Humanity Innovation Labs

We’re excited to see Stephanie Battista Hubbard, Head of Innovation at Humanity Innovation Labs™, joining the BBB AI Hub as an instructor.

Stephanie’s focus is on helping organizations move beyond the “AI for AI’s sake” conversation and explore where it can be practically useful in the work people are already doing.

One area she’s particularly passionate about is the skilled workforce — helping organizations capture tribal knowledge, document processes and workflows, and make the way work gets done more visible, efficient, and consistent.

Because some of the most valuable knowledge in an organization isn’t sitting in a database.

It’s sitting with the people who have been doing the work for years.

AI can be a powerful enabler for capturing, organizing, and making that knowledge more accessible — but only when it starts with understanding the people, processes, and operational reality first.

That’s exactly the kind of practical, human-centered approach Stephanie brings to AI.

We’re proud to see her contributing to the BBB AI Hub and the growing community of organizations helping businesses understand how to put AI to work in meaningful ways.

Check out the BBB AI Hub’s trainers and resources:

BBB AI Hub — Services from Our Trainers
https://www.bbbaihub.org/services-from-our-trainers

We are excited to share that Stephanie Battista Hubbard has joined Exponential Impact’s Survive & Thrive AI Training for Small Businesses.

She has been fortunate to work alongside the XI team in a few different capacities, and continues to be impressed by the resources they’re building for entrepreneurs, founders, and growing businesses.

What she appreciate's most is that XI doesn’t approach AI as a standalone technology conversation. Their programs are focused on helping businesses learn, build, test, and grow — with practical resources, mentorship, accelerators, and opportunities to put ideas into action.

And now, through AI Training for Small Business, she'll be helping businesses and entrepreneurs explore where AI can actually be useful in their day-to-day work — from understanding opportunities to building practical skills and applying the right tools.

If you’re an entrepreneur, founder, or small business looking for resources, mentorship, education, or ways to explore AI, we encourage you to check out what Exponential Impact is doing.

There’s a lot more there than one program — and some pretty amazing resources for businesses at different stages.

And we are excited to be part of it.

https://xisurviveandthrive.com/ai-training-for-small-business/

Humanity Innovation Labs brought "Vibe to Build" to SOCO Week — a 60-minute hands-on session where builders learned to turn one idea into a working mobile app using AI. Participants worked through a simple 6-step framework — audience, problem, workflow, outcome, retention, and build — before prompting a real app into existence live in Bolt. Proof that you don't need to code to start building; you just need to know what you're trying to solve.

If your in the springs check out our upcoming workforce development workshops. https://www.humanityinnovationlabs.com/workforce-development

Stephanie Battista Hubbard Exponential Impact Southern Colorado Startup https://socostartupweek.com/

Big thank you to our partners as always for continuing to grow this tech community here locally and across southern Colorado.
https://exponentialimpact.com/our-events/

Modernization Mindset. 04 — Research Before You Build

One of the biggest mistakes we see in modernization work is starting with the technology. The conversation quickly becomes: Which AI tool should we use? What should we automate? Which platform should we implement? Those are important questions, but they aren’t the first questions. Before you modernize an operation, you need to understand how the work actually happens today—and that usually requires research. Not just surveys or interviews, but getting close to the work: watching how people make decisions, understanding the workarounds they’ve created, documenting the exceptions, and uncovering the knowledge that exists in people’s heads but nowhere in the system.

We’ve seen this firsthand with a manufacturing client that introduced a diagnostic AI tool to help technicians troubleshoot equipment faults faster. For weeks, it wasn’t performing the way they expected. The easy conclusion was that the AI wasn’t good enough. But when we looked more closely at the work, we found something else. The troubleshooting process wasn’t actually documented. Three experienced technicians had developed a deep understanding of the equipment over years of experience. They knew what to check first, which symptoms could be ignored, what combinations of signals meant trouble, and when something required escalation. They didn’t think of this as a process. It was simply how they did the work.

Once we mapped those decision paths and made that knowledge visible, the conversation changed. The problem wasn’t simply the AI. We were asking technology to modernize a process we hadn’t taken the time to understand.

