AI: Enterprise to Main Street (#211)
Join us!
In collaboration with The Center for Entrepreneurship at Monmouth University, we're stoked to invite you to join us a the next Jersey Shore Tech & Design event.
AI: Enterprise to Main Street
Everyone hears that AI will change their business. Almost no one hears how. These talks cover both ends of the scale: what large companies are learning as they move AI from testing to real use, and what a small business can actually use today.
Why Most Agents Never Ship - Deploying AI at Enterprise Scale
Most AI agents never make it out of the pilot - the demo works, the room is impressed, and then the thing quietly dies short of production. The gap isn't model quality; it's architecture, trust, and knowing which parts of a workflow actually need an LLM. This talk covers what it takes to ship at enterprise scale: start deterministic, add model-driven components only when the problem demands it, and use observability and evaluations as the trust layer that makes the whole thing defensible to the people signing off. Drawn from real production work in healthcare staffing, it'll leave you with a way to evaluate agent projects that holds up after the hype cycle moves on.
Speaker: Matthew Littlehale, Engineering Leader
Don't Put AI on a Mess
Everyone in tech is building AI for small businesses. But many small business owners are either intimidated by it or have no idea where to start. And the ones who do jump in usually jump in too early. AI is really good at speeding things up, but it assumes there's a process underneath it. In a lot of small businesses, the process is one person's memory. Put AI on top of that and it doesn't fix anything. It just speeds up the mess. This talk shares what small business owners are actually doing with AI right now, where it really helps (intake, follow-up, the admin nobody wants), and how to tell if a business is ready for it. It's drawn from ten years of UX research and product work, and from implementing AI inside founder-led businesses and at a maternal mental health company. Whether you're building for small businesses, selling to them, or running one, you'll leave knowing where AI belongs and what has to exist first.
Speaker: Aparna Boehm, Senior PM, AI Consultant
👥 Speaker Bios
Matthew Littlehale
Matthew Littlehale is the Director of Software Engineering for A Place For Mom, where he leads the engineering organization across product engineering, platform, and ML/Data Science. Matt was recently a featured speaker at DataDog's Dash Conference. He's currently driving the release of multiple autonomous agentic systems in production using a deterministic-first approach to agent decision-making - cutting through the hype to deliver real agentic value. Outside of work, he directs The Feast, a weekly meal serving the community in Red Bank, NJ. His belief in the importance of community defines his leadership in technology and in his neighborhood. Follow Matt on LinkedIn.
Aparna Boehm
Aparna has spent 10+ years in tech as a UX researcher and product manager at Amazon, Zillow, and Flatiron Health. She was often one of the first people on the team, building the research function and studying the gap between how people say they work and how they actually work. Now she does that for small business owners. She looks at how the business really runs, finds where it leaks, and builds the systems around the way people actually work. That might include AI. It might not. She puts it where it belongs, and never asks you to hand over parts of your business you don't want to.
By day, she's a PM at FamilyWell, a maternal mental health company, so she's implementing AI in founder-led businesses and a larger tech company in the same week.
Follow Aparna on LinkedIn.
More Info
🙋♀️ What is this?
Jersey Shore Tech and Design (JST&D) is a the largest group in Monmouth & Ocean Counties for tech and design professionals, students, startups, and leaders looking to network, learn, and grow. All are invited connect, share ideas, collaborate, catch up with friends, and hang with people from the local tech and design community. Chill vibes.
Visit our site to learn more: www.jerseyshoretech.com
👋 Attendees?
The group consists of developers, designers, entrepreneurs, managers, product, marketing, research, etc. It's an eclectic mix of all types of creators and makers helping to build products. Everyone is welcome. You'll be in great company.
Our only rule: be kind.
🗺️ Location
In partnership with The Center for Entrepreneurship at Monmouth University we are excited to host events on the Monmouth University campus. Follow @monmouthentrepreneur on IG.
📋 Event Schedule
Doors open at 6:30 for grabbing a slice and networking. We'll begin the event at 7pm. There will be interactive Q&A during the presentation.
6:30pm Doors (pizza, networking)
7:00pm Welcome
7:05pm Event begins