From AI Workshop to Daily Practice: How One Small Business Owner Is Putting AI to Work

By ICIC | September 22, 2026

When Ben Canary brought Nathan, his brother and business partner, with him to the Intuit More with AI Tour stop in Indianapolis, he knew Nathan had little experience with artificial intelligence. What Ben did not expect was for his brother to leave the event excited about ChatGPT.

Now, Nathan uses it every day.

“The best part of that workshop was bringing my brother, who had pretty much zero experience with AI. He came away excited about using ChatGPT and is now a daily user.”
– Ben Canary, CEO and co-founder

For Ben, that experience captured something important about bringing AI into a small business. The technology itself is only part of the equation. People need to understand it, feel comfortable with it, and see how it can help them do their work.

That is the approach Ben is now taking at Herculean Prepared Meals, the Indianapolis-based company he started with Nathan in 2016. What began with homemade meals for friends has grown into six retail locations and nationwide delivery.

As Herculean prepares for its next stage of growth, Ben is finding ways to bring AI into the business without losing sight of the people behind it.

A Business That Started With a Simple Yes

Herculean was never supposed to become a business.

Ben was working toward getting in the best shape of his life by his 30th birthday, which meant spending plenty of time cooking. After moving in with his brother, the two started preparing healthy, high-protein meals together.

Then friends started asking if they could buy some.

“At maybe the tenth person to ask, we started saying yes,” Ben recalls.

Nathan brought his background as a bodybuilder, while Ben brought his passion for cooking. Together, they initially built the company around a highly structured approach to nutrition. Over time, they learned from their customers and expanded the business into a broader meal solution for people with different goals and routines.

Listening to those customers remains central to how Ben leads.

Reflecting on what he learned in his MBA program at Babson College, he says, “Sales is all about listening and not about talking.”

That philosophy has shaped more than his approach to sales. It has influenced how he thinks about growth, employees, technology, and even the mistakes he has made along the way.

Learning to Question What’s Shiny and New

One of those mistakes was a location decision that did not work out.

Ben had built a decision tree that pointed toward one suburb. Then he saw another opportunity: a beautiful redevelopment where hundreds of millions of dollars had already been invested. He fell in love with the location and went against his own model.

The location turned out to be a poor fit for Herculean, costing the company money, time, and the opportunity to pursue a stronger option.

“Since then I have tried to be more aware of the different biases I can fall for, and to make strictly data-driven decisions when it comes to locations and channel growth,” he says.

That lesson now informs how Ben evaluates AI. Rather than adopting technology because it is new or receiving attention, he wants to understand where it can address a real business need.

The question is always the same: What will actually make the business work better?

Making AI Practical for His Team

That question followed Ben into the Intuit More with AI Tour, which he learned about through his ongoing connection to ICIC after graduating from the Manufacturing Accelerator Program.

The tour brought more than 350 small business owners together through six half-day events nationwide. Through expert-led workshops, participants explored practical applications, tested AI tools, and learned how to use the technology responsibly. The sessions also included hands-on practice and ready-to-use templates for areas such as marketing, customer engagement, finance, operations, and procurement.

For Ben, the most useful takeaway was not a particular prompt or tool. It was seeing how quickly someone with almost no experience could become comfortable using AI.

His brother was the proof.

Back at Herculean, Ben has since provided several employees with access to a paid ChatGPT plan.

He sees that investment as a starting point, not the finish line.

“I think helping my employees feel more confident will help them adopt the technology more,” he says.

That distinction matters. Giving employees access to an AI tool does not mean they will automatically know when to use it or how to use it well. Ben wants his team to have enough understanding and confidence to figure that out for themselves.

He also plans to use what he learned at the workshop to help introduce AI to employees who are new to the technology.

The workshop did not just change how Ben thinks about AI. It changed how he thinks about helping other people adopt it.

Thinking About Guardrails Before Going Further

As more employees begin using AI, Ben is also thinking about where the technology should and should not be used.

One of his biggest takeaways from the workshop was the need for guardrails around employees’ use of large language models. What information can be entered into an AI tool? What needs to be reviewed by a person? Where should employees rely on their own judgment?

Those questions become more important as more people begin experimenting with AI.

Ben is also looking further ahead. He is interested in the possibility of eventually using AI agents for bookkeeping, among other applications.

But he is not rushing to put technology everywhere.

That restraint reflects a broader lesson he has learned as an entrepreneur: growth is not about saying yes to every opportunity. It is about knowing what fits the business and building the capacity to support it.

What Comes Next

Ben’s future goals include moving Herculean into a new production facility and expanding regionally. Eventually, he would like to help establish an incubator for emerging food manufacturing entrepreneurs.

AI will be one tool along the way, but it is not the destination.

For Ben, the more interesting question is how technology can help his people make better decisions, serve customers more effectively, and build a company that can support its next stage of growth.

His experience with the Intuit More with AI Tour gave him a practical starting point: introduce the technology, make it approachable, help people build confidence, and establish guardrails as they learn.

That may be one of the most useful lessons for other small business owners considering AI.

You do not need every answer before getting started. Sometimes it begins with inviting someone into the conversation, sitting down together, and seeing what the technology can actually do.

For Ben, that conversation started with his brother. Now, it is becoming part of how he thinks about the future of Herculean.

Explore how ICIC helps small business owners build the skills and confidence to put AI into practice at icic.ai.