AI Accelerator Programs

Make AI real now with education for your teams, creation of use cases, practice and deployment.

Explore the possibilities of AI, set up your initial teams, identify use cases, practice with real tools—and then deploy. Explore generative AI tools like ChatGPT along with other automation and augmentation strategies in this immersive program combining educational content, coaching and practical work for you and your colleagues.

Hosted by visionary leaders in your organization, the AI Accelerator Program is designed for fast-moving teams who are also mindful of purpose, focus, ethics and scalability.

Whether you are starting with a blank slate, have a few ideas or are looking to scale your AI initiatives, this program will help update mindsets and get you into action.

  • Raise AI fluency: introduce shared language and mental models amongst the group
  • Identify “directionality” for key areas of AI strategy even though final destinations are unclear
  • Understand the impact of AI, especially generative AI, on your clients, industry, and society at large 
  • Launch a “version one” internal strategy, including AI opportunities and risks to the current business
  • Co-create an “AI Pipeline” of AI use cases and integration tools for the team to prioritize and execute against 
  • Lay out top-level ethical and operational guidelines/principles for AI in your work
  • Practice actual use of generative AI (and other AI/automation/augmentation tools)
  • Integrate key use cases into everyday workflows

AI Accelerator Programs include:

A Tailored Program For Your Team

Your AI Accelerator Program will be tailored to your team's needs, available tools, passions and business objectives.

Programs can be intensive multi-day sessions or spread over several months. Both hybrid and fully remote options are available.

Live Workshops, Webinars and Hackathons

Participate in workshops, webinars and hackathons hosted by your guide MJ Petroni to learn about AI and its implications for your digital transformation and the future of digital economies. Learn from peer experiences, gain real-world perspectives, and acquire practical advice to navigate the complexities of AI adoption and maximize its potential for your organization.

The AI Fluency Guide

Stay at the forefront of AI trends with curated thought leadership content in the AI Fluency Guide. Access an ever-expanding body of original, foundational AI and Digital Fluency content that evolves with your feedback. Enhance your strategic thinking about AI and gain a competitive edge in your organization with distilled mental models and frameworks you can implement immediately.

‘Sightings from the Field’

News, white papers, interviews, and more from around the web—annotated by your AI Guide team—which provide deep insights into emerging technologies, best practices, and industry trends. 

‍

Training, Practice and Thought Partner Sessions with MJ Petroni

Get on-demand coaching and support specific to the path you and your organization are on,  both as quick consultations and deeper strategy sessions.

Peer-to-Peer Learning

Engage in peer-to-peer learning exchanges through roundtable discussions, asynchronous chat and interactive work with peers.

Woman icon

Executive Coaching

Level up not just your functional skills, but new ways of leading. Work with an executive coach to learn how to discuss the many possibilities and implications of AI—including jobs, budgets and buisiness model implications.

‍

On-Demand Text Q&A

Don’t have the answers you need? Members can text any question they want to their guide about core AI concepts and strategy considerations and quickly get a written answer tailored to their specific inquiry. 

‍

Resource Library

Explore a comprehensive resource library featuring a wealth of articles and templates related to AI implementation, strategy, ethics, and other relevant topics. Access practical resources to deepen your knowledge, find solutions to common challenges, and support the successful execution of your AI initiatives.

‍

Talk with us about an AI Accelerator Program

Expedition Stages (What You'll Accomplish)

1. Learn

Raise AI fluency: introduce shared language and mental models amongst the group

  • Understand the difference between types of AI
  • Distinguish between automation and augmentation strategies
  • Contrast between incremental and exponential AI applications
  • See how AI relates to other elements of digital transformation such as new thinking, business models, data, skills and tools
  • Learn about responsible, steerable, ethical AI implementation

2. Set Direction

Identify “directionality” for key areas of AI strategy even if final destinations are unclear

  • Set a strategic ‘north’ to head towards even if not all elements of the map can be seen yet
  • Set decision principles for very early projects and AI applications, such as which data can or cannot be used
  • Launch an AI sandbox for initial experiments and learning

3. Map Impacts

Understand the impact of AI, especially generative AI, on your clients, industry, and society at large

  • Get an industry outlook for potential use cases and possibilities
  • See how firms have applied AI to their everyday work
  • Clarify ethical and functional requirements specific to your industry and region
  • Identify key issues and players to track on an AI Impact Map

4. Version One Strategy

Launch a “version one” internal strategy, including AI opportunities and risks to the current business—and budget

  • Name initial workgroups and/or coordinators
  • Create a lightweight decision-making process for AI projects
  • Allocate foundational funding, per-project budget guidelines and ongoing maintenance budget for the next few months of AI integration
  • Create communication lines between the AI working group and stakeholders elsewhere in the organization
  • Identify key thought partnerships and functional capabilities needed from outside the organization

5. AI Use Case Pipeline

Co-create an “AI Pipeline” of AI use cases and integration tools for the team to prioritize and execute against

  • Brainstorm AI possibilities for the near-term and long-term
  • Learn about what makes a good AI use case
  • Distinguish between incremental and exponential use cases
  • Identify which AI use cases are candidates for ‘apps’ or solutions, versus those which are prompt-based
  • Prioritize use cases/business cases
  • Create an ‘inbox’ and update schedule so the pipeline keeps flowing

6. Decision Principles

Create ethical and operational guidelines (decision principles)

