Stony Brook Brings AI Expertise to Long Island Small Businesses Through LIA-AI Growth Academy

The LIA-AI Growth Academy celebrated its inaugural class at Stony Brook's Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology (CEWIT) on September 24. Photos by John Griffin.

Artificial intelligence can seem like a big concept for a small business. For 49 Long Island businesses, five months of training with Stony Brook University experts helped turn that concept into a plan.

On September 24, the inaugural class of the LIA-AI Growth Academy gathered at Stony Brook's Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology (CEWIT) to celebrate the completion of the program and receive $5,000 grants to begin putting those plans into practice.

Launched by the Long Island Association Foundation with support from Google.org and delivered in partnership with Stony Brook University, the free academy was designed to help small businesses use AI in areas ranging from marketing and customer engagement to financial management and productivity. Stony Brook experts from CEWIT and the Stony Brook AI Innovation Institute joined business advisors from the Long Island Small Business Development Center at Stony Brook to provide training and mentorship.

"AI is here to stay," said Stacey Sikes, acting president and CEO of the Long Island Association. "It is part of business and will continue to become part of the business landscape."

Sikes noted that small businesses comprise 90 percent of businesses on Long Island and said the academy was intended to ensure that those businesses have access to emerging technologies that can help them compete and grow. The training component, she said, was as important as the financial support.

"You didn't just receive a $5,000 grant," Sikes told the graduates. "The training was so important to the design of this program, so you have the knowledge to harness AI and put the grant to work."

Mónica Bugallo, interim vice president for research and innovation at Stony Brook, speaks at the academy graduation.

Each participating business developed a customized AI deployment plan. Collectively, Sikes said, graduates intend to use about two dozen different platforms for applications including marketing and content creation, customer support, meeting productivity, workflow automation, customer relationship management and employee training.

Mónica Bugallo, interim vice president for research and innovation at Stony Brook, said that the academy illustrates how the university can translate its expertise into economic impact for Long Island. "Helping them to take advantage of new technologies is a very important part of our mission to support our regional economy," Bugallo said. "This academy is a great example of President Goldsmith's strategic plan, ASPIRE 2035, because we bring into action innovation, entrepreneurship and workforce development to support our region."

Through CEWIT, the AI Innovation Institute and the Small Business Development Center, she said, Stony Brook is bringing its expertise directly to Long Island businesses, supporting President Andrea Goldsmith's vision of a future "Silicon Island" that includes both the creation of new companies and the growth of existing ones.

Over the course of the academy, participants explored the foundations of large language models and AI technologies before reviewing practical applications, including workflows and agentic AI, privacy and ethics, and implementation strategies. They also worked in small groups and individually with mentors to develop deployment strategies and budgets tailored to their businesses.

Lav Varshney, director of Stony Brook's AI Innovation Institute (AI3), encouraged participants to think beyond using AI simply to make their current operations faster or more efficient. "AI is not just about accelerating the current playbook," Varshney said. "Getting that 10 percent savings or 20 percent savings, it's nice, but unlocking the completely new capabilities, I think that's where the real power can come."

That could mean looking for opportunities for different ways of operating, marketing or serving customers rather than simply automating existing tasks. But he also cautioned business owners against allowing technology to erase one of their greatest strengths, the connections to their communities. "Make sure that you preserve authenticity," he said. "When you lose the authenticity that small businesses have very naturally, I think that's when you lose the connection to the community. That's when you lose your markets as well."

Preserving "the pleasure of craft, the satisfaction of a job well done," he added, remains at the core of serving communities as a small business.

For Mark X. Cronin and his son, John Cronin, AI is already becoming part of everyday business operations at John's Crazy Socks.

John's Crazy Socks is one component of Abilities Rising, an organization created around the mission of spreading happiness and demonstrating what people with different abilities can accomplish. Its initiatives include publishing, public speaking and consulting, job training and commerce operations, including John's Crazy Socks and a Huntington retail operation being rebranded as Wahoo Market.

Cronin said his nine-person central operation is finding uses for AI across the business. It helps organize marketing plans and create social media graphics, assists with research and editing and produces standardized reports tracking key performance indicators.

"Every Monday, I walk into work to find my weekly reports already run (by AI)," Cronin said.

The applications extend across the organization. The retail operation uses AI for research and promotion planning, while other employees are using it to assist with graphics and to structure standard operating procedures and training materials.

"Everybody is using it," Cronin said. "Everybody. And they're learning."

"Just like what we heard from Mark, other Academy participants have taken the first steps to experiment with AI tools, using them to streamline their operations, enhance customer engagement, and some have even started new businesses," said Rong Zhao, director of CEWIT. "This program shows that AI isn't just for companies with big budgets. The tools we introduced in this program are built for people who focus not on technology but running a successful business. Small companies like John's Crazy Socks can often feel the benefit faster than a larger one because they are eager to try new things, and that's exactly the impact this Academy brings to Long Island."

Through instruction from CEWIT, the AI Innovation Institute and the Long Island Small Business Development Center, businesses learned to automate time-consuming workflows, research customers more efficiently and sharpen their marketing skills while keeping data privacy, security and ethics at the center of their work.

"Technology is only worth it when it gives people back time to focus on what matters," said Randall J. Temple, director of activation at Google Technical Services. "For you, that could mean an extra hour with a customer, a new idea you finally have room to test, or an evening at home instead of catching up on paperwork."

Willa Smith, regional director of the Long Island Small Business Development Center at Stony Brook, reminded participants that they are now SBDC clients and can continue to tap into business advising, workshops and other resources. She said the academy participants had invested significant time not only attending sessions but meeting individually with advisors to turn what they learned into actionable strategies.

"You met one-on-one with a business advisor and you developed a deployment strategy and a budget," Smith said. "You did that. And we really appreciate you investing that time in yourself."

Sikes described the graduation as the start of an ongoing relationship among the businesses, the LIA and its partners. "Today you graduate, but I want to say this is the beginning of your relationship with the LIA. It's not the end," she said. "When our small businesses, when our small business community succeeds, Long Island succeeds."

The ceremony also ended with an unexpected opportunity. Because one originally selected business had been unable to complete the academy requirements, organizers drew the name of one of the 49 graduates to receive the remaining $5,000 implementation grant, giving that business additional funding to use toward its AI plans.

Bugallo noted that what happens after the ceremony is the measure of the academy's success. "What I particularly like about this program is exactly that, what comes next for you and how you are going to just implement those ideas and those plans that you have put forward," she told the graduates.

- Beth Squire