AI Without the Hype: A Practical Roadmap for Growing Businesses

AI Without the Hype: A Practical Roadmap for Growing Businesses

Co-hosted by Marist University School of Management's Dr. Barry Silverman and Henrietta Akpata

The AI conversation is everywhere. But where should your business actually begin?

Every day brings another headline about artificial intelligence transforming business. Yet for many small and medium-sized companies, the biggest barrier isn't understanding AI — it's getting started without turning it into a six-month project that never launches.

Join fellow business owners and executives for an engaging breakfast discussion that skips the theory and focuses on what's actually working for businesses like yours right now.

Crawl. Walk. Run.

The companies seeing real results from AI aren't the ones with the most ambitious strategies. They're the ones that started small, proved value fast, and expanded deliberately.

• Crawl: Start using AI this month. There are a handful of use cases that work for virtually any business 

• Walk: Measure what's working, then go wider. 

• Run: Build AI into your operations. Scale AI into department-specific workflows, strategic decision-making, and competitive advantage

You'll leave not with a theoretical roadmap, but with a clear picture of what to deploy first, how to evaluate results, and when it makes sense to invest in deeper discovery.

Whether you're just beginning to explore AI or looking to expand existing initiatives, this session will give you a practical starting point you can act on immediately.