The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce held workshops to help local businesses understand how local businesses can benefit their operations rather than threaten employment.
All day, hands-on training focused on teaching small businesses how to use AI.
“It will make you more efficient and have better results, and it will only improve what you can do as an individual or as a small business,” Tim Booth said.
The workshop was led by Aidan Sova, a native of Jackson at Google, and Amy Hinchey at Microsoft.
Joe Sharpe, owner of Printer Source Plus, took part in the workshop looking for ways that AI could improve his business.
“We sell printers and copiers, so we're looking for AI to actually collect data and how to push our customers for better costs and improvements overall,” says Sharpe.
Jackson Business embraces AI opportunities with the help of experts from home Google and Microsoft
Sharp has acknowledged that AI presents both opportunities and challenges to businesses.
“I think that's good in both ways. I think that from doing gobscripts, we can help us to analyze the data for us right away for sale. The bad thing is that we can eliminate some of our employees in some areas,” Sharp said.
However, he believes certain aspects of business remain human-centric.
“People still like that face-to-face interaction and still want customer service you know,” Sharp said.
I spoke with Michigan Governor Garlin Gilchrist. He emphasized that AI should be seen as a tool to create new opportunities.
“We need to see how artificial intelligence affects the economy, and we need to make sure that it actually creates more opportunities and doesn't eliminate or destroy them. So, in order to understand the possibilities, we have to understand the technology,” Gilchrist said.
The lieutenant governor expressed optimism about the potential impact of AI on the state's economy.
“This should create more jobs and Michigan can really lead the way in the Midwest,” Gilchrist said.
This story was reported on air by journalists and converted to this platform with the support of AI. Our editorial team validates all reports on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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