Blab AI
William Steele Launches AI Curriculum for South Texas Executives
When the Rio Grande’s horizon turns gold at dusk, a new kind of learning is taking shape in Brownsville.
William Steele, the co‑founder of cross‑border trade‑finance firm Harva, has unveiled LeverageAI, a regional training program aimed at business and civic leaders in the Rio Grande Valley. The initiative, launched in early July 2026, began at the eBridge Center for Business and Commercialization in downtown Brownsville.
LeverageAI operates in partnership with the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation (BCIC), a nonprofit backed by a local sales‑tax levy that has long championed technology skills in the city. According to BCIC’s website, the eBridge Center now hosts an intensive, hands‑on curriculum tailored for executives, senior operational staff, and municipal officials.
“Build the tools your business needs. You, not the vendor,” reads the program’s mission statement on its website CuriousBuilder.ai. Steele explained that the curriculum is designed for people who do not need a technical background. “You don’t need to be technical, and you don’t need another tutorial,” he said. “You need to come out the other side able to build the things your business actually needs.”
The curriculum is organized into tiered tracks—beginner intensive, intermediate, advanced—and includes bespoke private intensives for individual organizations. Steele illustrated a custom program for a high‑end restaurant that would teach participants how to build an AI call‑service automation system that routes orders directly into a point‑of‑sale system.
Participants range from vice presidents of marketing, sales, and finance to chief financial officers, chief operating officers, board members of trade associations, economic‑development corporations, and local municipal staff. The program’s focus is on practical, role‑specific applications. For example, finance and loan‑management teams learn automated underwriting and IC memo preparation, while marketing teams learn to build automated content calendars.
The first cohort, which began in early July, was attended by members of the Texas International Produce Association (TIPA). During the cohort, TIPA participants built custom AI workflows that pull real‑time data from the USDA terminal market. The resulting dashboards give producers and distributors instant visibility into commodity pricing across regional and national markets. Steele noted that the team also used popular speech‑to‑text models to reduce typing time and improve communication.
Feedback collected by BCIC has been overwhelmingly positive. The organization’s strategic plan lists the AI training effort as a key component of fostering innovation and high‑growth technology skills in downtown Brownsville.
Steele’s long‑term goal is to extend the program beyond Cameron County to the entire four‑county Rio Grande Valley, building a regional workforce that can deploy AI tools in agriculture, finance, marketing, and municipal operations.
The launch comes at a time when the Rio Grande Valley is seeking to diversify its economy. Brownsville, the largest city in Cameron County and a major port of entry, has traditionally relied on trade, manufacturing, and agriculture.
LeverageAI’s approach differs from generic introductory courses by mapping each module to the day‑to‑day operational needs of the participant’s role. According to Steele, this alignment is essential for adoption. “Teams on the finance and loan management side are learning things on how to do automated underwriting and preparing IC memos,” he said. “Teams that are on marketing are learning how to build out marketing campaigns and automate different components of piecing together those content calendars.”
Although the eBridge Center program has only been running for a few weeks, the early results suggest that hands‑on, executive‑focused AI training can produce tangible business tools. As the program scales, Steele intends to partner with additional trade associations, economic‑development organizations, and municipalities across the valley.
The initiative is part of a broader movement to build AI skills in the South Texas region. While the program is still in its early stages, the combination of local government support, a clear curriculum, and real‑world applications positions it as a potential model for other regions seeking to build AI‑ready workforces.
In the coming months, LeverageAI plans to launch additional cohorts and expand its curriculum to cover new industries. BCIC will continue to monitor the program’s impact on local businesses and the broader economy.
The program’s success will depend on sustained participation, continued support from local government, and the ability to adapt the curriculum to evolving AI capabilities and industry needs.
William Steele, the co‑founder of cross‑border trade‑finance firm Harva, has unveiled LeverageAI, a regional training program aimed at business and civic leaders in the Rio Grande Valley. The initiative, launched in early July 2026, began at the eBridge Center for Business and Commercialization in downtown Brownsville.
LeverageAI operates in partnership with the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation (BCIC), a nonprofit backed by a local sales‑tax levy that has long championed technology skills in the city. According to BCIC’s website, the eBridge Center now hosts an intensive, hands‑on curriculum tailored for executives, senior operational staff, and municipal officials.
“Build the tools your business needs. You, not the vendor,” reads the program’s mission statement on its website CuriousBuilder.ai. Steele explained that the curriculum is designed for people who do not need a technical background. “You don’t need to be technical, and you don’t need another tutorial,” he said. “You need to come out the other side able to build the things your business actually needs.”
The curriculum is organized into tiered tracks—beginner intensive, intermediate, advanced—and includes bespoke private intensives for individual organizations. Steele illustrated a custom program for a high‑end restaurant that would teach participants how to build an AI call‑service automation system that routes orders directly into a point‑of‑sale system.
Participants range from vice presidents of marketing, sales, and finance to chief financial officers, chief operating officers, board members of trade associations, economic‑development corporations, and local municipal staff. The program’s focus is on practical, role‑specific applications. For example, finance and loan‑management teams learn automated underwriting and IC memo preparation, while marketing teams learn to build automated content calendars.
The first cohort, which began in early July, was attended by members of the Texas International Produce Association (TIPA). During the cohort, TIPA participants built custom AI workflows that pull real‑time data from the USDA terminal market. The resulting dashboards give producers and distributors instant visibility into commodity pricing across regional and national markets. Steele noted that the team also used popular speech‑to‑text models to reduce typing time and improve communication.
Feedback collected by BCIC has been overwhelmingly positive. The organization’s strategic plan lists the AI training effort as a key component of fostering innovation and high‑growth technology skills in downtown Brownsville.
Steele’s long‑term goal is to extend the program beyond Cameron County to the entire four‑county Rio Grande Valley, building a regional workforce that can deploy AI tools in agriculture, finance, marketing, and municipal operations.
The launch comes at a time when the Rio Grande Valley is seeking to diversify its economy. Brownsville, the largest city in Cameron County and a major port of entry, has traditionally relied on trade, manufacturing, and agriculture.
LeverageAI’s approach differs from generic introductory courses by mapping each module to the day‑to‑day operational needs of the participant’s role. According to Steele, this alignment is essential for adoption. “Teams on the finance and loan management side are learning things on how to do automated underwriting and preparing IC memos,” he said. “Teams that are on marketing are learning how to build out marketing campaigns and automate different components of piecing together those content calendars.”
Although the eBridge Center program has only been running for a few weeks, the early results suggest that hands‑on, executive‑focused AI training can produce tangible business tools. As the program scales, Steele intends to partner with additional trade associations, economic‑development organizations, and municipalities across the valley.
The initiative is part of a broader movement to build AI skills in the South Texas region. While the program is still in its early stages, the combination of local government support, a clear curriculum, and real‑world applications positions it as a potential model for other regions seeking to build AI‑ready workforces.
In the coming months, LeverageAI plans to launch additional cohorts and expand its curriculum to cover new industries. BCIC will continue to monitor the program’s impact on local businesses and the broader economy.
The program’s success will depend on sustained participation, continued support from local government, and the ability to adapt the curriculum to evolving AI capabilities and industry needs.
