Screenshot 2026-01-22 at 10.04.36 PM.png

Our AI Journey with Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses

Dan Lindberg of Applied Economic Insight ® LLC and Raj Muthupandiyan of Arivu LLC are co-authoring a new book with one clear mission: to help small- and mid-size businesses apply AI in practical, real-world ways. Not theory, not hype, but the everyday wins that actually move a business forward.

We’ve had the privilege of interviewing dozens of SMB-focused CEOs, Presidents, CFOs, and leaders/change agents across marketing, operations, and IT.

In the coming months, we will share the foundational insights from our work in our blog below.

If you're interested in joining our AI community of practice for small- and medium-sized businesses, please provide your information via the link below.

I'd like to learn more about the community of practice.

Blog

Don't Ask What AI Can Do: Discover Where it Truly Adds Value

Most AI initiatives fail because the business problem was never clearly defined. Before choosing tools, you must break down how your business delivers value. A 5-step framework helps you identify your "North Star" metric and find the bottlenecks where time and money get stuck. Stop asking what AI can do. Start asking where your business is fragile. Successful AI use cases start with operations, not algorithms. Solve the business problem first; the technology comes last.

Dan Lindberg and Raj Muthupandiyan

Jan 226 min read

Exciting News: Co-Authoring a Book on Practical AI for SMBs

Join Our Community of Practice Raj Muthupandiyan of Arivu LLC and I are thrilled to announce that we are co-authoring a new book. Our mission is clear: we aim to help small- and mid-size businesses apply AI in practical, real-world ways. The Focus of Our Book Not theory. Not hype. But the everyday wins that actually move a business forward. We believe that AI can transform businesses, but only when it is applied effectively. This book will provide actionable insights and str

Dan Lindberg

Dec 17, 20252 min read

Dan Lindberg is the founder and principal of Applied Economic Insight ® LLC. His insights have been featured in Discover Artificial Intelligence, Business Economics, and Homes.com. He served as the first Director of the Applied AI Lab at Waukesha County Technical College and currently teaches business analytics and data science courses at Marquette University and Alverno College. In 2022, Dan won the Contributed Paper Award from the National Association for Business Economics. Dan has a Master's Degree in Applied Economics from Marquette University and has over a decade of experience consulting in predictive analytics.

Raj Muthupandiyan is an applied technology advisor and the founder of Arivu LLC, where he is dedicated to turning the complexity of AI into practical results for the SMB community. With over two decades of experience across manufacturing, financial services, and service-based industries, Raj understands that for a small or mid-sized business, technology is only valuable if it drives growth and operational efficiency. He focuses less on the "hype" of emerging tools and more on the real-world constraints that leaders face, designing solutions that are secure, sustainable, and realistic. Raj holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Marquette University.