Three decades of IT
A new chapter in AI
Founded by Kenneth Tolcou — a 30+ year IT infrastructure veteran — and joined by VP of Sales & Marketing Nancy Pavlich, AI Upside Group brings real-world expertise and enterprise-grade sales experience to San Diego's small business community.
Our Mission
Our mission is simple, eliminate repetitive tasks and optimize your tech stack so you can outpace the competition.
Mission Statement
To grow a vibrant AI thought‑leader community in San Diego and build a profitable, AI‑forward consulting practice that helps small and midsize businesses use AI to their best advantage.
Let us make a difference in your day-to-day activities. Get a free readyness assessment.
The people behind AI Upside Group
Decades of combined experience in technology, sales, and marketing — bringing real-world expertise to every client engagement.
Kenneth Tolcou
Ken has been solving technology problems for San Diego businesses since 1990. He founded The Personal PC in the 90s, serving 600+ local companies with full-range IT services, and spent the last decade as a Sr. DevOps / Release Engineer with deep AWS, Azure, and Microsoft ecosystem experience. A former Microsoft Solutions Provider and published author in Visual Basic, MS Access, and MS Office magazines, Ken now brings 30+ years of hands-on infrastructure expertise together with cutting-edge AI skills — certified through Outskill, Databricks, and First Movers AI Labs.
Nancy Pavlich
Nancy brings 20+ years of enterprise sales experience from HP, plus 2 years at Dell, making her one of the most seasoned technology sales professionals in Southern California. Her deep understanding of how small and medium businesses buy technology — combined with her instinct for what actually drives adoption — makes her the perfect partner to help San Diego SMBs navigate the AI transition. At AI Upside Group, Nancy leads all sales and marketing efforts, including client relationships, partnerships, and brand strategy.
What we bring to the table
AI Strategy & Implementation
AI readiness assessments, tool selection, workflow integration, prompt engineering, and responsible AI adoption for SMBs.
Cloud Infrastructure
AWS and Azure architecture, migration planning, cost optimization, and hybrid cloud solutions.
DevOps & Automation
CI/CD pipelines, PowerShell automation, release engineering, and infrastructure-as-code.
Microsoft Ecosystem
Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Exchange Online, Azure AD Connect, Copilot integration, and Graph API.
Training & Education
One-on-one coaching, group workshops, curriculum development, and technical writing for diverse audiences.
SMB IT Operations
Full-stack IT support, hardware/software deployment, network infrastructure, and vendor management.
Industry recognized credentials
AI Generalist Accelerator
(2 Week Intesive)
Prompt Engineering, Workflow Automation (N8n), No-Code Product Development, Voice Agent Orchestration, MCP Integration & Deployment, Multimodal AI & Cloning.
Generative AI Mastermind
(Weekend Intesive)
Comprehensive generative AI program covering practical AI capabilities for founders and business professionals.
Generative AI Fundamentals
Foundational knowledge of generative AI including large language models and practical business applications.
AI Agent Fundamentals
Fundamentals of AI agents — automation, task management, and driving innovation with agentic systems.
Certified First Mover
AI Roadmap, Claude Track, Heygen & Voice Cloning, HighLevel, N8N, Topic Ideation, SEO $ AEO Token Conservation, Quantum, and many others.
Active Member
R&D AI Labs
Ongoing training and hands-on lab work in emerging AI technologies and tools.
Former Microsoft Solutions Provider
Published author: Visual Basic, MS Access, and MS Office magazines.
AI Transformation Leader (AB-731)
Strategic AI adoption, governance, and business transformation with Microsoft AI tools.
AI Business Professional (AB-730)
Generative AI productivity tools, Copilot, and business workflow optimization.
Certified Professional in Managing AI (CPMAI)
AI project lifecycle management, governance, and responsible AI deployment.
Training & platform badges
AI moves fast. Continuous learning across multiple platforms ensures our clients get current, battle-tested guidance.
NVIDIA DLI
Deep Learning
Databricks
Generative AI
Coursera
AI & ML
LinkedIn Learning
AI Skills
Brilliant
AI Fundamentals
HackMe
Security & AI
StackSkills
Tech Training
Anthropic / Claude
AI Tools