Practical AI Workshop: Powerful Insights for Women in Business
AI is everywhere right now. But knowing how to actually use it in your business? That’s a different story!
From ChatGPT and Claude.ai to AI-powered marketing tools, there’s no shortage of information about what artificial intelligence could do for your business.
But for many small business owners, the challenge isn’t understanding that AI has potential. It’s knowing where to start, which tools are worth using and how to make AI genuinely useful in their day-to-day work.
That’s exactly what we set out to tackle at our Practical AI Workshop in September, led by AI expert and COCO member Jo Eckersley.
And the focus was simple: Less AI theory. More DOING it.
Making AI Practical for Women in Business
Running a business means wearing lots of hats.
One minute you’re dealing with customers, the next you’re creating marketing content, managing emails, planning your finances or trying to find time to work on your next big idea.
So when another new technology comes along promising to save time and transform the way you work, it’s understandable to feel a little overwhelmed.
Where do you start? Which AI tools should you be using? And how do you get useful results rather than generic answers?
Our September workshop in Beaconsfield was designed to help women in business move beyond experimenting with AI and start thinking about how it could support their individual businesses.
Rather than another presentation about the future of AI, this was a hands-on session focused on putting ideas into practice.
From AI Curiosity to Practical Action
Throughout the workshop, Jo guided participants through practical ways to explore AI and identify opportunities within their own businesses.
The session focused on three key areas.
1. Understanding Where AI Could Help Your Business
Before jumping into new tools, it’s important to think about where AI could make the biggest difference.
Every business is different.
For one founder, the biggest challenge might be finding enough time to create marketing content. For another, it could be organising information, developing new ideas or managing repetitive tasks.
Through a live AI audit, the workshop encouraged participants to look at their own business activities and consider where AI could offer meaningful support.
The aim wasn’t to use AI for everything.
It was to identify where it could genuinely save time, improve processes or make running a business a little easier.
2. Building Your Business Brain
One of the practical elements of the workshop was exploring the idea of a Business Brain.
If you’ve ever used an AI tool and found yourself repeatedly explaining what your business does, who your customers are or how you like to communicate, you’ll understand why this matters.
A Business Brain is a document that brings together important information about your business, such as your services, customers, goals, values and preferred communication style.
Having this information organised gives you a useful reference when working with AI tools, helping you provide clearer instructions and generate responses that are more relevant to your business.
It’s also a reminder that AI works best when you give it the right context.
The more clearly you understand and communicate your business, the more useful AI can become.
3. Finding Tools You Can Actually Use
With so many AI platforms and applications available, it’s easy to spend hours exploring tools without achieving very much.
Our workshop was about moving beyond that.
The goal was for participants to leave with three practical AI tools or approaches they could begin using in their businesses.
Not a long list of technology to investigate someday.
Just useful starting points to explore, practise and build into everyday working life.
Because the real value of AI doesn’t come from collecting tools. It comes from finding ways to use them effectively.
You Don’t Need to Be an AI Expert to Get Started
One of the biggest barriers to adopting AI can be confidence.
It’s easy to assume everyone else knows more than you, particularly when technology seems to be changing every week.
But you don’t need to understand every technical detail to start exploring how AI could help your business.
You need a willingness to learn, opportunities to practise and someone who can explain things in a way that makes sense.
And that’s where having an experienced, patient and approachable trainer makes such a difference.
Jo’s ability to make AI accessible was reflected beautifully in the feedback we received.
“Jo is a fantastic communicator and a true AI expert — kind, patient, and brilliant at guiding people who are learning about AI. I highly recommend this workshop. Thank you, Jo; I learned so much and truly appreciate your support.”
Veronica MacLarnon, Spanish Tutoring Bucks
Three Things to Remember When Using AI in Your Business
If you’re beginning to explore AI, here are three useful principles to take away.
Start with a business challenge, not a tool.
Think about what takes up too much time, what you find difficult or where you need additional support. Then explore whether AI could help.
Give AI the right information.
Generic instructions often produce generic results. Providing relevant context about your business, customers and objectives can make a real difference to the usefulness of the responses.
Keep yourself in control.
AI can be a valuable assistant, but it still needs human judgement. Review what it produces, check important information and be mindful of confidential business and customer data.
The aim isn’t to replace your knowledge, experience or personality.
It’s to find ways technology can support the work you already do.
Learning, Growing and Supporting Each Other at COCO
Our Practical AI Workshop was another example of what makes the COCO Women Founders community special.
We believe growing a business isn’t just about finding new customers.
It’s also about making time to develop your skills, build confidence, learn from others and discover new ways of working.
And sometimes that means stepping away from your usual routine, putting yourself in a room with other women in business and giving yourself permission to focus on something new.
Through our workshops, business masterminds and regular meet-ups, we create opportunities for women to share knowledge, ask questions and support one another.
Because you don’t have to figure everything out on your own.
Together We Grow!
Join us at a future COCO event
If you’d love more opportunities to learn practical skills, develop your business and spend time with supportive, like-minded women, we’d love to welcome you to COCO.
We host regular business masterminds, networking events, expert-led workshops, goal-setting sessions and social meet-ups in Amersham, Beaconsfield, Marlow and Thame, as well as online.
Whether you’re just starting out or running an established business, there’s always something new to learn and it’s even better when you can learn together.
Explore our upcoming events and come and experience COCO for yourself.
Speaker: Jo Eckersely
Founder of The Encore Partnership™
As the founder of The Encore Partnership™ I bring deep expertise, straight-talking advice, and a sharp eye for what actually moves a business forward.
I work closely with each client to deliver tailored strategies, step-by-step support, and practical solutions – whether that’s untangling marketing chaos, helping to rapidly turnaround a business, introducing AI tools for better efficiency, sourcing funding or navigating a strategic pivot.
I’ve taken everything I know about business and have set up rapid start private business accelerator programme, published a book, and have built a brand new take on an expert network launching in January 2027, provide 1:1 consultancy, deliver business launch support programmes, AI workshops, audits and blueprints to help founders get to grips with how to utilise AI in their business.
My approach is grounded in clear communication, real experience, and a genuine commitment to seeing my clients and fellow founders succeed – not just in theory, but in results.
