Kevin Fleming
Kevin Fleming got his first taste of generative AI in 2022 when a friend let him try out an early model. It changed the direction of his fledgling startup company, Writing.io, which up until then he envisioned as a publishing platform.
“I remember using (the 2022 AI model),” said Fleming, Writing.io’s founder and CEO. “And it was one of those things where you go home on Friday working on one thing and you start work again on Monday and you have a totally different plan or outlook for the company. I realized this was the future and we were in the perfect position to pivot into it.”
After that, Writing.io became a business that makes AI education courses and tools, selling subscriptions at a variety of price points. It is among a bevy of online AI education platforms that have cropped up as tools like ChatGPT gain widespread use. Florida SouthWestern State College’s Corporate & Community Education website advertises an Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Suite course for $230. The California-based company Coursera offers an AI for Everyone course for $49. And Maine-based Certstaffix Training sells an AI Introduction course for $200.
Grand View Research firm estimates that the global AI education industry, propelled by e-learning platforms and investments in education technology startups, will grow by about 31% from $5.9 billion in 2024 to $32.2 billion in 2030.
“There was a major need for rapid education to help people get up to speed on this transition, transformation, that was happening,” Fleming said.
Fleming made the company’s introductory course, which normally costs $200, available to Gulfshore Business staff. With its short modules lasting a few minutes each, most people will be able to breeze through it in a few hours and emerge with basic knowledge of what generative AI tools are good for, what they lack and how to use them. The modules are peppered with links for Writing.io’s paid subscriptions.
Writing.io’s course is designed to help individuals or small-business staff in just about any industry quickly get up to speed on AI and enhance their workflow, Fleming said. “(A) lot of teams and companies feel like they’re internally not positioned like they should be for the rise of AI, and our mission and our goal is to help your team get up to speed as quickly as possible.”
One of the Writing.io team’s challenges is keeping up with a fast-moving technology by regularly updating its services and products.
“My philosophy is that we needed to have it done yesterday,” Fleming said.
The company is giving away 10,000 subscriptions to the introductory course in Lee, Charlotte and Collier counties to full-time residents, small businesses with staff of 10 or fewer and nonprofits. Writing.io partnered with the Fort Myers philanthropic nonprofit, The Collaboratory, to help distribute the subscriptions to its network of local nonprofits in Lee, Charlotte and Collier counties.
“I thought it was a really good intro (to AI),” said Dawn Belamarich, president and CEO of The Collaboratory. “I had some baseline knowledge of AI but it helped give me a further understanding. I think it’s a really good high level ‘how to use AI’ for maybe people who are scared of using it and ways you could use it better.”
Before Writing.io, Fleming, 38, was a managing partner for a startup incubator and founded CreditForums.com, an online community for credit information; and Contenta, a content writing platform, according to LinkedIn. Fleming and his wife, Amanda Scheibner, the company’s chief learning officer, moved to Naples from Philadelphia in 2018 and quickly fell in love with the area.
“We found as people often do find, the winters here are a lot more pleasant,” he said.
