AI for Business 101 at Roseville Venture Lab: Practical AI for Real-World Work (and Yes, Pizza Was Involved)
The first AI for Business Workshop at the Roseville Venture Lab kicked off with a simple mission: make AI usable for non-technical business owners—and build community while doing it. The workshop series is designed to (1) build practical AI literacy, (2) improve productivity through hands-on use, and (3) strengthen the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. AI For Business 101
And if you want the real “secret sauce” of events like this? It’s not the slides. It’s the conversations that happen while people are grabbing pizza and swapping ideas—because that’s where partnerships and startups tend to form.
What we covered: from “what is AI?” to “how do I prompt it so it doesn’t embarrass me?”
The agenda was intentionally beginner-friendly: define AI, talk about risks, compare the major tools, walk through practical business use cases, and finish with prompt frameworks attendees could use immediately. AI For Business 101
1) What is AI (in plain English)?
AI was framed simply as software that learns patterns from lots of examples to generate/predict outputs. AI For Business 101
Then the workshop zoomed in on what most people mean today when they say “AI” in business: Large Language Models (LLMs)—tools trained on huge amounts of language that can generate useful responses… but still need supervision. AI For Business 101
One helpful analogy: LLMs are like autocomplete on steroids—same concept, wildly more capable. AI For Business 101
2) The dangers: where AI goes off the rails
This section was a reality check (because AI is powerful… and occasionally confidently ridiculous).
Hallucinations (aka “confident wrong answers”)
AI can produce answers that sound authoritative but are flat-out wrong. AI For Business 101
Takeaway: if it matters, verify.
Leaking sensitive data
The workshop emphasized: don’t paste in personal info, customer lists, or proprietary business data. AI For Business 101
Because once you paste it somewhere, you may not control where it ends up.
IP issues
Two blunt truths:
AI output can unintentionally resemble copyrighted content (infringement risk).
Ownership isn’t guaranteed in the way most people assume. AI For Business 101
Bias
AI output reflects its training data—meaning bias can show up in tone, assumptions, or even who gets represented in generated images. AI For Business 101
Practical fix: prompt more specifically and review outputs with human judgment.
Brand damage
The deck called out the most common ways AI can dent a brand:
made-up info presented as fact
tone-deaf/offensive phrasing
inconsistent brand voice
privacy slip-ups
plagiarism risk AI For Business 101
In other words: AI can scale your marketing… and also scale your mistakes. Choose wisely.
Deskilling
Overreliance erodes core skills over time. AI For Business 101
The goal isn’t “let AI think for you.” It’s “let AI do the tedious parts so you can think better.”
3) Tool showdown: ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini vs Grok
The workshop focused on four major options (there are thousands, but let’s not make this worse than it needs to be).
OpenAI (ChatGPT): “Swiss Army knife / best all around” (image generation + data analysis + research capabilities depending on model). AI For Business 101
Anthropic (Claude): “Best writer,” but no image generation and no data analysis. AI For Business 101
Google (Gemini): strongest Google Workspace integration, plus image generation and data analysis. AI For Business 101
xAI (Grok): strong on real-time data/research; fewer guardrails on image generation. AI For Business 101
Bottom-line recommendation: pick one tool and get really good at it. And if you’re using it often, pay for pro—because speed and reliability matter when it becomes part of your workflow. AI For Business 101
4) Real business uses (the part everyone came for)
This was the most practical portion: examples of how business owners can put AI to work immediately.
A few highlights from the deck:
Creative roles (without hiring five people)
AI can act as:
copywriter (emails, ads, landing pages)
editor (tighten tone, simplify, fix grammar)
social media manager (calendars, captions, hashtags)
scriptwriter (videos/podcasts/webinars)
“graphic artist” at the concept stage (visual ideas and prompts) AI For Business 101
Customer support & sales
AI can help draft replies, handle de-escalation language, generate FAQs, draft outreach, and even run role-play for objection handling. AI For Business 101
Admin and operations
It can produce agendas, summarize meetings, draft follow-ups, and break projects into tasks—basically functioning like an executive assistant who doesn’t need coffee breaks. AI For Business 101
Research and technical support
Use it for competitor summaries (verify facts), KPI interpretation, PRDs/user stories, spreadsheet summaries, debugging ideas, and QA test cases. AI For Business 101
5) The big takeaway: better prompts = better results
The workshop ended with two prompt frameworks designed to make AI outputs dramatically more useful.
Framework #1: C.R.E.A.T.E. +
This is a structured way to prompt so AI has the context to do real work:
Context
Role
Expectation
Audience
Task
Examples
+ ask up to 3 questions if unclear; include assumptions/risks AI For Business 101
It’s especially useful when the output matters (marketing, customer messaging, internal docs)—because “write me a marketing plan” usually produces generic mush.
The deck included a full exercise using Roseville Venture Lab, including its mission, coworking hours, location, programs, and a $20k budget—showing how specific inputs lead to specific outputs. AI For Business 101
Framework #2: Socratic prompting
This is the “I don’t know what I don’t know” method:
AI asks one question at a time
you answer
it confirms in one sentence
then asks the next question AI For Business 101
It’s perfect for beginners because it pulls the missing details out of your head without you having to design the whole prompt upfront.
You can download the templates here.
Quick “don’t get burned” checklist (from the Q&A energy)
A few practical guardrails came up that are worth repeating:
If something sounds fishy, ask the AI to cite sources (and still verify).
Cross-check important info using a second tool or quick search.
Don’t treat AI like a lawyer, accountant, or doctor—treat it like a smart intern who lies confidently when cornered.
What’s next: ChatGPT Deep Dive (March 4)
The next session is a deeper dive into ChatGPT for real work—covering image generation, custom GPTs, and data analysis.
Date: Wednesday, March 4
Time: 6 – 8 p.m.
Location: Roseville Venture Lab, 316 Vernon Street, Ste #110
Cost: Free
Register: Eventbrite
