AI Tools for Business and Information Technology

Read the live book: https://aitoolsforbusiness.org

An open textbook for VCCS ITE 142 — AI Tools for Business and IT, by Benjamin Lamb, PhD. Currently in public beta: the full manuscript is available as a Quarto web book, PDF, and EPUB for review, classroom piloting, and adaptation.

Who this is for

• Students and self-learners — read free online at the link above, or download a PDF or EPUB for offline use.
• Instructors considering adoption — the book itself is openly licensed (see below). Optional instructor supplements (slides, Canvas shell, test banks, solution keys) are sold separately.
• Contributors — file an issue or open a pull request if you spot errors, dead links, or have suggestions.

OER and licensing transparency

This project deliberately separates the open textbook from the paid instructor package:

Component	License	Cost
Textbook web book, PDF, EPUB, chapter source	CC BY 4.0 (open)	Free
Instructor supplements — slides, Canvas course shell, test banks, lab solution keys, pacing/implementation guide	All rights reserved	Paid (in development)

This split follows the common OER pattern used by OpenStax and similar projects: the student-facing content is genuinely open and free, and the instructor package is a separate commercial work that funds ongoing maintenance.

You may share, adapt, remix, and redistribute the textbook text for any purpose — including commercial — as long as you give appropriate credit, link to the license, and indicate any changes you made.

Suggested attribution:

AI Tools for Business and Information Technology by Benjamin Lamb, PhD is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source: https://github.com/benlambm/ai-tools-for-business

Full terms: LICENSE (textbook) and LICENSE-SUPPLEMENTS.md (supplements).

Instructor supplements (paid, in development)

The following are not in this repository and are sold separately:

• Lecture slide decks (.pptx)
• Canvas course shell as IMS Common Cartridge (.imscc)
• Test banks and quiz pools
• Lab solution keys and grading rubrics
• Pacing guide and implementation notes

To be notified at launch or request early access, contact the author via the repository's Issues tab or email.

What's in this repository

• index.qmd — preface and reader's guide
• 01-customer-service.qmd … 09-product-design.qmd — Chapters 1–9
• appendix-ai-assisted-workflow.qmd — documents the AI-assisted authoring workflow
• labs/ — lab assets and starter files
• images/ — figure assets
• scripts/ — local and CI build helpers
• _quarto.yml, netlify.toml — build configuration

Build locally

Install Quarto, then render:

scripts/render-local.sh

The HTML book is written to _book/. Portable formats:

scripts/render-local.sh --to typst   # PDF via Typst — no LaTeX install required
scripts/render-local.sh --to epub

Status

Public beta, tagged v0.2.0-beta. Issues and pull requests are welcome — small fixes (typos, broken links, factual corrections) are especially appreciated.