For many small and rural businesses, keeping up with emerging technology can feel less like an opportunity and more like a challenge. While larger organizations often have access to dedicated training, tools, and technical support, smaller firms are frequently asked to adapt with far fewer resources. This summer, NCGrowth worked to help close that gap through the AI for Small and Rural Businesses Cohort — a practical, accessible learning experience designed for nontechnical business owners exploring how artificial intelligence can support day-to-day operations and long-term growth.
Made possible by generous support from the Truist Foundation, the cohort brought together entrepreneurs and business-support professionals from across the country for a series of expert-led virtual sessions focused on realistic, responsible AI adoption. Running from June 17 through September 23, 2026, the program was led by Dr. Darlene Deberry, NCGrowth Senior Economic Development Manager, and supported by former NCGrowth Analyst Sandipan Das.
The cohort registered 41 businesses and 57 individuals representing nine states: North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, California, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, and South Carolina. Participants included entrepreneurs alongside nonprofit, government, finance, and technical assistance professionals, creating a dynamic learning environment shaped by a wide range of questions, experiences, and business needs.
Throughout the series, participants moved from foundational knowledge to practical application. Sessions began with AI fundamentals, introducing common use cases, major risks, and a framework for launching a small pilot. From there, the cohort explored risk and ethics, with attention to privacy, bias, liability, and the continued need for human oversight. Additional sessions focused on operations, marketing and branding, customer relationships, and financial decisions, showing how AI can support proposal creation, SOP workflows, research, content planning, customer outreach, service tools, forecasting, dashboarding, and review. The final sessions on AI readiness and implementation helped participants connect business priorities with people, process, and data while learning how to evaluate tools, establish baselines, launch small tests, and measure success. A supplemental legal discussion with Aaron Christopher Guard of UNC Law extended the conversation to privacy and intellectual property.
By the end of the cohort, participants had not only strengthened their AI literacy, but also developed a more grounded framework for decision-making. They left with a clearer understanding of how to identify the right business problem, assess whether AI is an appropriate solution, weigh cost and risk, and test tools in ways that are thoughtful, practical, and aligned with their goals.
In the end, the cohort offered more than exposure to emerging technology. It gave small and rural business owners greater confidence to explore AI on their own terms — with curiosity, caution, and a clearer path forward.
