Introduction to AI for Small Business

AI is everywhere right now. But what does it actually mean for your business? In this first video of our AI for Business series, 25eight CEO Sam Hurley breaks down the three terms you need to understand before anything else: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Large Language Models (LLMs)

AI sounds so human that it's easy to assume it thinks like one. It doesn't. And that gap between assumption and reality is where poor decisions get made. In this video,Sam walks through five of the most common misconceptions about how AI actually works, why they're so easy to believe, and why understanding the truth behind them makes you a significantly better user of the technology.

Most people think of AI as a chatbot you ask questions to. But AI has moved well beyond that. And understanding the difference between AI tools, automation, and AI agents could be one of the most important things you do for your business this year. In this video, Sam breaks down exactly what AI agents are, how they differ from the AI chatbots most of us are already using, and what this shift means practically for small and medium business owners.

Ever wonder why ChatGPT feels different to Claude, or why some AI tools seem friendlier while others feel more clinical? It comes down to how they were trained. In this video, Sam breaks down exactly how large language models are trained, from the billions of data points they learn from, to the human reviewers who shape their behaviour, to the guardrails organisations put in place before you ever interact with them.

When electricity first arrived, people threw their telegraphs in the river out of fear. Sound familiar?

Every transformative technology brings myths with it. AI is no different. And for small business leaders trying to make smart decisions, separating fact from fiction isn't just useful. It's essential. In this video, Sam tackles the five biggest myths about AI head on, and makes the case for why the future of small business is more optimistic than the headlines suggest.

Most of the AI tools you're using right now are owned by large overseas companies, running on their infrastructure, storing your data on their terms. That's the reality of cloud AI. But that's starting to change. In this video, Sam unpacks three concepts that will shape how businesses and communities engage with AI over the next decade: local LLMs, data centres, and sovereign AI. You don't need to be technical to understand this. But you do need to start thinking about where your data lives and who controls it.