NCW AI Expo puts human expertise at center of technology discussion

WENATCHEE — As artificial intelligence tools find their way into workplaces across North Central Washington, participants at a regional gathering Aug. 11 focused less on what the technology can do on its own than on how it can extend knowledge people already bring to their work.

The NCW Tech Alliance's 2026 AI Expo brought representatives from education, business, technology, health care, nonprofits, government, agriculture and workforce development to the Wenatchee Convention Center and Pybus Public Market for workshops, demonstrations, a keynote, panel discussion and a competition highlighting practical uses of AI.

That range was reflected in the audience. With many participants identifying with more than one sector, education was represented by 62% of attendees, technology and IT by 48%, nonprofits and community organizations by 41% and small businesses and entrepreneurs by 38%. Seventy-eight percent of attendees came from Chelan, Douglas, Grant and Okanogan counties.

Across those sectors, examples presented at the expo shared a common starting point: existing expertise and an existing problem to solve.

That was particularly visible during the AI in Action: Use Case Showdown, where four finalists demonstrated applications in education, health care, behavioral health and agriculture. Audience members selected Sheena Zacherle, creator of Sheena Town, as the fan favorite, earning her a $4,000 award presented by Microsoft.

Zacherle created Sheena Town to give students hands-on experience making financial decisions and confronting the real costs of living. For nearly a decade, she managed versions of the simulation through spreadsheets, printed materials and other manual processes. She has since used AI to help develop the concept into a web application, moving more of the student experience online.

The example also illustrates a side of artificial intelligence that can be obscured by debates over whether the technology allows people to produce work outside their own expertise. AI can also accelerate work already developed through years of specialized knowledge. In Zacherle's case, the technology did not create the educational concept; it helped turn nearly a decade of experience refining and administering it into a tool that can be updated and expanded more readily. The distinction appeared throughout the expo: AI was presented not as a substitute for expertise, but as a way to make existing expertise more iterative, adaptable and accessible.

The other finalists showed similar applications of AI to knowledge already developed within their fields. Franco Lopez III of Vanguard Metabolic Nutrition demonstrated how AI is being used to translate more than 14 years of clinical expertise into personalized care tools and standardized workflows. Dean Lester of Behavioral Tech Institute demonstrated AI-powered avatars designed to let therapists practice difficult clinical interactions before working with high-risk clients.

Steve Mantle of innov8.ag presented HarvestReplay, which combines agricultural and labor data to help growers examine how decisions made throughout a season affect farm performance. In each case, the technology was being used to organize, extend or scale knowledge developed by people already working in the field.

That relationship between technology and human expertise also surfaced during the Leading Through Tech Transformation Panel, which brought together Aaron Parrott of SkillSource, C. Becket Mahnke of Confluence Health, Heather Hunter of Chelan County PUD, James Richmond of the City of Moses Lake and Nik Bergman of Quincy School District. Chanel R. Hall of the Technology Alliance moderated the discussion.

Panelists discussed organizational readiness, governance, privacy, security, workforce impacts and the role of human oversight as their organizations consider or implement AI tools.

Mahnke described AI tools being used at Confluence Health to identify potentially useful information and connections within patient records while reducing some administrative work. The goal, according to the presentation, is to give physicians more capacity for patient care and other work requiring their expertise.

Workshops throughout the expo ranged from introductory AI skills and Spanish-language AI education to governance, business decision-making, Microsoft Copilot, enterprise implementation, personalized AI assistants and other practical applications.

Across the presentations, the emphasis remained on beginning with an organization's goals and challenges rather than adopting AI simply because the technology is available. The examples varied widely by industry, but largely treated AI as a tool for reducing repetitive work, organizing information and assisting decisions, leaving expertise, judgment and human connection with the people doing the work.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media