How AI Supports Your Team from First Hire to Full Strength

To Register: How AI Supports Your Team from First Hire to Full Strength

Thursday, February 12th at 8:30 am, presented via Zoom.

Speaker: Ian Carlstrom

Program Summary & Key Takeaways:

Discover how small businesses can use AI to streamline hiring, onboarding, and team development—even without a dedicated HR department. This session explores practical, low-risk ways to use AI for job descriptions, interview prep, policy creation, and employee training. Learn how to avoid common pitfalls like bias and hallucinations, and walk away with tools, templates, and a mindset shift for smarter talent strategies. Whether you’re hiring your first employee or building a lasting team, this session will show you how to lead with confidence in the AI era.

At the end of the session, participants will be able to:

1. Understand how AI can streamline hiring and onboarding by automating repetitive HR tasks without sacrificing human judgment.
2. Learn how to identify and avoid AI-related risks in hiring, such as bias, hallucinations, and shadow AI.
3. Discover how to use AI to enhance employee retention, training, and policy development with practical, real-world examples.
4. Gain confidence in using AI as a collaborative tool to build smarter, more adaptive talent strategies for small teams.

About the Speaker:

Ian Carlstrom is a leader in small business strategy, management, and AI innovation, driven by passion for helping businesses grow and thrive. Recognized as one of America’s SBDC 40 Under 40, Ian has been at the forefront of integrating AI into small business, creating transformative tools like the AI Resource Lab and the "10 Hats for 10 Chats" AI Conference. Under his leadership, the West Central MN SBDC earned the 2025 Excellence & Innovation Award from the SBA. Known for his direct, hands-on approach, Ian makes AI accessible, offering actionable insights to empower businesses to harness technology for sustainable success.

This session is pending approval for the following:

• 1.0 SHRM PDC
• 1.0 HRCI Credit