Queen City AI Exchange

The Queen City AI Exchange is a recurring CLA-hosted meet-up series at the CLA Connection Center in Ballantyne, Charlotte, bringing together business leaders for practical, peer-led conversations about AI adoption and digital transformation.

Designed both for leaders already putting AI into practice and those looking for a clearer path forward, the series focuses on real-world lessons, open discussion, and approachable use cases rather than formal presentations.

It fills a gap in the local networking landscape by offering a community-focused forum dedicated specifically to practical AI in business.

Join us for the third event in this series:

How Much Should We Spend on AI?

Whether your organization is just beginning to explore AI or already using it across the business, one question is difficult to avoid: how much should we spend, and how will we know if it’s worth it? The cost of tokens, licenses, and tools matters, but only in the context of the value the work creates. We'll also define terms like tokens!

October's Exchange will feature Joey Pruitt and Dana Mann, finance leaders from Hissho Sushi, sharing how their business makes AI investment decisions and evaluates potential returns. We’ll explore how to build a business case when the technology is still unproven, what mechanisms can measure value and impact, and why different applications, from coding to chatbots, may require different approaches.

We’ll also explore practical ways to control costs without undermining results. When can a smaller, lower-cost, or openly available AI model do the job? When can repeatable AI work be built into or replaced by automation? And when could cutting usage too aggressively reduce quality or introduce accuracy, security, and other risks?

You can look forward to practical examples and an open conversation about spending wisely, measuring what matters, and focusing on the value created rather than simply the cost of the technology.

Space is limited, register today!

Schedule

7 – 7:30 a.m. — Registration and networking breakfast
7:30 – 8 a.m. — Introductions and guest speakers from Hissho Sushi: How We Make AI Investment Decisions 
8 – 8:45 a.m. — Open discussion: AI costs, business cases, ROI, value measurement, and practical trade-offs
8:45 – 9 a.m. — Anonymous Q&A — Any question about AI you’ve been too afraid to ask

Location

CLA Connection Center
14815 Ballantyne Village Way, Suite 400
Charlotte, NC 28277

Questions?

Contact CLA’s meetings, events, and experience team at CLAevents@CLAconnect.com.