The businesses that will win with AI are the ones leading it
AI Opportunity Workshop: A practical session designed to help you identify exactly where AI can create real value in your business and what capability you need to unlock it, whilst building your AI confidence in a short space of time.
Ready to stop experimenting and start using AI with intention to get real results?
Small business owners now have access to the same knowledge infrastructure that large companies have spent decades and millions building. The ability to analyse, draft, plan, synthesise, research, and respond (at a level that previously required large teams) is now available to a team of one, five or twenty.
The question is not whether AI is relevant to your business. It is whether you are leading it or just using it (to make things like social media content or to ask advice).
There is a difference.
The business owner who leads AI builds a capability. They co-create with it, they direct it, they know where to apply it, what it needs from them, and what it should not be trusted with alone.
The business owner who just picks up individual tools, gets inconsistent results, and stay dependent on whatever their AI assistant of choice happens to suggest.
This workshop is designed for those who want to lead rather than be lead.
AI adoption is not the goal. AI capability is. Know exactly where it will work in your business and build the capability to use it properly
Register to attend
3.5 hours, CBD or Online locations. Price include morning or afternoon tea, secure access to your comprehensive capability diagnostics, group coaching on AI from an accredited Capability Coach, and your AI Opportunity Map - a personalised, research-backed document providing clarity and direction for you to continue to implementing AI into your business.
For those who want to lead, rather than be led
You don’t need more information about AI, you need to know exactly what to do with it in your business and be supported to do that
There is no shortage of AI content. Webinars. Articles. Free tools. Thought leadership from people who have never run a small business. Most of it tells you what AI can do or show you their ‘exact system’ for how they use it, but none of it tells you what AI will do in your specific business, given where you actually are right now and what’s the most important to you.
This workshop is built differently. It uses 25eight's proprietary diagnostic - developed from research across thousands of Australian owner-operator businesses spanning thirteen industry types - to produce a personalised picture of where your business sits and where AI will create genuine, practical value.
It does not start with the technology and work backwards. It starts with your business and works out where the technology fits.
That sequencing matters more than most people realise.
AI amplifies what is already working. If the foundations are not in place, AI does not fix them, it moves you faster in the wrong direction.
The diagnostic answers the question that a lot of AI conversations skip: is your business actually ready to act on this, and if not, what do you need and if so, where specifically should you start?
Leave with clarity and confidence and your next moves mapped
This is the practical reason the workshop costs what it costs. This is not a lead generation exercise nor are you paying for a room and a speaker. You won’t be sold on a tool or another workshop. This sessions aims to ensure a valuable outcome for you.
You are paying to develop your own capabilities. You leave with a research-backed, personalised output that is specific to your business - one that most that most people who work with AI do not have and cannot easily produce on their own.
This isn’t a ‘blueprint’, the ‘exact steps’ or an ‘exact system’ that you borrow from someone else and hope that it applies to your business giving you a temporary answer but no durable adapability. This is about you developing your own, becoming your own guru.
You Capability Snapshot
An honest, specific picture of where your business sits across four dimensions: your operational foundations, your AI experience to date, your opportunity landscape, and your realistic capacity to implement. Not a score. Not a ranking against others. A clear starting point grounded in data from businesses like yours, so the decisions that follow are made from reality, not assumption.
Your AI Opportunity Map
A prioritised view of where AI will create genuine value in your business, at your stage, in your industry. Organised across three layers: what you can act on now, what to build toward over the next 6 to 12 months, and what to hold until the foundations are stronger. This is the information most business owners are missing. It is the difference between using AI as a novelty or social media tool and using it as a lever.
Accessible digitally through your 25eight profile after the workshop. Yours to return to, build from, and use as the basis for your next decision.
Leave with the clarity that used to cost tens of thousands in consultants time with the added bonus of building your own ‘thinking’ skills.
We can’t say that you’ll leave smarter, as we don’t measure that in this workshop, but you’ll feel like the scene in Matrix where Neo gets new skills loaded into his brain. 🧠
Who this is for
It is time to invest in your own skills, rather than invest in someone else’s ‘blueprint’ or ‘expertise’
You have been experimenting with AI tools and want to move from experimentation to intention
You understand that AI matters for your business but cannot clearly see where to focus or in what order
You are ready to build AI capability in your business, not just use AI products
You want to understand how to direct AI effectively rather than be directed by whatever it suggests
You run an established business and want an honest, research-backed picture of where AI will add real leverage and where it will not
You are aware that your industry is changing and want to understand what that means specifically for your business, not in general
You understand how quickly things are changing, so just learning a new tool or watching someone demonstrate an app isn’t valuable to you
You don’t need a motivational session about the future of AI in business
You are ready to act - this workshop produces a map, and a map is only useful if you intend to move, we help you get started
The opportunity is real. Leading it requires more than access.
The parity argument is genuine. Small businesses now have access to knowledge infrastructure that was previously the exclusive domain of large organisations. This is a structural change, and it is one of the most significant competitive shifts in a generation for owner-operators.
But access is not the same as capability. Every business owner has access to a gym. Not every business owner is fit. The ones who will pull ahead are not the ones who downloaded the most AI tools. They are the ones who built the capability to use AI intentionally; who know where to apply it, how to direct it, when to trust it, and when to override it.
The workshop will not give you an AI strategy. Building a genuine strategy takes time, structured support, and iteration across your specific business context. What it will give you is the honest picture of where you are right now and a prioritised map of what to do next and help you get started. That is more useful than a strategy built on assumptions and it is the foundation every good strategy needs.
