Dr. Kollin Napier joined business development and marketing professionals at The Yates Companies’ 2026 Business Development and Marketing Summit in Ocean Springs on October 14 for a conversation about how artificial intelligence could support client research, proposals and the work of pursuing new business.
Napier, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer for the Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Network (MAIN), Mississippi's statewide AI initiative, presented “AI worth putting your name on.” Yates Construction invited MAIN to discuss where AI is headed and how emerging tools could apply to the team’s work. The session connected those developments to assignments such as preparing for a client meeting and making company experience easier to find and use.
Preparing for a client conversation
The session considered how AI could help a team bring market research and company information together before a client meeting. A short account brief could organize what is known about a prospective client, identify questions about its plans and help the team prepare for the conversation.
One example gave AI a specific client assignment: prepare a 150-word brief for a business development director using approved records, link factual claims to their sources, identify gaps and finish with three questions for the client. Defining the reader and purpose helps the team decide what information deserves space in the brief and what the client conversation still needs to address.
Putting company experience to work
The proposal discussion examined how AI could help teams work through a solicitation, extract requirements and connect evaluation criteria to relevant project experience. A published construction-management solicitation provided a concrete example of the relationship between what a buyer requests and the evidence a response needs to provide.
Company knowledge was central to that discussion. Project records can establish scope and capabilities; experienced employees can explain the decisions, challenges and lessons behind the work. Connecting approved material to an AI tool could make that knowledge easier to retrieve when a team is preparing a proposal or responding to a client’s question.
Napier also explored AI as a sounding board for testing assumptions and considering objections a prospective client might raise. Other examples addressed concise meeting recaps and AI-assisted artwork, including the need for usable design files across different channels. The meeting-recap example organized decisions, open questions and next steps so colleagues could see what required action.
Where agents fit into business work
The conversation also addressed AI agents, which can use connected tools to work through several steps toward a goal. For a business team, that creates possibilities for linking research and document preparation across applications. The presentation examined how this differs from asking a chat assistant for a single response, while recognizing that the same platform can support both kinds of work.
As those connections expand, businesses need to decide what information a tool may access and which actions require someone’s approval. Preparing a client communication and authorizing it to be sent remain separate responsibilities. Those decisions belong alongside the discussion of what a tool could make possible.
Napier proposed starting with one workflow and comparing two approaches over two weeks. The comparison would consider the usefulness of the finished work, total time including review, and corrections needed before sharing. A team could then decide whether the application was worth continuing.
Businesses interested in exploring similar applications can use MAIN’s resource directory to find prompting guides, policy templates and AI playbooks. MAIN also offers free, online, self-paced AI training for Mississippi participants through Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. Enrollment is open through June 30, 2027, subject to seat and license availability.