UA Little Rock Helps Central Arkansas Businesses Put AI to Work
Every business has its share of tasks that take time away from the bigger picture. Those tasks might include hours spent sorting through spreadsheets, weighing costs, or trying to find a better way to serve customers. Increasingly, businesses are looking to artificial intelligence (AI) to help tackle those challenges and spend more time on the work that moves their organization forward.
At the 91福利大全, Corporate and Community Education is helping Central Arkansas companies explore how AI can fit into their work through hands-on training tailored to each organization’s needs.
The training meets companies where they are, whether employees are just beginning to explore AI or already using the technology regularly. Courses range from AI for leadership to applications tailored to specific industries, drawing on the expertise of UA Little Rock faculty and staff.
Marla Johnson, UA Little Rock鈥檚 tech entrepreneur-in-residence and AI workforce training coordinator, works directly with organizations before training begins to understand their workflows, goals, and challenges. She uses that information to shape each workshop and bring together faculty and staff with relevant expertise.
鈥淚 really do my homework,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淚 spend time understanding their business.鈥�
For Flake & Company, a commercial real estate firm, the goal was to streamline behind-the-scenes work. Jessica Flake Dearnley, principal broker and owner, reached out to Johnson to explore how AI could help the firm manage routine administrative tasks, speed up financial analysis, and support real estate decisions, including evaluating lease prices and developing counterproposals during transactions.
Dearnley sees the potential for AI to give her team more time to focus on the company’s future.
鈥淗opefully, we can focus on growth and ideas, and what’s next, and not get buried in the weeds,鈥� she said.
At McLarty Automotive Group, AI training focused on how employees could use the technology to strengthen their decision-making and leadership skills.
As the company prepared to launch two new leadership development programs, it incorporated AI training into its sales leadership program. Nicole Erlan, the company’s learning and development manager, worked with Johnson and her team to develop the course.
After the training, employees began exploring ways to apply AI beyond the initial session. Erlan said one employee started using it as an executive coach to explore ways to become a more effective leader. Others used AI to dig deeper into reports and consider additional possibilities when setting priorities.
At the same time, the company鈥檚 IT team was evaluating how McLarty could adopt AI while protecting its information. Kirby McGill, the group鈥檚 IT director, and his team researched how large language models work and considered tools such as Microsoft Copilot, Claude, and ChatGPT, weighing their potential uses against the company’s security requirements.
鈥淥ne of the biggest challenges for me was figuring out what this does to our security posture and how we protect McLarty data,鈥� McGill said. 鈥淎 priority is helping people understand why those security guardrails are in place while still giving them the tools to get results.鈥�
Tarco CEO Steve Ratcliff and several employees were already exploring AI’s potential before working with Johnson, but her specialized training gave the team a chance to build on that foundation and explore how AI could further support Tarco’s operations.
They initially focused on areas such as sales, marketing, finance, and accounting. As they worked with Johnson, they began applying AI to more complex tasks, including automating financial processes, evaluating financial options and analyzing business decisions. Employees used AI to develop automated processes for a workbook with more than 60 worksheets covering the company’s locations and sales regions. Previously, they had to manually update figures, enter sales data, check totals, and prepare separate regional reports. AI helped the team create macros to automate many of those steps. The team also used AI to remove outdated information from the workbook, reducing its file size by nearly half. A process that once took at least two hours now takes about 30 minutes.聽
Beyond financial reporting, Ratcliff has used AI to evaluate financial options and improve decisions about customer orders. He used the technology to compare multiple loan scenarios and generate amortization schedules, completing a process that would have taken much of a day in about 45 minutes. Tarco, one of the largest independently owned manufacturers of roofing and building envelope products in North America, has also developed a process to help determine how to fulfill recurring weekly customer orders. With plants in Texas and Pennsylvania, the company weighs production costs, current freight rates and product availability to determine which location should handle an order. The tool analyzes those factors and recommends which location should fulfill the order, helping Tarco make faster, more informed decisions.
As Tarco continues to explore new applications, Ratcliff said the company is focused on using AI to evaluate information, compare alternatives and question assumptions, rather than simply complete individual tasks. Employees remain responsible for checking the information and making decisions.
鈥淎I is not replacing the institutional knowledge and experience already inside Tarco; it is helping us apply that knowledge more effectively while people remain responsible for validation, judgment and the final decision,鈥� Ratcliff said.
Although the applications differ from one company to the next, each reflects an effort to find practical ways to address everyday challenges and help employees make better use of their time and expertise. For Johnson, that is the purpose of the training: helping businesses understand what AI can do for them now while preparing for how the technology will continue to evolve.
鈥淚 want every company in Central Arkansas to take advantage of these classes,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淭hey will help you and your team be prepared for now and what’s to come.鈥