​AI for Your Business: Practical Tools, Real Privacy

​A practical, no-jargon workshop on using AI tools that already exist to do real work in your business, without giving up your data or your sanity.

​We’ll skip the hype and the headlines. Instead, you’ll see how the major AI assistants (Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini) all let you build reusable, customized helpers for the work you do every day. Then we’ll go deep on one, Claude, and walk through a hands-on example you can take back to your own business that afternoon.

​We’ll use the SnoValley Innovation Center itself as our example “company,” planning the rest of the year, drafting board-ready artifacts, and sketching a marketing schedule together in real time.

​This session is the first in a series. A future Innovation Friday will cover offline AI tools (Ollama, Gemma, MSTY) for those who want AI capability without sending anything to the cloud. Come to this one first; it sets the foundation.

​What You’ll Learn

• ​How AI tools actually handle your data. What’s stored, what isn’t, and which fears are
  warranted (vs. which are myths)

• ​How the major AI assistants compare. Claude Skills, ChatGPT Custom GPTs,
  Microsoft Copilot Studio Agents, and Google Gemini Gems all do similar things; we’ll
  show you which fits which business

• ​How to build a custom skill for your own work. Live walkthrough in Claude, with the
  same patterns applying to whichever tool you choose

• ​A real example planning work for SVIC, so you see exactly how to apply this to your
  own business

• ​How AI connectors work. Linking your email, calendar, project tools, and CRM directly
  to your AI assistant.

​Who This Is For

​Small business owners, operators, and staff in the Snoqualmie Valley who want to put AI to work in their business. Not learn to code, not build the next ChatGPT, just get more done with less friction.

​No technical background required.

​After the Session

​You’ll leave with:

• ​A working understanding of how Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini compare for business use

• ​A clear picture of what a custom skill looks like and how to build one

• ​A reusable approach you can adapt from the SVIC example

• ​A clear-eyed view of what to trust, what to verify, and what’s coming next

​Want to actually build this for your own business? Sign up for Office Hours. That’s where we go one-on-one, work with your real tools and your real data, and get something running you can use the next day.