That experience reinforced something I’ve seen repeatedly throughout my work in research, product design, and modernization: you can’t modernize what you don’t understand. Research helps reveal the gap between how an organization thinks work gets done and how it actually gets done. It surfaces tribal knowledge, workarounds, judgment calls, exceptions, and opportunities that may never show up in a process document or system. And that understanding is what allows you to make better decisions about what should be automated, what should be redesigned, what needs to be documented, and where technology can actually create value.

So before choosing the AI tool, the platform, or the automation strategy, spend some time with the people doing the work. Ask them: “What do you know that the system doesn’t?” That question can uncover more modernization opportunities than another technology demo.

Where does the most important operational knowledge live in your organization—your systems, your documentation, or your people? Humanity Innovation Labs™

Connecting Educators + Industry to Create More Opportunities for Students
As the Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering Advisory Board within PPBEA, our goal is to help strengthen the connection between education and industry—and make it easier for both sides to create meaningful work-based learning opportunities for high school students.

This summer, we brought educators and industry partners together through two collaborative events focused on one simple question: How can we make it easier to create real-world career experiences for students? For industry, creating an ISP or other work-based learning opportunity can feel like a lot to coordinate. For educators, finding the right industry partner, defining a meaningful experience, and fitting it into the classroom can be equally challenging. We believe it shouldn't have to be that hard.

Our summer events were designed to bring both sides together to share the work, learn from each other, and build opportunities collaboratively—with PPBEA serving as the connector.

The ultimate goal is bigger than an one off internship or site visit. It is about giving students earlier exposure to the incredible range of careers available in advanced manufacturing and engineering—from highly technical and specialized roles to hands-on work that requires precision, problem-solving, craftsmanship, and attention to detail.

When educators and industry design these experiences together, we can create stronger career pathways for students while making the process more manageable for the people building them. Less burden. More collaboration. More opportunities. A stronger workforce pipeline for our region.

Bob Gemignani Theresa Klinitski Joel Orn Samantha Baumgartner Sir Harry Knight Bill Dobbs

Bob Gemignani - we are going to miss you but happy retirement!!! Stephanie Battista Hubbard

Artificial intelligence is changing the way organizations work—but lasting transformation starts with people, processes, and the knowledge they've built over years.

Humanity Innovation Labs™ is proud to support the **BBB AI Hub** and its mission to help businesses adopt AI with confidence, responsibility, and practical real-world applications.

As part of our involvement, stay tuned for our upcoming **monthly AI workshops**, where we'll explore topics including:

🧠 Capturing and preserving tribal knowledge before it's lost
⚙️ Modernizing and optimizing legacy systems with AI
🤖 Practical AI strategies that improve operations and decision-making
🚀 Building AI-ready organizations through human-centered innovation

Whether you're a business leader, manufacturer, nonprofit, educator, or technology professional, these sessions are designed to help you bridge the gap between today's operations and tomorrow's intelligent enterprise.

Be sure to subscribe to the **BBB AI Hub** newsletter to receive updates on upcoming classes, workshops, AI resources, and community events.

📩 Sign up today:
https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/sl/ZnhIaaO/bbbaihub

Learn more about the BBB AI Hub:
https://www.bbbaihub.org/

Whats Happening the Week of July 13-July 17 Email from BBB AI Hub Stop Googling Your AI. Start Directing It. Virtual July 14 Register --> Build Your Claude AI Sales Force Virtual July 15 Register --> Mastering Claude Code: The No-Code AI Builde

I’m incredibly proud of our first cohort of the XI Discovery Accelerator — Idea to MVP.

A sincere thank you to Exponential Impact for the opportunity to design and build this program from the ground up—and for the continued support from Max Cupp, Coral Laski, Jon-Michael Horst, and Rachel Maxwell. This vision came to life through collaboration, trust, and a shared commitment to helping founders build what’s next.

In just four weeks, these founders moved from early concept through problem definition → user validation → MVP development → testing & pitch—emerging with real, working vibe-coded applications, clear product stories, brand direction, company foundations, and live websites. All powered by an AI-first approach to product development.