  • Clarify decision principles (actionable guidelines) for ethical, transparent and responsible use of AI
  • Connect AI projects to business case and cost expectations so participants are clear what success will mean
  • Set (high-level) OKRs, KPIs, and goals for AI initiatives
  • Identify where AI projects will—and will not—be subject to existing rules and policies in the organization
  • Create an ‘innovation space’ for experimentation which removes barriers to early-stage ideas

7. Practice with AI

Immediately use generative AI (and other AI/automation/augmentation tools)

  • Practice prompt creation and refinement
  • Create an AI workflow
  • Identify how to use ‘computational thinking’ to interact with machine systems
  • Apply AI to existing business problems (with generic, non-private data) to learn about pitfalls of prompts and AI apps
  • Identify what makes a good AI assistant for you and how that might differ from other team members

8. Integration of AI

Integrate AI into everyday workflows

  • Connect AI functions to real business workflows to stress-test them
  • Introduce a few AI workflows to members outside the working group
  • Use API integration and automation tools (like Zapier, MS Power Automate and/or Writer) to connect AI functions to other technologies and datasets in your organization

Next Steps

Maintain momentum from your expedition and connect to your organization

  • Present findings, recommendations, and requests to executive leaders based on the expedition’s progress and blocks
  • Create an “AI information diet” to stay up to date on new technologies and practices
  • Connect the expedition to other initiatives and programs in the organization, including AI Fluency and Digital Transformation workstreams
Talk with us about an AI Accelerator Program

Participant Profile and Format

Practical Work & Individual AI Workflow Project

Participants will engage in activities and coaching for hands-on interaction with generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Throughout the course, students build upon prior practice and assignments to end up with a practical AI workflow which they could apply to work inside their jobs.

Participant Profile

The expedition is optimized for cross-functional leaders and direct users of AI: 

  • Mid- to upper-level managers/director as an expedition sponsor (Eg Directors, Partners, VP, SVP, CxO, Managing Directors)
  • Knowledge workers (such as marketing, IT, communications, legal, HR, or other 'office job')

Timing and Schedule

Kickoff workshops can be between one and two days long, depending on the desired speed of the team and the topics to be covered.

Coaching sessions and group webinars are typically two to four times per month.

Expeditions span three to six months for most teams.

Format

The expedition will be offered in English in a blend of formats designed for flexibility and practice: 

  • Live session time
  • On-demand video and written content (hosted in a special area of the Digital Fluency Guide website)
  • Office hours
  • Live time with a trained mentor
  • Participation in a chat/forum with other participants on the team
  • A functional AI workflow project and AI use cases, which will be advanced with each week’s activities and briefly presented to the class  
  • A total time commitment of 60-80 hours over the duration of the expeidtion, of which approximately 30 hours will be scheduled at specific times

Tool requirements

  • A subscription to ChatGPT Plus or equivalent tooling is required, and most teams will also use Writer to practice creating AI apps
  • Sample, generic data akin to what is used inside your organization

Technical requirements

There are no high technical requirements nor expensive apps.

  • A modern operating system and web browser (Minimum: Mac OS, Windows 10+ or Chrome OS/Chromebook with current support; Chrome web browser required on all platforms)
  • Unrestricted web access (eg, ability to access ChatGPT, Google, and other tools without firewall issues)
  • A Google/Gmail account (this may require an unrestricted, standard personal account to be used for secure single-sign-on logins and ability to use Google Docs, etc)

For live sessions:

  • Sufficient bandwidth for viewing and sending screen-sharing
  • Ability to use video conferencing
  • A relatively quiet and focused workspace
  • Clear audio and video connections (eg, mid-grade or higher webcam and microphone)

Pre-requisites

Speak English? Speak Business? You're ready to participate.

  • Business-level spoken and written English fluency (sufficient to write basic essays and, importantly, English-language prompts to AI tools).
  • Basic business fluency (eg, understanding how a mid- to large-size business model functions)
  • Moderate skill with web/cloud-based tools, such as the use of Google Docs and its live collaboration functions, chatbots, and presentation software). No coding, advanced technical skills or other specialized technology knowledge is required to participate in the expedition.
Talk with us about an AI Accelerator Program

About The Expedition Leader, MJ Petroni

MJ Petroni on stage
MJ Petroni, AI Fluency Leader

MJ Petroni

MJ Petroni of Causeit, Inc. specializes in helping others understand the mental models necessary to navigate digital opportunities. A cyborg anthropologist (!), MJ helps us see not just how we shape technologies but how they are re-shaping us.

They help organizations increase their Digital Fluency in preparation for future technologies, attending not just to tools but also the thinking, skills, data, and business models which comprise new value creation.

The author of the Causeit digitalfluency.guide, MJ's work focuses on raising the lowest common denominator of Digital Fluency for individuals, teams, and entire organizations. Since founding Causeit, Inc. in 2006, MJ has shifted thinking for hundreds of global enterprises, including NTT, Accenture, Volkswagen, the Gates Foundation, SWIFT, and several major financial and media companies, raising Digital Fluency among hundreds of thousands of professionals.

MJ is an Accenture Tech Vision Advisory board member and Lewis & Clark College alum.

Causeit, Inc.
San Francisco, CA
+1.855.228.7348
talk@causeit.org

Contact Us

All content ©2011–2024 Causeit, Inc. or under authorization from third parties. All rights reserved, including copying, printing and repurposing of written, video or graphic content.

Linking is always welcome, as are smiles, friendly inquiries and random acts of kindness.