually accountable for when it invests in business development.
"We got a lot out of the workshop. We have processes and ideas - we just hadn't known where to start until now." - Damia Ettakadoumi, Director, Straight Up
Public services are held to a higher standard of proof. The technology behind them should be too.
