Long Island AI academy gives 49 businesses $5,000 implementation grants

Forty-nine Long Island businesses have finished five months of AI training and received $5,000 grants to put their deployment plans into practice. Stony Brook University detailed the inaugural LIA-AI Growth Academy’s September 24, 2026 graduation in an October 8 account, describing a program that paired practical instruction with individual business advice and implementation funding.

A business plan before the spending

The Long Island Association Foundation launched the free academy with Google.org support, working with Stony Brook University. Graduates gathered at the university’s Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology, or CEWIT. University AI experts and advisors from the Long Island Small Business Development Center provided training and mentorship.

Each business worked with an advisor on a customized deployment strategy and budget. Stacey Sikes, acting president and CEO of the Long Island Association, said graduates collectively intend to use about two dozen platforms. Planned applications include marketing, customer support, meeting productivity, workflow automation, customer relationship management and employee training.

Lessons covered the foundations of large language models and practical workflows, including agentic AI, alongside privacy, ethics and implementation strategies. Participants developed their plans through small-group work and individual mentoring. Sikes emphasized that training was as important as the money: owners needed the knowledge to put their grants to work.

One graduate also received an additional $5,000 grant through a drawing. That money remained available because an originally selected business did not complete the requirements. Graduates can continue using business advising, workshops and other resources as clients of the Small Business Development Center, regional director Willa Smith told them.

Weekly reports are already running

Mark X. Cronin offered a concrete example from John’s Crazy Socks, part of the Abilities Rising organization. He said his nine-person central operation uses AI to organize marketing plans, create social media graphics, assist research and editing, and produce standardized reports tracking key performance indicators—measures used to monitor the business.

Cronin said his weekly reports are already run by AI when he arrives on Mondays. Elsewhere in the organization, employees use it for retail research and promotion planning, graphics, standard operating procedures and training materials. These are participant-described uses, rather than measured results across the graduating class.

“Make sure that you preserve authenticity,” he said. “When you lose the authenticity that small businesses have very naturally, I think that’s when you lose the connection to the community. That’s when you lose your markets as well.”

Lav Varshney, director of Stony Brook’s AI Innovation Institute

New capabilities, without losing the connection

Varshney urged owners to look beyond making existing operations faster. He argued that AI’s greater potential lies in new capabilities and different ways of operating, marketing or serving customers. But he cautioned against sacrificing the community relationships and satisfaction of craft that small businesses bring to their work.

Mónica Bugallo, Stony Brook’s interim vice president for research and innovation, placed the measure of success after graduation: what businesses do next to implement the ideas and plans they developed.