NEW ORLEANS — Meta and Greater New Orleans Inc. hosted an AI training session on Nov. 20 that drew around 40 small business owners looking for practical ways to apply artificial intelligence to daily operations. The Community Accelerator AI Training was held in New Orleans to support small businesses navigating economic pressures.
“Small businesses across the country are facing struggles in a shifting economic landscape, and Louisiana small businesses and entrepreneurs are no exception,” said James Hines, public policy manager for Meta. “While many business owners want access to new and innovative tools, they often don’t have the time or resources to explore them on their own. Bringing the Meta Community Accelerator AI Training to New Orleans was a way to meet that need and help local entrepreneurs adopt Meta AI in a hands-on, practical way.”
Support for Small Business Needs
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, most U.S. small businesses have fewer than five employees, leaving owners responsible for multiple roles. Small business owners are juggling multiple responsibilities, and Hines said that reality is driving interest in practical AI support.
“It is important to understand that small business owners have to handle five to ten different jobs for their business,” he said. “Utilizing Meta AI tools can help business owners with time-consuming lower priority tasks so they can focus on their most important priority tasks. It is different for every business, but AI tools can help any business in a variety of ways, from improving marketing materials, helping them recruit and hire new employees, to analyzing sales data to inform their business decisions.”
The session included guided exercises showing participants how to use Meta’s tools in everyday operations, including how to engineer prompts to improve AI-generated results. Hines said many local businesses are already experimenting with AI but lack guidance on how to use it effectively.
“We heard from many of the New Orleans small businesses during the workshop that they are using AI tools for different things, but they are learning and experimenting on their own so they aren’t confident they are getting the most out of AI,” he said.
“Implementing AI can be a daunting task, especially for small business owners who wear many hats and are short on extra time. These Community Accelerator AI trainings are designed to give small businesses the knowledge they need to effectively start using Meta AI to enhance their efficiency and productivity, and a space to learn and ask questions.”
The New Orleans workshop is one of several Community Accelerator AI sessions Meta is hosting across the country to help small businesses adopt AI tools for long-term growth.
Hands-On Applications
Participants showed particular interest in how Meta integrates AI into its Ad Manager platform, which allows businesses to test variations of ad copy and images while the system automatically promotes the highest-performing versions to targeted audiences.
Kim Bergeron, the creative strategist behind Kim Bergeron Productions in Slidell, La., said the value of the training was clear. “The event was extremely enlightening and informative, demonstrating the many invaluable possibilities that are possible when embracing the powers of AI. What’s abundantly clear is that those who have not yet explored the potential of streamlined productivity made possible by AI will be left behind as competitors forge ahead.”
Industry Use Cases
Other attendees said the session provided direct takeaways for highly technical industries. Bryan B. Smith, senior environmental engineer with Pivotal Environmental, said he is focused on using AI to streamline complex analytical work.
“I’m most interested in using AI to automate complex environmental data workflows—such as groundwater analysis, AERMOD modeling preparation, and generation of project planning documentation. I already see how AI can drastically reduce turnaround time while improving consistency, which directly supports regulatory compliance and client expectations. The ultimate goal is to integrate these tools into streamlined webapps that deliver immediate, actionable insights,” said Smith.
“I attended the event because I’m actively incorporating AI into my environmental engineering work and wanted to learn more about best practices, emerging tools, and practical frameworks for improving my workflows. I also wanted exposure to other platforms beyond what I currently use, so I can better evaluate which technologies meaningfully support client work. Connecting with other professionals who are also integrating AI was an added benefit,” he said.
Smith said he plans to apply the guidance immediately. “The workshop provided a clear, structured approach to prompt engineering and workflow design that I can immediately apply to my environmental projects. It also gave me several ideas on how to more effectively develop custom data and webapp tools. I appreciated being introduced to the Meta AI platform, which I wasn’t familiar with before and will now evaluate alongside my existing tools. Overall, the session reinforced how powerful AI can be when paired with well-designed processes,” said Smith.
