About
Steve Sarvi
Founder and Lead Trainer, Hands On AI Training | Winona, MN
About
Founder and Lead Trainer, Hands On AI Training | Winona, MN
Steve Sarvi spent 25 years in Minnesota municipal government as a city administrator/manager and mayor across five communities ranging from 800 to 30,000 residents. His most prominent appointed role was City Manager of Winona, where he led 175 full-time employees and managed a $65 million budget. He has also served as a three-term Mayor of Watertown. Across his career he has worked directly with city councils, department heads, frontline staff, businesses, and the public on economic development and community initiatives, building a communication style that adapts to whoever is in the room.
Steve is a retired U.S. Army veteran who served for more than 25 years, with both active and reserve duty. Steve retired from the military in 2016. He served in leadership positions throughout his career, both as a commissioned and non-commissioned officer. His overseas deployments to Kosovo and Iraq included direct engagement with local residents and business owners on economic development projects, work that required listening carefully, communicating clearly across significant cultural and language barriers, and getting practical results with limited resources. That experience gave him a practical model for explaining complex tools and concepts to people who are skeptical, pressed for time, or unfamiliar with the subject matter, which describes most people encountering AI for the first time in a professional setting.
Steve holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, with a major in Political Science and a minor in Humanities. He holds AI certifications from Anthropic (Claude 101, AI Fluency: Framework and Foundations, AI Fluency for Nonprofits), IBM (Artificial Intelligence Essentials), and DeepLearning.AI (AI For Everyone).
Steve founded Hands On AI Training out of a specific frustration: he spent 25 years watching small cities, nonprofits, and local businesses fall behind larger organizations, or never reach their full potential, simply because they could not afford the staff or consultants that well-resourced organizations could. AI changes that equation.
The tools available today can do in minutes what used to require a specialist: drafting communications, summarizing documents, analyzing data, building professional materials. He built Hands On AI Training to put those tools in the hands of the people who need them most, through training that is in person, practical, and built around actual work rather than generic demonstrations.
One-on-one training is the preferred format, with group sessions available for up to five participants. There are no webinars, no generic slides, and no software to buy. Participants work on their own computers with their own documents from the first hour. Training ends when participants can demonstrate competency, not when the clock runs out.
Living outside a metropolitan area is a choice, and it is a good one. For too long, that choice came with real trade-offs. Specialized expertise was harder to access, and when it was available, the cost reflected the distance. AI narrows that gap significantly. Not in some future state. Right now, today, with tools that cost less than a cell phone plan.— Steve Sarvi, Founder
The internet gave people connectivity. AI gives people capability. Together, they mean the question of where to live, where to work, where to put down roots — where to raise a family — is genuinely more open than it has ever been.
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