North Louisiana's AI Community Came to Andress

We recently hosted Louisiana Catalyst and North Louisiana's AI community at the Andress Artist & Entrepreneur Center. The room was full — founders, developers, business owners, and a fair number of people who came mostly to find out what everyone else was working on.

That last group might be the most important one.

Why this matters to your business, whatever you think of AI

Here's a number worth sitting with: about half of consumers now say a recommendation from an app, a platform algorithm, or an AI tool influenced them to keep buying from a brand.

Read that again as a small business owner. It means a growing share of your customers are being pointed toward you — or away from you — by software you may have never looked at and cannot see. Your hours, your address, your reviews, and how your business is described online are increasingly what an AI tool reads before a human ever does.

You don't have to like this. Not everyone does, and we'd rather host that argument than pretend it isn't happening. But whether you're enthusiastic or skeptical, the practical question is the same: when someone asks an AI assistant for a business like yours in Shreveport-Bossier, does it find you?

Most local owners have never checked. Check out our education for your opportunity to learn more OR brush up!

A thank you. This event happened because Quentin Durr and High Tide Rise did the work of putting it together, and it was a good deal more pleasant because Bob Thames and Marilyn's Place handled the refreshments. We're grateful to all of them, and glad the Andress could host.