Cohort Highlights

Sabrina Lynn (RestUPP)
A human-centered support platform combining services + AI to help individuals navigate complex life moments
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabrinahepler/
Website: https://restupp.com/ | App: https://app.restupp.com

Elisha Niebuhr (Project Ready / Modern Interior Company)
An interior design logistics and fulfillment platform streamlining procurement, tracking, and ex*****on at scale
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisha-niebuhr-a6b5194a/
Website: https://www.projectready.app/

Eliot Ferstl (Pando Core)
A runtime security platform delivering a zero-configuration ex*****on layer to protect production environments
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eaferstl/
Website: https://pandocore.xyz | Portal: https://portal.pandocore.xyz

Jarrod Stewart (BlackBear AI)
A secure AI marketing infrastructure enabling privacy-first, compliant customer engagement
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jarrod-stewart/
Website: https://blackbear-ai.com

Huge congratulations to each founder for the focus, speed, and intentionality you brought to this process. Building at this level in four weeks is no small feat.

A special thank you to our industry experts—Dr. Shawn Murray, Jenna Price, David Silva, Evyn White, Trevor Hile, and Mago Lauritzen—for engaging deeply, listening closely, and providing critical feedback at such a pivotal stage in these journeys.

This is why the program exists—to turn ideas into real, testable products with clarity, intention, and momentum.

On to the next cohort.

This discovery accelerator that we are leading with Exponential Impact encapsulates the essence of how ideas need to be developed in order to evolve over time to mature a product solution. It takes effort, experimentation, and desire. If you have been sitting on an idea bank in your mind - come join our next accelerator in June… let us help you create your first product.

Last night, the Pikes Peak Business & Education Alliance (PPBEA) hosted its 8th Regional Career Pathway Summit for the Pikes Peak region at Sand Creek High School in Colorado Springs—bringing together over 300 educators, industry leaders, and community partners committed to building the future workforce.

This year’s summit reflected the strength and momentum of PPBEA’s mission—aligning education and industry through career-connected learning. With more than a dozen breakout advisory boards, conversations focused on actionable pathways across sectors, all centered on workforce readiness and real-world application.

Stephanie Hubbard proudly serves as Chair of the Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering Advisory Board, where our work is deeply aligned with the Colorado Department of Education and the state’s “Big Three” framework for postsecondary and workforce readiness:

12 college credits
Industry credential or apprenticeship
Work-based learning (30+ hours, internships, or industry-sponsored projects)

The goal is clear: every student graduates with at least one of these experiences, ensuring they are prepared for both career and continued education.

The impact across the region is already tangible:

1,780 students enrolled in pathway programs
5,219 career-connected learning interactions
4,431 unique job postings in 2025
Strong participation from over 40 industry representatives

This is what a homegrown talent pipeline looks like for El Paso and Teller Counties.

The summit and specifically the advanced manufacturing & engineering advisory showcased powerful collaboration between education and industry:

*Student-led insights, including a compelling CTE testimonial
*Industry-sponsored projects tackling real manufacturing challenges
*Internship pathways focused on automation, programming, and entry-level skills
*Engineering lab tours highlighting hands-on learning in CNC, 3D printing, and advanced fabrication
*Special Recognition: Board & Presenters

A sincere thank you to our Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering Advisory Board—a dedicated group of 11 members spanning education and industry—who continuously put in the work to move this ecosystem forward. Your leadership, alignment, and commitment are what make this pathway real and scalable.

A special callout to our presenters and contributors who brought the session to life:

*CTE student voice (LUNA), grounding the work in real experience and impact
*Education leaders (Annie Peterschick and Ken Cox D49) who shared the latest on the Big Three framework and how it translates into opportunity
*Industry partners advancing internships, automation, and entry-level skill development (Joel Orn - Entegris)
*Manufacturing leaders showcasing Industry-Sponsored Projects (ISP), including real-world design challenges like wafer handling solutions (Batina Alosis - Comp2026)
*Regional collaborators creating competitions and hands-on challenges that connect students directly to industry needs
*Engineering educators who opened their labs, demonstrating the next generation of talent working across CNC, 3D printing, and advanced manufacturing technologies (Samantha Baumgartner - Microchip)

This level of collaboration—across board members, presenters, and partners—is exactly what makes PPBEA’s model so impactful.

Call to Action
If you’re a local manufacturer or industry partner in the Colorado Springs region and want to play a role in shaping the next generation workforce, now is the time to get involved. Whether through internships, industry-sponsored projects, or advisory participation—there’s a clear path to engage and make an impact.

Let’s continue creating a workforce ecosystem that is not only responsive—but future-ready.

Check Out The Latest News: https://www.fox21news.com/news/local/summit-aligns-education-with-workforce-needs-in-pikes-peak-region/