Bloomington small businesses have until Friday to apply for a six-week program designed to help owners use AI-assisted tools to solve everyday business challenges.

The Builder's Room, hosted by Amplify Bloomington and the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, is a free, grant-funded program that teaches participants how to develop practical business solutions using AI without any coding experience.

The program asks each participating business to identify one real operational challenge and build a tool that participants can apply today-to-day operations.

The Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association is sponsoring seven spots for businesses located within the city's Urban Enterprise Zone.

Small businesses participating in the program can develop projects such as customer intake forms, chatbot-style support tools, workflow automations, internal dashboards, marketing improvements, and staff training resources.

John Fernandez, CEO of Amplify Bloomington, says the goal is to help small businesses use technology in practical ways rather than just learning about AI.

"We feel like there's an opportunity to help demystify it, help adoption, especially with small, medium-sized enterprises, main street businesses, to help them be more competitive and to help them grow and be successful as entrepreneurs," Fernandez said.

The six-week program is designed to help businesses spend less time managing repetitive tasks and more time growing their businesses.

The first cohort is expected to include about 15 to 20 businesses through partnerships with the Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association and the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce.

The first session begins September 8 at the Mill.