Go beyond the typical AI workshops; build more than social media content or automated systems
Free or low cost AI workshops tend to focus on awareness. You hear why AI matters, see a few tools or someone else’s system, and leave with the same question you arrived with: what should I actually do in my business?
This workshop is designed to answer that properly. The investment covers a structured diagnostic built on real research, facilitated by someone who works with small business transformation every day. You will walk away with a personalised output that reflects your business, your goals, your current capability, and the opportunities relevant to your stage, industry, and resources.
You will also be guided through how to interpret and refine it, so you are not just given an answer, but develop the capability to make better decisions from here. Work like this has traditionally cost thousands through consulting. Here, you are actively involved in shaping it, building your own leadership skills in the process.
One thing is certain, technology will not limit your opportunities, your capability to use it will.
At the centre of this is the diagnostic itself. It is a proprietary instrument developed over time, mapping areas that generic tools do not reach, including operational readiness, leadership capacity, and industry-specific opportunities. The output is yours to keep. It does not expire, and it becomes a foundation for future decisions. Charging for the workshop ensures the room is made up of people who are serious about applying AI in their business, which lifts the quality of the discussion and the thinking in the room.
It is also worth being clear about intent. Many free sessions rely on collecting your details and following up with ongoing sales activity. This is not structured that way. The workshop stands on its own. If you choose to continue building capability with us, that option is there, but there is no obligation and no expectation that you will.
The outcome is the AI Opportunity Map. For a lot of people, that is enough to get them in the right direction and getting results by themself.
Format:
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The details
3.5 hours, in-person or 3 hours online. Laptop, tablet or smart phone is required for the duration of the session. The diagnostic is individual; the discussion is collective.
Dates are currently scheduled for Melbourne and Brisbane and will be held at a location in the CBD. This will be confirmed once the minimum numbers are reached. An online version of the workshop is also available. If you want to attend an in-person but can’t make it to Brisbane or Melbourne, complete the form below with your postcode to add that location to the demand list.
Workshops are currently scheduled for date in June and September 2026
In-person workshops are $295.00 inc. GST and online workshops are $195.00 inc. GST and run slightly shorter than the in-person sessions.
We highly recommend you complete the Small Business Capability Gap diagnostic online before the workshop. This diagnostic is free, takes under 10 minutes and it means your experience can be personalised from the moment you arrive. Already done? You are ready!
Get your ticket
Frequently Asked Questions
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No. The workshop is designed for business owners at any level. You may be aware of AI but have not yet worked out what to do with it in your specific context or you have an idea and you want a really fast way of determining exactly what to focus on.
If you have been experimenting with tools, that experience is useful input. If you have not yet started, that is equally valid starting information. The diagnostic works either way.
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This is not a tool tutorial, necessarily. The workshop maps where AI fits in your business and what to prioritise. Which tools you use to pursue those opportunities is a separate and individual conversation. One that makes significantly more sense once you know where to focus and in what order. You’ll then be guided to utilise AI t o help you develop your understanding on tools. The reason we do this is so when they change, which they will, you know how to make decisions about what to do.
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25eight has conducted extensive research in small business growth and digital transformation since 2018. Our diagnostics are a result of this research that can now be amplified through the use of AI.
The diagnostic tool we use in this workshop has been developed to determine where AI creates genuine business value or just adds noise. And it maps them across four dimensions; your foundations, your current AI exposure, your opportunity landscape, and your implementation capacity; because the gap that matters most is different for every business.
The AI opportunity landscape also varies significantly by industry. A health practice, a construction business, and a professional services business face different adoption curves, different risk profiles, and different leverage points. The diagnostic reflects that. Your AI Opportunity Map will not look like someone else's, because it should not.
This instrument is the same one used at the entry point for 25eight capability development program ‘Lead with AI’. When you complete it during the workshop, your results are yours. They do not expire. They travel with you. Any next step you take builds from where you actually are, not from a generic starting point.
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You are ahead. Bring your results. They will be accessible through your 25eight profile and will be used to personalise your workshop experience from the start.
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The diagnostic provides a general small business opportunity overview and then deep dives into industry types including professional services, health and allied health, construction, manufacturing, retail, hospitality, agriculture, defence and government supply chain, education, and not-for-profit. The AI opportunity landscape varies significantly by industry and the workshop reflects that. If you are unsure whether it is relevant for your specific context and/or you want your industry included before signing up please complete the EOI below.
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A free webinar tells you AI is important and shows you some tools and helps you do one or two things. This workshop maps where AI will specifically create value in your business, produces a personalised document you keep, and tells you one concrete next step based on your actual position. Then guides you to start implementing it for your business. The diagnostic behind it is proprietary and the output is yours permanently through your 25eight profile. The momentum you gained from starting it properly is priceless.
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You leave with your Capability Snapshot and AI Opportunity Map accessible through your 25eight profile. You will receive a follow-up email with a clear articulation of the next step that makes most sense based on your results.
There is no sales pressure. The next step is yours to take and if you’d like more support, we’re there when you are ready.
Still have questions?
Are you interested but you still have questions about it? Or would you like to submit your location as a potential future location for a workshop?
You may also be interested but not ready to invest in yourself at this time or feel like you could implement the value from the workshop, by registering your interest, we’ll reply to you with more information, keep you posted on any future dates and collate your location to ensure we deliver workshops where there is demand (please pass this on to local business owners if you’d like to see this workshop in your location).
Your privacy matters to us and we won’t share your data or send any other emails to you unless you sign up to receive them specifically.