Recap: The Use of AI in Business, A Community Conversation
The Use of AI in Business
Thank you to everyone who attended our community conversation, "The Use of AI in Business," held on May 27 at the Bozeman Public Library. We truly appreciated the thoughtful questions, engaging discussions, and turnout from local business owners and curious minds across the Gallatin Valley.If you attended and have follow-up questions, or if you missed the event but want to learn more, feel free to reach out. We’d love to discuss these topics in more detail with you.
Why we hosted an AI seminar for the Bozeman community
At JTech Communications, we see every day how AI is impacting local businesses. Changes in consumer search behavior and more efficient staff workflows lead to new opportunities and challenges. Our goal with this event was to cut through the hype and uncertainty, and provide practical insights so our Bozeman community members can curate informed opinions about how AI impacts your business and your customers, and what role it could play in your business.
What we covered
- What is artificial intelligence?
- SEO, GEO, AEO, AISEO, and AI Search
- How to identify AI content
- How to fact check AI outputs
- Using AI safely and effectively
- AI in business (and your brand)
What is Artificial Intelligence?
At it's core, AI is any technology that enables computers to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, and creating. Natural Language Processing (NLP), which has been involved in search and continuously evolving for years, had one of it's first introductions to search back in 2019 in Google’s 2019 BERT update, which improved contextual understanding of conversational search queries. Modern tools such as Grok, ChatGPT, and Gemini take this concept to the most advanced degree by heavily utilizing massive datasets, and thus fall into a category called large language models (LLMs).
SEO, GEO, AEO, and AI Search
Traditional SEO helps your website rank in Google, Bing, and other search engines. We expanded upon this concept, discussing the emerging world of AI Search (commonly called GEO, AEO, or AISEO), which focuses on optimizing for visibility in AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. As more people turn to conversational AI for recommendations, being present in those systems is becoming increasingly important.How to identify AI content
We shared practical tips for spotting AI-generated material:
- Images: Look for inconsistencies, unnatural lighting, or repeated patterns.
- Text: Watch for overly generic ideas and common AI writing 'habits' such as heavy use of em dashes, the “It’s not just X, it’s Y” sentence structure, and an overall lack of unique insight or personal voice.
Key takeaway: As people use AI more in their writing, and as people consume more AI generated content, AI's 'writing style' is becoming more popular in the english lexicon as a whole. This makes AI content even harder to decipher in text. Instead of trying to determine if the content you are reading was generated by AI, be a critical consumer of ideas and constantly skeptical of the information you are consuming.
How to fact-check AI outputs
AI can be incredibly useful, and also incredibly misleading. We reviewed statistics on error rates in AI overviews and emphasized a healthy skepticism.Key statistics:
- Gemini 3 produced correct answers about 91 percent of the time in their AI Overviews feature
- Google produces around 5 trillion searches per year
- Resulting in ~hundreds of thousands of inaccurate results per minute
- In February, correct AI answers were unfounded 56% of the time
(Oumi, retrieved from The New York Times)
Practical Safeguards:
- Identify what the content is claiming
- Evaluate claims
- Ask for sources
- Verify primary sources for legitimacy
- Cross-check information
- Document your validation process
Using AI safely and effectively
AI is a powerful tool, not a replacement for human creativity. We discussed:- Benefits: Removing grunt work, spotting trends, and freeing up time for strategy
- Prompting best practices (setting a role, being specific, providing context, using follow-up questions)
- Important guidelines around privacy, data protection, intellectual property, and maintaining human judgment
AI in Business & Your Brand
We wrapped up with reflective questions, intended to spark ideas and conversation:- What does your business’s relationship with AI look like?
- How is AI representing your brand?
- How might AI shape your customers’ perceptions of your brand?
- What does your consumers' relationship with AI look like?
Key takeaways
- AI is transforming how people search for and consume information.
- Quality content, unique insight, and human touch remain the strongest differentiators (for humans and machines alike).
- Be a critical consumer of content.
Moving Forward Together
The conversation highlighted that while AI brings rapid change, local expertise and authentic human connection still matter most. We’re here to help Bozeman and surrounding communities navigate these shifts with practical strategies that protect and grow your business.If you feel like this information just scratched the surface of what AI could look like for your brand, feel free to reach out. We’d love to discuss how AI might fit into your marketing, website, or operations strategy.
Thank you again to everyone who joined us at the Bozeman Public Library, and be on the lookout for upcoming community events.
Stay curious, stay critical, and let’s keep the conversation going.
About Max Wolsborn
Max is a dynamic marketing professional with a BS in Marketing from Montana State University (2025, highest honors) and a minor in Coaching. Specializing in SEO, PPC, and creative copyediting, he drives customer loyalty and growth through strategic engagement. Passionate about coaching youth soccer and enjoying Montana’s outdoors, Max delivers innovative marketing solutions at JTech, enhancing clients’ online presence with impactful results.
