AfroTech was on the ground for AI Edge’s first workshop, designed to train users on AI-powered workflows.
The virtual session centered on a simulated business crisis, where participants used Google’s AI-powered Workspace tools to navigate high-pressure decision-making companies face during major product launches. Attendees got the chance to work through real-world scenarios that highlighted how AI can streamline collaboration, surface insights and accelerate execution across multiple business functions.
The session was led by James Hogue, a Strategic Account Executive at Google and Howard University alumnus. Hogue walked participants through mock exercises designed to mirror time pressures enterprise organizations face during product launches. Event organizers described the workshop as a key step toward equipping underrepresented communities with the skills needed to compete in an AI-driven economy. Sponsors, including Sweetbriar, also emphasized the importance of moving beyond AI theory. Their third-party integrator model is designed to help participants develop the technical expertise to deploy, support and scale enterprise AI solutions.
The workshop marked a milestone in AI Edge’s free community programming focused on expanding digital equity and workforce readiness. Here’s how the hands-on session moved attendees beyond AI theory and into deploying enterprise AI solutions.
Simulating A Time-Sensitive Corporate Crisis
The mock scenario centered on Lumina Home, a fictional smart home company preparing to launch a new LED light bulb.
At 8:00 AM on launch day, the company learns that its primary competitor, AuraGlow, has reduced prices by 25% to $24.99. This aggressive price cut threatened Lumina’s launch, with key retail partners threatening to reduce initial orders or replace shelf space entirely.
Facing a strict 12:00 PM deadline, Lumina’s team is forced to quickly assess impact and advise on sales, pricing strategy and retailer relationships. Using the scenario, the workshop demonstrated how Google’s AI-powered Workspace tools help complete tasks, boosting productivity and problem-solving.
First Step Was To Streamline Communication
The first solution targeted communication. Geminis’s Google Chat summarization functions were used to streamline communication.
The workshop host, Hogue, opened the built-in Gemini side panel to parse incoming messages from sales directors. Within minutes, Gemini summarized the competitive threat, identified affected retail partners, and outlined immediate next steps.
He then used Gemini to generate an urgent email draft for regional sales managers to gauge buyer receptiveness and collect feedback from retail partners about potential pricing responses.
Building A Strategic Plan
Hogue then moved into Google Docs to establish a formal plan. Gemini generated a strategic briefing document that included an executive summary, product strengths and several response options for leadership to consider.
Based on the data provided to the enterprise AI model, it auto-populated Lumina’s key value differentiators into a built-in strategic execution roadmap. This included a five-year warranty and smart home interoperability.
Conducting Financial Impact Research
Next, Hogue focused on conducting a financial stress test to assess how the competition’s pricing strategy would affect the product launch and financial forecast.
Using a prompt populated in Google Sheets, Hogue was able to build financial comparison models to evaluate pricing strategies. The spreadsheet calculated projected revenue, costs and profit under multiple scenarios. Participants were also able to compare the potential business impact of maintaining current pricing versus matching a competitor’s discount.
Verifying The AI Analysis
To ground these decisions in verified corporate data, Hogue utilized NotebookLM, Google’s source-grounded research environment. Once Hogue uploaded the approved internal product specification PDFs and financial modeling sheets, NotebookLM analyzed the files without incorporating external web noise. It generated tailored positioning guides and a synthetic two-host audio podcast overview that summarizes the strategy based on corporate data.
The workshop also highlighted NotebookLM, Google’s research tool that analyzes only user-provided documents. By uploading internal reports and financial materials, Hogue demonstrated how organizations can generate summaries and insights while limiting responses to verified source material. The platform also produced an AI-generated audio summary of the uploaded documents.
Building An Autonomous Agent
The host highlighted the constraints of being in only one place at a time. But in a corporate crisis, the question becomes, how do we keep things moving?
The answer and technical backbone of the workflow was building an autonomous agent from scratch using Workplace Studio. Through plain-language instruction, Hogue was able to provide instructions on creating AI agents, one of tech’s biggest buzzwords.
The session shows how an automated workflow is created using natural language instructions. The agent was programmed to monitor the inbox for emails titled “Lumina Dealer Feedback.” It read emails and saved attached PDF forms to Google Drive, extracting four key data points from the document, including dealer name, state, price-match request status and dealer comments. The AI agent also automatically appends those points as new rows in a central Google Sheet tracker in real time.
This AI agent allowed Hogue to focus on conducting AI research and analysis while the data was automatically populated and updated in real time.
Preparing Leadership Briefings
As the simulated deadline approached, the presenter needed to prepare the advisory slides to his C-suite team.
Gemini compiled information from documents, spreadsheets and tracking data into a five-slide presentation designed for executive leadership. The presentation was automatically structured and formatted based on the audience and available information.
The AI tool referenced the previously generated positioning brief in Docs, the financial models in Sheets, and the inbound feedback tracker to automatically structure a comprehensive narrative for strategic decisions.
The Biggest Takeaway: AI Is Redefining How Teams Work
AI Edge’s workshop demonstrated a fundamental shift in how organizations operate. Tasks that once required days of cross-departmental coordination, specialized software and multiple teams can now be completed in less than an hour with the right AI workflows.
In some cases, work that previously required a team of seven can now be handled by a single employee using agentic AI. However, achieving that level of efficiency depends on several key factors.
One of the biggest takeaways was the importance of prompt engineering. Success came from providing AI systems with clear context, well-defined constraints and specific objectives. The quality of the output was directly tied to the quality of the instructions.
The workshop also emphasized integrating AI capabilities into existing enterprise tools. When employees know how to effectively instruct AI systems and connect them with the software they already use, organizations can reduce operational friction, accelerate decision-making and respond to business challenges in real time.
Hogue concluded the workshop by highlighting tools beyond Gemini Enterprise. Integrations with platforms such as Salesforce and ServiceNow can further extend AI-powered automation across enterprise operations.
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