Most senior leaders we talk to already know AI matters, but what they do not have is time. Time to work out where to start, what questions to ask, and who in the business should be leading it. They also have everyone queuing up to sell them the answer, which only makes the right next step harder to see.
A growing number of CEOs, directors and department heads have found a different way through it. They spend a day working through their own business alongside people who have implemented AI, rather than people trying to sell it to them, at our AI Workshop for Leaders. Here is what four of them came away able to do.
Before AI gets anywhere near a policy document or a procurement conversation, someone senior needs a clear grasp of what the technology can and cannot do, where the real risk sits, and what good governance looks like once you move past the theory. For one attendee, the Head of AI at a leading wholesaler, that foundation turned out to be exactly what was missing, even with AI already woven into daily work across the business.
"What we just covered is the foundations you need to have in place before properly adopting and implementing AI, and it's certainly eye-opening to what we need to do."
Head of AI at a leading wholesaler
The leaders who get the most out of AI are not necessarily looking for the biggest use case. Often, it's the small, repetitive task sitting right in front of them that is worth automating first. For one attendee, a Marketing Director in pharmaceutical development, that became clear within minutes of getting hands-on.
"One of the key takeaways for me was process mapping, looking at how we can utilise AI agents to improve some of those inefficiencies at work. When I get back, I'll be mapping out a few of those processes and looking for the low-hanging fruit."
Marketing Director, pharmaceutical sector
AI policies are becoming more common, but a lot of them are written in a hurry. A page or two put together so something exists, rather than a document that reflects how the team is using AI day to day. It's easy to assume a policy like that is doing its job, right up until someone senior sits down and goes looking.
For one attendee, a Head of Customer Insight in the events sector, that is exactly what the workshop surfaced, with gaps in the existing policy sitting in plain sight once he knew where to check.
"There are things I’m finding out that we could write straight into our AI Policy, which I only just found out five minutes ago”
Head of Customer Insight, events sector
The leaders who get the most out of AI know their own processes well enough to spot exactly where it helps, and where it does not. For one attendee, a CEO in the renewable energy sector, that meant looking at his business properly before deciding where AI fits.
"Looking at your current processes, actually mapping them all out, then you can very easily look at how AI could plug in to get rid of the painful parts of the processes, speed up the slow parts, and just automate as much as you can."
CEO, Renewable Energy Sector
None of this requires becoming a technology guru. It takes a day, the right questions, and people who have implemented AI rather than just sold it. The team delivering it have spent the last two years implementing AI inside businesses, from £5m turnover up to £1bn and beyond. Attendees have gone home with policy gaps they did not know about, and with mapped workflows showing where AI agents fit in their business. Different starting points, same outcome: less time spent wondering where to begin, more time spent doing something about it.
The AI Workshop for Leaders is built to do exactly that. A day, a small room of senior peers working through the same decisions, and something built by the end of it rather than simply explained. Workshops run across seven UK cities through 2026, so there's likely one close to you.