PLAYA VISTA, Calif. — During the pandemic, Chudi Iregbulem had the idea to start a business.
As a music lover, he missed attending concerts and festivals, and with many things closed due to the coronavirus, it was difficult to connect with like-minded people.
“Often friends weren’t available or people weren’t interested in the music being played,” Eiregbrem said. “That made it difficult for me to go to these events. I had to make the decision to go alone or not go at all.”
So Iregbulem came up with Beatmatch, an app that connects users with similar music tastes for meetups, dates, and social interaction. As the business began to grow, Iregbulem quit his full-time job in the technology industry to focus on growing the company.
With technology growing rapidly, he wanted to learn how he could use it to grow his business.
“We want to be able to compete with the big boys,” Iregbrem said. “And the way to do that is through technology, especially AI.”
Iregbulem took advantage of Google’s free program that helps entrepreneurs learn how to leverage AI. The company has several tools available, including Gemini and NotebookLM, which helps business owners with things like coding, creating videos and images, and creating employee handbooks.
“Once you understand your business problems, you can leverage AI to improve your workflow,” said Roberto Martinez, California Grow with Google Coach. “To identify different channels to reduce operational costs and increase revenue.”
Google offers free training to entrepreneurs and offers free access to its AI certification training program to all small business owners in the United States. Participants will learn how to leverage tools that generate AI-based video, text, and images even for marketing purposes.
“What used to take 10 hours now takes two hours,” Martinez said. “Gemini helps businesses create content.”
Google also offers free in-person training for small business owners to continue learning how to incorporate AI into their daily operations.
Business experts agree that entrepreneurs need to embrace technology as it continues to change the way we live.
“If there’s a big wave coming and you know it’s going to be the new normal, it’s useful to learn about it,” said Terry Kramer, faculty director at the Easton Technology Center at the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Because in many cases there is some kind of first-mover advantage.”
Kramer adds that there are multiple benefits for business owners who move forward with the use of AI.
“It’s not just about cost reduction and speed, it’s about quality, right?” said Kramer. “That means we can better understand our customers, and we can use that understanding to drive new revenue streams.”
Iregbulem saw this opportunity and leveraged Google’s tools. He worked with Martinez to learn which tools could help drive business and valuable goods as well.
“Time is the most important asset we have, but it is very limited,” he said. “So anything we can use to save time is a huge benefit to us.”
