Webinar to offer practical AI strategies for family businesses

Sept. 24, 2025

This piece is sponsored by Prairie Family Business Association.

Most family businesses are just beginning to learn what artificial intelligence can do for them – or they’re hesitant to even get started.

“We’ve found through surveys that most family businesses aren’t yet adopting AI quickly or strategically,” said Stephanie Larscheid, executive director of the Prairie Family Business Association.

“While you’re right to be cautious, this technology also brings considerable benefits for those who learn to deploy it effectively, so we want to equip family businesses with the tools to do that.”

An upcoming webinar through the Prairie Family Business Association will give participants an edge in using AI smarter, more strategically and more sustainably. Practical AI for Family Businesses will be offered at 10 a.m. Oct. 2.

Conducted by Meghan Lynch and Laura Brown of Six-Point Strategy, it will help family businesses identify simple starting points such as how to:

• Identify where AI can amplify, not replace, your voice and values.
• Upskill your team without losing the human touch.
• Unlock strategic opportunities while protecting your foundation.

“Whether you’re curious about AI or already experimenting, you’ll leave with concrete steps to integrate it into your business in a way that strengthens your reputation, your culture and your long-term advantage,” Larscheid said.

We caught up with Six-Point’s Laura Brown for a preview of what to expect.

Let’s start with your own business. How are you already putting AI to work at Six-Point Strategy?

At Six-Point, we use AI in three primary ways: helping us generate or refine content, supporting our planning processes and surfacing gaps where our work isn’t fully speaking to our clients or connecting back to our goals. AI doesn’t replace our strategic work, but it does accelerate it. It gives us the capacity to think more clearly, catch blind spots and move faster without losing the depth and intentionality we’re known for.

What kind of framework will you be introducing to participants at the PFBA webinar?

We’ve been developing a framework that essentially trains ChatGPT to act like we do at Six-Point as strategists: curious, intentional and strategic. On the backend, we’ve built in layers that ensure it doesn’t just generate content but reinforces differentiation, applies critical thinking and protects reputation. In other words, we’re using AI to amplify strategy and to put helpful guardrails in place to ensure consistency and alignment. That’s the framework participants will get a window into and see it in action.

One of the challenges with AI is the content it generates can feel generic or inauthentic. Is it possible to cut through that?

That’s the hesitation many leaders feel, and it’s valid. We’ve all seen examples of AI content that sound flat or interchangeable. The key is to anchor it in a strong brand foundation. If your strategy, voice and proof points are both very clear and meaningfully different, AI can be trained to reflect them. Without that foundation, it will default to generic. The good news is that family businesses already have the raw material: values, legacy and real customer stories. The results feel authentic, not artificial, when those are fed into AI with the right guardrails.

What are some key takeaways that family businesses will leave with after attending the webinar?

They’ll leave with both insight and tools. Practically speaking, they’ll walk away with a prompt they can start using immediately and a simple assessment that shows where AI will be most effective where they currently are. They’ll also get the live experience of seeing AI in action by one of our clients, a fourth-generation family business. Our hope is that leaders leave with more confidence: not only that they can use AI effectively but that they can do it in a way that strengthens their team, their brand and their long-term reputation.

The client you’ll feature is Corey Talbot, vice president of marketing and product at family business Hyde Tools. What has their experience been using AI?

Corey has been using AI at Hyde for research, and reviewing and compiling data. Data hygiene in the company has been a barrier in the past, and he is using AI to spot inconsistencies and quickly address them. This helps to solve other problems down the line in operations and distribution. That said, this webinar will be his first introduction to using AI specifically for content generation and communication for the Hyde brand. We’ve worked with Hyde for over 15 years, supporting Corey’s initiatives in marketing and brand management, and are putting our long-term knowledge of the brand into a custom GPT built specifically for Hyde. Corey will be trying out the GPT on the webinar for the first time. He is a great case since he sees a lot of potential in AI but does not have the time or the technical expertise to figure out exactly how to apply it successfully to Hyde’s specific use case. This should be a great way for Corey to speak directly to the pain that a lot of family business leaders are feeling right now and show a practical path forward.

To learn more and register for Practical AI for Family Businesses, visit here.