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X-WR-CALNAME:AI as an On-Ramp: Expanding Who Gets to Build
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:session-czyysmemb6o0qxb3jn2mf7yo7@conference-manager
DTSTAMP:20261106T051817Z
DTSTART:20260930T163000Z
DTEND:20260930T173000Z
SUMMARY:AI as an On-Ramp: Expanding Who Gets to Build
DESCRIPTION:PLEASE NOTE: Our head counts have gone to the chefs at each ven
 ue. You must attend the lunch panel you signed up for. If you did not sign
  up for a panel\, you will be assigned one at check-in. Entrepreneurship h
 as always had gatekeepers: capital\, connections\, credentials. AI is lowe
 ring some of those barriers and quietly raising others. This session\, hos
 ted by AI Ready RVA\, gets specific about which is which. Across peer-led 
 cohorts in healthcare\, finance\, law\, cybersecurity\, and manufacturing\
 , AI Ready RVA has watched Richmond business owners move from treating AI 
 like a search engine to using it as a working thought partner. That shift 
 is real. It is also uneven\, and it does not automatically translate into 
 a funded\, differentiated business. The panel brings four operators who ha
 ve started companies\, invested in them\, and built the systems underneath
  them. We will cover what changes for a founder with no consultant on reta
 iner\, whether the funding bar has actually moved\, where adoption breaks 
 inside real organizations\, and what the compute powering all of it costs 
 when the free tier ends. That last question matters more in Virginia than 
 almost anywhere else in the country. For ecosystem builders asking where A
 I fits in access and inclusion work beyond the hype\, this is the session.
LOCATION:Bar Solita
URL:https://summit.startupchampions.co/sessions/czyysmemb6o0qxb3jn2mf7yo7
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