John Muraski wants business leaders to understand that AI is more than just a chatbot or a search engine.
Particularly when you access the subscription and more advanced models, AI tools can become a thought partner, says Muraski, who is a teaching assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and director of both the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development and the new Center for Applied AI, which opened last fall.
“I’d say the last two years we saw AI really start to take shape and really start to be talked about … and we started to see our students using it,” Muraski says. “We started to see local businesses running into opportunities and challenges.”
Even so, Muraski is a self‑described late adopter. Like lots of professionals, he was busy with work and other activities, and when he learned about AI tools, he thought, “‘I’ll have time for it later,’” he recalls. “It wasn’t until probably in the last nine or 10 months that I really sat down and said, ‘What does this thing do?’ and I immediately then saw the potential.”
That’s when he wrote grants to help students work with small businesses on AI initiatives.
The Center for Applied AI’s focus currently is on running the Small Business AI Clinic, where student consultants work with small businesses to adopt and implement AI solutions, increase competency and capabilities in using AI, and even increase comfort level with AI tools.
Comfort may in fact be an issue, particularly for Gen Z. The New York Times released a poll in May showing that the highest percentage of AI detractors are those under 30, despite being digital natives, largely because of concerns about job prospects and a lack of regulation.
Muraski says the rapid pace of change simply leaves students unsure what to expect. ChatGPT, for example, came out the same year these students started
their degrees.
“I think universities across the world initially said ‘this is cheating,’” he says. On the other hand, businesses are saying, “‘Hey, you need to really be using AI; this is a requirement for the job,’” Muraski adds, “and so these students are just having a bit of whiplash.”
Current business owners also may be feeling the breakneck speed of change. The center works with business owners and leaders to navigate those new and sometimes choppy waters. It’s not about pushing AI for the sake of AI, but it’s about helping businesses explore it and recognize where it can help solve problems, Muraski says.
Muraski gives a TED‑like talk around the state in which he speaks about three fundamental technology shifts that have occurred in the last 50 years. The first was the introduction of the computer, which took organizations five to seven years to adopt. Then, there was the internet, which was a three‑ to five‑year transformation. “In the last 19 months, we’ve had AI achieve those same type of results,” Muraski says.
While there are real concerns about issues like personal information, businesses — particularly larger ones — have been too focused on controlling and restricting, rather than encouraging employees to grow capabilities, competency and confidence, he says. “There’s got to be a better way to balance that than [how] some companies have approached it,” says Muraski, who has helped organizations develop AI policy governance frameworks.
Leaders both within and outside the tech industry have called for greater AI regulation, but Muraski says he is focusing on understanding it: “The truth is, the tool exists. The tool is being used by others. The tool is being used by my competitors … I have to have a child’s curiosity and explore and understand that it’s a growing and an evolving tool.”
It’s a deep moment of change that Muraski is uniquely positioned to help businesses navigate.
“My entire career has been around helping people and organizations adopt and use technology, and to deal with the associated changes,” says Muraski, whose doctorate program focused on the personal adoption of technology.
But even so, this wasn’t something Muraski, who is certified in future foresight — understanding the impact of future trends — recognized as on the horizon. “I’ve never turned that magnifying glass into what the next technology might be. I focused it on business problems and challenges. I focus it on everything from geopolitics to other aspects around strategy for organizations.”
The takeaway, he explains, is that despite his experience, “even this poor guy didn’t see this change coming,” he says. “So don’t feel bad that this huge change you feel is here, surprisingly and suddenly, and now you have to use it.”
photograph by Shane Van Boxtel, Image Studios
Get training
Businesses located in Wisconsin with under 500 employees are welcome to reach out to the Center for Applied AI to get 15 to 20 hours of free AI consulting from UWO students. Contact Muraski at muraskij@uwosh.edu.
The state of AI adoption
- Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents say their organizations have not yet begun scaling AI across the enterprise, but almost the same amount say their organizations are at least experimenting with AI agents.
- Eighty percent say their companies set efficiency as an objective of their AI initiatives, but companies that see the most value often set growth or innovation as additional objectives.
- In terms of AI’s impact on the overall workforce size of their organizations, 32% expect decreases in the coming year, 43% expect no change and 13% expect increases.
Source: McKinsey & Company, 2025
