Artificial intelligence will change more than the technology businesses use. It has the potential to change how organizations operate, make decisions, apply knowledge, organize work and compete. Huntington-based Stitch AI is helping businesses navigate that transformation deliberately.

For many organizations, gaining access to artificial intelligence is quickly becoming the easy part. Powerful AI capabilities are being incorporated into the technology businesses already use every day. The harder question is how those capabilities should actually change the business.

Organizations have years of knowledge, experience, decisions, processes and institutional understanding distributed across their people and systems. As AI becomes increasingly involved in how work gets done, leaders must determine where the technology creates real advantage, what work should change, what knowledge AI needs to understand the organization and where human judgment remains essential.

That is the transformation Stitch AI was created to help organizations navigate.

Stitch AI co-founder and CEO Rich O’Brien believes West Virginia should view the rise of artificial intelligence as an opportunity to lead rather than follow.

“Why not West Virginia?” O’Brien said. “AI innovation does not have to be confined to major metropolitan areas. Some of the smartest and most capable people in the world are right here. There is no reason West Virginia cannot become one of the nation’s leading technology hubs—perhaps even the next Silicon Valley. But we have to develop our talent, build companies here and help West Virginia businesses put AI to work.”

Today, Stitch works directly with organizational leaders through AI transformation and advisory services, helping them identify where artificial intelligence can create meaningful business advantage and what changes may be necessary to capture it. At the same time, the company is developing proprietary technology capabilities that support its work with organizations today and are informing products Stitch expects to bring to market as those capabilities mature.

Co-founder and CTO Josh Spence said that is precisely where Stitch AI can help.

“If you’re an organization that recognizes AI is going to be transformational in your industry, we’re there to help you navigate that transition,” Spence said. “We combine direct work with organizational leaders with technology and methods we’re developing ourselves. Because this transition isn’t just about writing faster emails. It’s about understanding how AI may fundamentally change how your organization operates.”

Spence, who discovered his interest in technology while serving in the United States Air Force, has spent more than two decades conducting cyber operations in the Air National Guard. He also served as Chief Information Security Officer for the State of West Virginia and as Chief Information Officer for Gov. Jim Justice. His experience helps shape Stitch AI’s work with organizations navigating the operational and strategic changes being created by artificial intelligence.

“We drive a foundational lesson to understand the fundamental difference between what AI tools do versus the technology we’re used to,” Spence said. “The technology we’re used to is the calculator, and we can pull a calculator out and ask two plus two, and it’s going to tell us four. Yours is going to tell you four. Mine’s going

to tell me four. It’s going to tell me four tomorrow because it’s deterministic. It’s giving you a validated answer.

“Generative AI does not work that way. It’s designed to give you a considered response because it is predicting the answer based on patterns. That is foundationally different from what a calculator does. But it also opens a whole different set of opportunities than what the calculator would.”

That distinction has significant implications for businesses. Generative AI is not simply another deterministic tool that can be inserted into an existing process. Organizations must become better at defining the outcomes they want, providing the right organizational context and applying human judgment to the responses AI produces.

Their perspective is shaped by earlier waves of technological change. For O’Brien, public uncertainty about AI echoes the internet’s arrival.

“I remember when the internet first reached consumers,” O’Brien said. “At first, people experimented with it. Over time, it became part of the workplace and gave rise to applications that changed how people worked and made businesses more productive. AI is following a similar path, but today much of the conversation is driven by fear—especially the fear that it will replace people. I believe that if we are deliberate about how we adopt, guide and apply AI, it can work for us rather than the other way around. We should engage with it now so we can help shape how it becomes part of our businesses and our daily lives.”

For West Virginia businesses, O’Brien and Spence believe the rapid development of AI creates both urgency and opportunity. Major investments in broadband, cybersecurity, entrepreneurship and technology infrastructure are expanding access to advanced technology across the state.

Initiatives such as Marshall University’s Institute for Cyber Security and the West Virginia Broadband Investment Plan are contributing to that progress. Support for technology-focused startups is also growing through organizations and programs such as Marshall University’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, known as the iCenter, and the gBETA accelerator program, of which Stitch AI is a graduate.

But access alone will not determine which organizations become more competitive. The advantage will increasingly come from how effectively businesses put those capabilities to work.

“Just having broadband available doesn’t make you a globally competitive or globally attractive location,” O’Brien said. “What that is going to require is the adoption of AI and sophistication of the users—how they’re actually using it and applying it. That is how we’re going to compete globally, not just having the service.”

While the opportunities presented by AI may seem endless—and even overwhelming—O’Brien is quick to emphasize that businesses should never underestimate the value of the human mind.

“There is still great value in human reasoning,” he said. “AI can be very helpful and useful as long as you understand where your reasoning can actually add value to the information that you’re getting. It gives smart answers, but it’s not always the right answer for your business. And that’s where you have to decide.”

For Stitch, effective AI transformation is therefore not about removing people from decision-making. It is about understanding where increasingly capable technology creates leverage and where human experience, critical thinking and judgment continue to create unique value.

Spence added that the pace of adoption will also play a role in how effectively businesses use advanced technologies.

“The ability to critically think and decipher and determine is key,” Spence said. “You’re going to have organizations that are going to suffer from analysis paralysis. They’re going to get integrated with AI, and then they’re not going to be able to make a decision because they’re going to hear too much. And then you’re going to have organizations that are going to try to use AI to move so quickly that they keep changing their mind and they don’t stay the course. It is an intimidating technology, no doubt about it, but there is a path to navigate that forward.”

There is no single roadmap for AI transformation. Organizations differ in how they compete, where their greatest opportunities exist, their tolerance for risk and how rapidly their leaders want the business to change. Stitch therefore begins with the outcomes an organization is trying to achieve rather than with a predetermined technology solution. Some businesses may choose a measured path toward adoption, while others may determine that moving quickly is strategically necessary.

For Stitch, AI adoption itself is not the measure of success. The more important question is whether AI helps an organization achieve the outcomes that matter to its business.

“Ultimately, success would be that we’re able to help companies adopt AI deliberately to the way they want to compete in business,” O’Brien said. “If a company is able to benefit from our services and the use of AI, and compete globally because of their adoption, that would be success for us.”

Organizations interested in exploring how artificial intelligence could change the way they operate and compete can learn more about Stitch AI at gostitchai.com and follow the company on LinkedIn.