Practical AI for Social Enterprises – Hands-On Workshop

This isn't a talk about AI. It's a chance to use it. Following the success of our first AI session, we're back — this time with a hands-on workshop built around your real work. You'll leave with practical skills you can use the next day, not a list of platforms you've heard of before. Your facilitator Dr Alice Ashcroft runs Digital Heard, a Lancaster-based consultancy, and co-founded JobFair, an AI tool that flags exclusionary language in job adverts. She has a PhD in gender and digital innovation and has built her businesses around this. What to expect Bring a real task from your organisation — a funding bid paragraph, a social media post, a policy draft, anything you're working on. During the session you'll work through it using AI tools, learn how to prompt effectively, and then use AI to critique your own output. We'll close with a group reflection where you share what worked, what didn't, and what you'd do differently. The emphasis throughout is on AI as a critical friend, not a shortcut. Getting real value from these tools takes time, iteration and subject knowledge — and that's exactly what we'll work on together. You'll leave able to: • Use an AI tool to draft, review and critique a piece of real work • Understand how to prompt iteratively to get better outputs • Identify at least two practical use cases you can apply to your organisation straight away Who is this for? Leaders, managers and staff from social enterprises and CICs across Cumbria. You don't need to have used AI before — but if you've tried it and felt underwhelmed, this session is especially for you.