What is an AI Champion?

An AI Champion, sometimes called an AI Ambassador, is a subject matter expert in a team who has been upskilled to lead the way with AI. They help colleagues adopt AI, and bring problems and opportunities from the field to the people who decide on AI investments.

Who should be an AI Champion?

Subject matter experts who are curious, want to develop, and want to lead in AI within their team. They do not need prior AI knowledge or a technical background, since the program gives them the AI skills. Communicating well and being open to the people side of change matter too. Our profile checklist has the details.

Is an AI Champions program relevant for small and medium companies, or for communities?

Yes. In a smaller company the network may be a few people, with a shorter program focused on a few use cases. For associations, innovation networks and chambers of commerce, we can run an open cohort where champions from different organizations learn together and share use cases.

How long does an AI Champions program take?

It depends on your teams and their schedules. Programs typically run three to five sessions, with time between them for champions to apply what they learn in their own teams.

AI Champions & Ambassadors Program

Turn your subject matter experts into AI Champions

We train the curious subject matter experts in your teams to lead the way with AI, so they can speed up AI adoption in their teams and bring new opportunities from the field to the rest of the organization.

Plan your AI Champions program30 min or send a message

Download the AI Champion profile checklist

What an AI Champions program gives you

AI Champions, also called AI Ambassadors, are subject matter experts in your teams who are curious and want to lead the way with AI. They do not need special AI knowledge to start, since the program gives them the AI skills. A network of them creates value in two ways.

1
Faster AI adoption across your teams
Champions help their colleagues use the right tools, choose the right use cases and turn them into business value, on the work they actually do. Much of AI adoption is about emotions, so champions also listen to colleagues’ fears and concerns and help them try AI for themselves. That makes them a positive force in the transformation.
2
More opportunities from the field
Champions notice the problems and opportunities that keep coming up in their teams and markets, and bring them to the people who decide on AI investments. Across the network, they connect teams facing similar challenges, which opens the way to collaboration, joint use cases and value created once and shared across the organization.

How our AI Champions program works

We build each program around your own work. A network of AI Champions is a mechanism: a repeatable way to spread AI adoption and find new opportunities across your teams. The program sets up the network and gives the champions their AI skills, and we help keep the network working after it ends.

At the startSet up the network
A leadership session on where AI can create value for your business, a clear definition of the champion role, and guidance on who to nominate. Each team or market then nominates a champion, and we learn your workflows, approved tools and priorities.
During the programEquip the champions
Hands-on sessions, with tasks between sessions that each champion applies in their own team. Champions bring real use cases from their teams to the sessions and to office hours, and we work through the use cases together.
After the programKeep the network working
A skills map shows who knows what, so champions can call on each other. Advisory hours support the network as champions find new use cases and opportunities in their teams.

Champions get recognition and visibility from leadership throughout the program.

Format: typically three to five hands-on sessions, online or in person, scheduled around your teams’ options, including across time zones.

Topics we cover in an AI Champions program

We choose the mix for each program when we set up the network, based on your tools, teams and priorities.

The business value of AI

Where AI creates value for your business, using our three buckets: boosting productivity, creating new value and driving disruption.

The AI value framework →

How AI models work

What large language models do well and where they fall short, and how to choose the right model for a task.

Prompting

Our RIGHT prompting framework for clear, reusable prompts.

Prompt it RIGHT →

Hands-on AI capabilities

Working with the AI tools you have approved: Projects and Claude Skills that hold your context and processes, AI agents that take on multi-step work, deep research, and automating recurring tasks.

AI agents

What agents can do today, how people work effectively with them, and when a simpler solution is enough.

Agent design patterns →

AI building tools

Turning an idea into a working prototype or internal tool without code, for example with Base44, an AI app builder, and testing it with colleagues quickly.

What we build on Base44 →

Innovation frameworks for use cases

Working Backwards and the PRFAQ (press release and FAQ) from Amazon, Jobs-to-be-Done and SCAMPER, applied to finding and shaping AI use cases.

Working Backwards →

Leading change with AI

Handling colleagues’ fears and concerns, and helping teams adapt as their work changes with AI.

Leading AI transformation →

Where we have run AI Champions programs

A leading US/UK marketing and communications agency

A custom AI Champions program for 40 people across departments in the UK and the US, run over four months with the agency’s leadership AI task force. It covered ChatGPT power skills, support on specific use cases, and office hours.

The agency case study →

HID Global

A workshop on product innovation with AI for product managers led to an ongoing engagement. It includes AI strategy work with the senior leadership team, building an internal AI core team, and office hours for product managers prototyping with Base44, an AI app builder.

The HID Global program →

More of our work

Free download: AI Champion profile checklist

Not sure who to nominate? Our one-page checklist helps you map the profile of a good AI Champion in each of your teams.

Checklist

The AI Champion Profile Checklist

What to look for in an AI Champion, when to think twice before nominating someone, and a table for your nominations.

DownloadPDF · 1 page

AI Champions program FAQ

What is an AI Champion?: An AI Champion, sometimes called an AI Ambassador, is a subject matter expert in a team who has been upskilled to lead the way with AI. They help colleagues adopt AI, and bring problems and opportunities from the field to the people who decide on AI investments.
Who should be an AI Champion?: Subject matter experts who are curious, want to develop, and want to lead in AI within their team. They do not need prior AI knowledge or a technical background, since the program gives them the AI skills. Communicating well and being open to the people side of change matter too. Our profile checklist has the details.
Is an AI Champions program relevant for small and medium companies, or for communities?: Yes. In a smaller company the network may be a few people, with a shorter program focused on a few use cases. For associations, innovation networks and chambers of commerce, we can run an open cohort where champions from different organizations learn together and share use cases.
How long does an AI Champions program take?: It depends on your teams and their schedules. Programs typically run three to five sessions, with time between them for champions to apply what they learn in their own teams.

Plan your AI Champions program

Tell us about your teams and where you are with AI adoption. In a short call, we will suggest a program format, a first cohort and where to start.