Tech Enablement Series: Using AI to Optimize How your Business Runs

​The session opens with a focus on data-driven decision-making for business operations. Participants will learn how to use AI to analyze their own sales and customer traffic data by hour and day of the week, identifying peak periods, slow stretches, and hidden patterns that inform smarter decisions about staffing, open hours, and resource allocation. Rather than relying on gut feeling, attendees will explore how to align their operating hours and staffing levels with actual demand, optimizing the balance between profitability and overhead cost in a way that is both evidence-based and actionable. This session will then move to inventory management and demand forecasting, a critical operational challenge for product-based businesses. Participants will learn how AI can be applied to forecast demand based on historical sales trends, set intelligent reorder points that prevent both stockouts and overstock, flag slow-moving inventory before it becomes a liability, and automate supplier outreach when stock levels reach predefined thresholds. These capabilities, once available only to large enterprises with dedicated operations teams, are now accessible to small business owners through AI tools tailored to their scale and context.From there, the session broadens to cover scheduling automation and the development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Participants will explore how AI can assist in building clear, repeatable SOPs for their most common business processes, reducing reliance on tribal knowledge, improving consistency across team members, and making it easier to onboard new staff. Key Takeaways:- A framework for analyzing sales and traffic data to optimize open hours and staffing for profitability- Practical techniques for using AI to forecast demand, set reorder points, flag slow-moving stock, and automate supplier outreach- An introduction to AI-assisted scheduling and SOP development tailored to your business type_This workshop series connects small business owners with technology vendors, service providers, and consultants who share insights and tools relevant to each session's topic. Their involvement is intended solely for educational purposes and does not represent an endorsement of their products and/or services. Attendance does not create any obligation professional or otherwise to purchase or engage with any product or service introduced during the program. We encourage all participants to independently evaluate any tool, platform, or provider before making business decisions._