Karen Cystler
SALISBURY – Artificial intelligence was the focus at the Rowan County Chamber of Commerce’s Power in Partnership breakfast in November, held at Trinity Oaks in Salisbury.
The program included a presentation of Dr. Lane Freeman, a nationally recognized expert in AI and education. After 25 years in education, Freeman taught at the high school level for twelve years before moving to community college. He is the State Director of Online Learning for the North Carolina Community College System.
Freeman bragged about Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, the event’s sponsor, saying they have a good gem here, and it seems like they have a great way to embrace AI.
There are some valid concerns about AI, he said, which is why he’s happy to show fun ways it can be used. Sharing the example of a car that can be used as a getaway vehicle in a robbery or for travel, Freeman said AI is the same. It can be used to do bad things or for good.
During his presentation, he shared examples of what individuals can do with AI and said there is an expectation among the workforce that graduates know how to use it, “and so when you come into a workplace, it’s important to know how to use it.”
Creating images is fun and can be used in many ways, he said. He noted that he used AI to create every image in his presentation.
He showed several generated photos of himself and his family, including one of his mother from 1957 that he had uploaded, had it colorized and asked AI to make it look like the photo had been taken with a digital camera in 2025, then had it animate where he could see her walking as a young child.
“This is a really cool trick to try,” he said.
Freeman said some are afraid to use AI, but said it’s easy to do and if you can work with Google, then you can work with AI.
“I think the best way to think about AI when you work with it,” he said, “is as an administrative assistant.”
And that’s why, when he gives presentations, he types up a script and has his assistant, whom he called Jen, create a PowerPoint presentation.
He introduced Jen to the audience and had her introduce herself, then demonstrated how to translate what was said into multiple languages and answer questions.
Freeman emphasized the need to fact-check AI, saying it is smart, but direction and context are important.
He showed this further when he asked how many r’s are in the word strawberry and her answer was two.
“It’s very smart, but sometimes things go wrong. You always have to fact-check what AI tells you,” says Freeman. “Just because AI tells you something doesn’t mean it’s true. That’s part of the critical thinking and problem-solving skills that we need to work on and I think that probably provides an opportunity to get students to think critically, to question what they’re getting to make sure they actually understand the concepts.”
Additional features included a storybook he created with Gemini, and one of his favorite tools, he said, is Google Veo 3, which creates videos with clues.
AI-generated songs via Suno were demonstrated when Freeman created several songs specifically for the chamber event. These included a country, gospel and bluegrass version of songs titled “Rowan Chamber Fan That Flame” and “Thank God for the Rowan Chamber,” which drew cheers from the crowd.
Freeman said they could use this to come up with jingles for their companies.
In terms of educational use, he said one of the most impactful things he had seen is NotebookLM, which allows the user to take notes and create a video presentation of those notes with flashcards and quiz questions.
Besides AI being used for fun and in education, he said it is also impacting the workforce.
When working with small businesses, Freeman says they offer workshops on AI and adds that community colleges offer a continuing education course, an AI survey course. He has trained people in using AI in specific areas, including legal and medical paralegal courses, “and I know our colleges are ready to prepare.”
As for the impact this will have on the workforce, Freeman said he didn’t see this eliminating jobs, but he did see some of those jobs disappearing.
“I see people moving into different areas in that sector because AI can’t complete the entire career field,” he said. “He’s very good at tasks. He’s not necessarily good at a whole job.”
He gave an example of writing something intensive and said AI could help with that, but it won’t do everything he said when it comes to the personal interactions you have with people.
A task done with Gen AI can be completed faster as he indicated on a card that a task that would take 115 minutes typically takes 30-35 minutes with AI.
That’s why he said, “You can see that the better you get at using AI, the more you can produce,” and just like in the example of nurses, they could spend more time with their patients instead of sitting at a computer inputting information.
In healthcare, Freeman said there would be a big impact because AI can read MRIs and X-rays, but he still wants a human to look at it too.
However this technology is used, Freeman said one thing is important to use: what he calls the AI sandwich, which means that “the human comes first, then we invite AI, and then we finish with a human.”
He said that the better the user knows the content, the better he/she can provide clues to it. He provided tips on how to do this, including providing instructions, providing context about the project, providing details about what you want it to look like, and sharing examples.
Also speaking during the event, Dr. Carol Spalding, president of RCCC, addressed the crowd and distributed a proclamation to “recognize and celebrate the partnership between the Rowan County Chamber of Commerce and RCCC, whose shared vision and collective efforts continue to uplift our students, strengthen our workforce and uplift the community.”
