AI Workshops for St. Louis Business Owners
Practical sessions on how customers actually find local businesses now. Tell us if you're interested.
More and more, people looking for a local business never see a page of blue links. They ask, and something hands them a short answer — a few names, assembled for that one person.
It works that way whether somebody is looking for a salon, a school program, a restaurant, an attorney, a contractor, or anything else. If your business isn't in that answer, you weren't outranked. You weren't there.
How do I get my business to show up in AI searches?
AI answers are assembled from sources that already describe your business consistently — your Google Business Profile, directory listings, your own site, and reviews. There is no button to press and nothing to buy. What moves the needle is being described the same way everywhere, in plain language, with the details an assistant needs to answer a question: what you do, where, hours, and what you handle. Start by asking an AI assistant about your own business and reading what it gets wrong.
That shift is the reason for these workshops. Most businesses simply don't know what AI can do to help them — and people tend to fear what they don't know. We can show you.
What this actually is
A working session for St. Louis owners and managers who keep hearing that AI changes everything and have had nobody explain, in plain English, what it changes for them. No jargon, no acronyms left undefined, no assumption that you already know what any of it means.
Who it's for
- Owners and managers of local businesses of any kind
- The person who ends up running marketing because somebody has to
- Anyone who has typed their own business into Google lately and not liked the answer
- Anyone curious about AI who would rather ask questions than read another thread about it
Likely topics
Still being shaped, deliberately. The sign-up form asks what you'd want to walk out knowing, and those answers decide the agenda. Subjects on the table include what an AI answer actually is and where it gets the businesses it names, how to check what AI currently says about your business, where AI genuinely saves time in a small business, and what to ignore — because a good deal of what gets sold as AI is not worth your money.
If you want something specific covered, say so on the form. That is what it's for.
What it isn't
It is not a pitch dressed as a class. Nobody is going to spend an hour teaching you a problem and then reveal that the answer is a monthly retainer.
Who's running it
My name is Lane Forman. I run St Louis Near Me Directory — local businesses across the metro on both sides of the river, plus more than 470 guides on living, hiring and buying here. I've spent the last stretch building this hyper-local business directory with AI tools daily, which mostly means I've made the mistakes already and can save you a few.
Get to Know AI. Sign Up.
We're planning multiple dates and venues. Let us know you're interested and we'll notify you.
No charge to be on the list, and your email doesn't go anywhere else.
Prefer to just ask a question? The contact page reaches me directly.
Questions people actually ask
How can I use AI for my small business?
The wins that hold up are unglamorous: drafting and rewriting the things you already write, summarizing long documents, turning a messy list into a usable one, answering routine customer questions faster, and checking your own listings for errors. The failures are usually people handing AI a job that needed judgment, then shipping the result without reading it. Start with a task you already do weekly and can check for yourself.
What AI course is best for business owners?
There isn't one best course, and anyone selling you one should be treated carefully. What matters is whether it uses your business as the example rather than a generic one, whether you leave with something working instead of notes, and whether the person teaching actually uses the tools on their own work. Ask those three questions of any course, including this one.
Is Google AI mode free?
First, what it is: AI Mode is a tab in Google search that returns a written answer assembled from several sources instead of a list of links. And yes, it is free — free to use with a Google account, and AI summaries appear on ordinary searches at no cost to the searcher. Nothing about appearing in those answers is a paid placement either — there is no fee that puts your business into an AI answer, which is worth knowing before somebody offers to sell you one.
What triggers Google AI search?
Broadly, questions rather than single words. Longer, conversational, comparison and how-to phrasing tends to produce an AI answer, while a short branded search often still returns ordinary results. This matters locally because the way people ask for a service — who is open now, who handles this specific problem — is exactly the shape that produces an assembled answer.
How can my brand appear in AI search?
By being described consistently in the places an assistant already reads, and by having content that answers the question directly rather than burying it. Assistants reward plain, specific, self-contained answers. If a page takes four paragraphs to get to the point, the part that gets quoted is usually somebody else's page.
What percent of small businesses use AI?
Fewer than most headlines suggest. The U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey, published May 26, 2026 and covering December 14, 2025 through May 3, 2026, found under 20 percent of firms with four or fewer employees reported using AI, against 32 percent of firms with 100 to 249 employees and 37 percent of those with 250 or more. A Federal Reserve note from April 3, 2026 put overall adoption near 18 percent of firms at year-end 2025. Two cautions: Census changed the question in November 2025 from using AI to produce goods or services to using AI in any business function, which lifted reported rates by 47 to 159 percent depending on industry, so figures either side of that change are not comparable — and vendor surveys claiming 60 or 70 percent are usually counting anyone who has tried a chatbot once.
Is there a free AI business course available?
Free material exists in quantity — the major AI providers publish their own guides, and libraries and small business development centers run sessions. Quality varies enormously.