AI for Small Business Exporters
AI for Small Business Exporters is a practical Open Learning course built to help SMEs compete in the complexity of global trade, where regulations, compliance, logistics, sourcing, pricing, and documentation create constant pressure on time and resources. A subset of the course is included here and information on how to access the full course on the Open Learning Platform is below. The AI for Small Business Exporters course was created by the Center for Global Business and is provided in part by CIBE, a Title VI grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
The course uses industry interviews and student-built demos to show real, relatable export challenges and concrete examples of how AI can help solve the “information problems” exporters face every day. It’s not meant to be exhaustive—its goal is to give exporters and trade-support professionals usable ideas, inspiration, and a starting toolkit for bringing AI into their workflows and growing internationally with greater agility.
Enroll in the full AI for SME Exporters course on the Open Learning Platform
Interviews
Welcome to the first video in the AI for Small Business Exporters series. In this opening conversation, you’ll hear how research and real-world exporter stories point to AI’s biggest opportunities while underscoring the continued importance of international business expertise, leadership, and empathy.
In this interview, Bobby Patton discusses his business, which specializes in telecommunications equipment akin to a small Cisco, and explores the integration of AI across various business processes. He highlights the transformative potential of AI in enhancing operational efficiency, compliance, marketing and software development. Patton emphasizes the competitive edge AI provides for small and medium enterprises by enabling them to “hit above their weight class” and compete more effectively with larger corporations. Despite challenges in data integration and the need for careful input structuring, Patton is optimistic about AI’s role in driving growth and innovation for his company and the broader economy.
In this interview, Ken Sanchez discusses the challenges and opportunities of integrating AI into small business operations, particularly in manufacturing and exporting. He highlights the current use of AI for marketing, financial assistance and predictive analysis, while addressing the difficulties of compliance with international regulations and the lack of industry standards. The conversation explores how AI can provide a competitive advantage by optimizing supply chain operations and quality checks, despite the technological and financial constraints faced by small manufacturers.
In this interview, Kim Daniels discusses the complexities and challenges faced in the customs brokerage business, particularly in relation to rapidly changing tariffs and regulations. The conversation also explores the role of AI in facilitating trade compliance, highlighting its utility as a tool for summarizing and identifying critical information, while cautioning against overreliance due to potential inaccuracies and the need for human oversight in decision-making.
Case Studies
The Trade Path Optimizer is an SME-first, AI-powered trade assistant that consolidates compliance, tariff and supply chain data into an accessible interface. It optimizes sourcing and routing based on tariffs, trade agreements and user priorities. SMEs can upload supplier and customer data to unlock actionable insights. Low-cost brokers and consultants serve as final reviewers, bridging AI with human expertise.
This document provides a comprehensive overview of the technology and its proposed implementation: Trade Path Optimizer
The Supplier Risk & Recommendation Engine is an AI-powered decision support tool for SMEs engaged in exports and manufacturing. It predicts raw material cost trends, scores supplier reliability and recommends alternative sourcing options in plain English. SMEs often get blindsided by volatile markets and unreliable suppliers — this tool helps them move from reactive to proactive sourcing, reducing costs and improving resilience without requiring expensive IT infrastructure.
This document provides a comprehensive overview of the technology and its proposed implementation: Supplier Risk & Recommendation Engine
The Tariff and Trade Intelligence Organizer is an AI-powered system that scrapes, ingests and processes international trade and tariff information, structures and stores updates for retrieval, provides an AI assistant to interpret complex regulations, detects significant changes and triggers business alerts, and assesses impact on SME-specific import and export operations.
This document provides a comprehensive overview of the technology and its proposed implementation: Tariff and Trade Intelligence Organizer
AI Basics
These next videos provide a clear, nontechnical AI refresher for anyone who wants additional background before applying the tools to export work. Let’s look at how artificial intelligence has evolved over time, as well as some early examples that help illustrate its usefulness for small businesses.
By now you have a good understanding of AI and how it can be utilized. This video expands on that knowledge by discussing applications of predictive AI to solve business problems.
In this video, we discuss how generative AI can be used in small businesses, including benefits and risks.
It is important that AI collects data ethically and that the models it produces are not biased. This video explores examples of how data and model governance in AI can impact small businesses.