Out of the Lab, Into the Office: How SkillSpout Is making AI adoption safe, structured, and accessible
Photo: Melanie McGee
Melanie McGee has spent nearly three decades working at the intersection of technology and education. From her early days as a software developer to launching STEM education programs and data science courses, she’s always been focused on one goal: helping people understand and apply emerging technologies.
Now, as the co-founder of SkillSpout™, she and co-founders Heather Lenz and Sarah Slavik are tackling one of Ohio’s most urgent challenges: how to adopt artificial intelligence in a way that works for everyone, not just IT departments.
Their solution? SkillSpout’s MomentumAI™, a structured AI rollout program that provides on-site AI training and change management to support leadership alignment, review and train on LLM tools, co-create policy, and upskill every employee. And it’s fully fundable through the State of Ohio’s TechCred program.
“Most companies don’t need more AI tools, they need a plan,” McGee said. “And they need support that doesn’t come with a half-million-dollar consulting contract.”
Why AI Rollouts Matter Now
AI is no longer a future trend, it’s a present-moment mandate. But too many companies are stuck in pilot paralysis or overwhelmed by complexity.
“The real blocker isn’t the tech itself,” said McGee. “It’s that organizations don’t have a safe, structured, and accessible way to get started.”
MomentumAI was designed to change that. With live support, real-world use cases, and clear policies, SkillSpout helps organizations roll out AI responsibly and productively.
Color 3 Embroidery — MomentumAI in Action
Color 3 Embroidery, an Ohio‑based manufacturer of custom‑decorated apparel, entered the MomentumAI program with one objective: convert hard‑won tribal knowledge into reliable, scalable systems, fast. Within a single quarter the pilot team showed how a handful of well‑trained employees, armed with GenAI tools (Gemini in their case) and smart policies, can unlock outsized business gains.
Operations Lead. Initially an AI Skeptic, Color 3’s Operations lead took his MomentumAI training to heart and started taking on projects that are saving the company money, time, and headaches. This tech-savvy team-member created a family of Custom GPTs (Google calls these Gems) that absorb legacy SOPs and return role‑specific training guides in seconds. He developed additional Gems to handle real‑time order look‑ups and lightning‑fast vendor translations. Although he isn’t a developer, with his newly found AI skills he’s currently working on making a lightweight integration with their system software – one that’s forecast to free roughly 40 labor‑hours per week.
Rapid‑Fire Quoting Assistant. During a two‑hour whiteboard sprint, Color 3 Embroidery’s president and a couple of members of the team prototyped a quoting Gem that pulls job specs from incoming emails, checks margins against historical data, and flags anomalies. The result: eight hours saved every week and pricing errors caught before they reach customers – an immediate quality lift.
Process‑Optimization Specialist. Another team member created Gem’s training pipeline, pressure‑tested prompts, and produced step‑by‑step walkthroughs so anyone can maintain or extend the system. They also rebuilt the international operations workbook that anchors overseas orders, eliminating hand‑off mistakes and giving managers a single, always‑current source of truth.
Office Manager. By applying MomentumAI prompting frameworks, the office manager spun up an onboarding bot that drafts agendas, assembles first‑day resources, and answers new‑hire questions on demand. Onboarding prep shrank from two business days to three hours, while new‑hire satisfaction scores soared.
Marketing Coordinator. Using AI for content planning, the coordinator generated a 90‑day social‑media roadmap complete with themes, engagement tactics, and performance metrics. Learning how to make interactive dashboards within her large language model saved her weeks of time and freed up her capacity for creative execution.
President. Leveraging an AI co‑pilot, the company’s president transformed a decade of legacy procedure notes into clear, modular SOPs – compressing three to six months of documentation work into six days.
Bottom-Line Impact. By pairing MomentumAI training with cost-effective tools such as Google Gemini, Color 3 Embroidery reclaimed dozens of labor-hours each week, sharpened quote accuracy, accelerated onboarding, and locked down critical know-how for its next growth surge – clear proof that a people-first AI rollout delivers fast, measurable wins.
“The most exciting part? It’s not just me using AI – it’s the whole team, trained and aligned,” the President of Color 3 Embroidery stated.
These aren’t tech pilots. They’re department-wide transformations that improve quality, consistency, and team morale. “What Color 3 Embroidery did proves that AI doesn’t need to be scary or siloed,” said McGee. “It can be simple, powerful, and people-driven.”
Structured, Safe, and Accessible
MomentumAI guides your organization through a structured, three-phase approach for effective, secure, and sustainable AI transformation. Here’s how it works:
Phase 1: Laying the Foundation – Your AI Transformation Team engages in hands-on exploration of AI tools, learns research-backed prompting techniques, gains an understanding of risks, and strategically selects solutions tailored to your organization’s goals.
Phase 2: Scaling, Policy, and Process Alignment – The AI Transformation Team deepens their expertise with selected AI tools, actively creating and customizing AI assistants (Custom GPTs). They concurrently explore essential AI policy considerations, ensuring seamless alignment between policies, workflows, organizational values, and security standards.
Phase 3: Embedding, Rollout, and Long-Term Success – Ultimately, the whole organization goes through training based on the tools chosen using the guidelines created by your team to learn how to use AI in a safe and structured way. Role-specific training empowers your entire workforce to confidently and securely embed AI tools into daily operations, supported by ongoing change management to ensure lasting adoption.
Continued Support Across Teams – Unlike traditional one-and-done training, SkillSpout continues to support you through a series of technical assistance sessions where your team can join, get additional coaching and questions answered for long-term results.
“AI anxiety is real,” McGee said. “We meet people where they are. On-site and face-to-face to build confidence and reduce fear.” Rather than overwhelm teams with technical jargon, MomentumAI provides immediate wins: smarter scheduling, faster quoting, higher quality control, and smoother onboarding. “It’s not about learning to code,” she added. “It’s about everyone learning how to use AI as a teammate.”
TechCred: The Great Equalizer
One of SkillSpout’s greatest strengths is its ability to unlock Ohio’s TechCred program for every Buckeye State client. The program reimburses companies for training workers in tech skills. This means SkillSpout’s services are most often delivered at no cost to the business.
“TechCred is a game-changer,” McGee emphasized. “It makes AI accessible to a wide variety of industries from professional service companies, educational institutions, manufacturing, healthcare, non-profits and more.”
MomentumAI courses are TechCred approved, and SkillSpout handles the application process end-to-end.
“No red tape. No big HR team required,” she said. “We make sure cost never gets in the way of innovation.”
From the Classroom to the Boardroom
McGee’s unique career path helps explain her passion for making tech practical and human. A former data science instructor at Case Western Reserve University and longtime STEM advocate, she’s been demystifying complex technologies for years.
“I’ve seen what happens when people feel left behind,” she said. “With AI, we can’t afford to do that again.”
Her mission now is to ensure Ohio’s workforce, not just its machines, are future-ready.
“We’re not just here to train. We’re here to empower people to lead.”
Ohio’s AI Moment
As the AI revolution accelerates, McGee sees an enormous opportunity for Ohio to lead – if the right investments are made in people, not just infrastructure.
“We’re attracting huge investments like Intel and Meta, which is incredible,” she said. “But to compete long-term, we need AI-literate teams in every zip code.”
MomentumAI, she argues, is how you do that. All without creating bottlenecks or budget blowouts.
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Want to get started with SkillSpout? Book your free 20-minute AI Readiness Briefing https://SkillSpout.com/ai-plan