An AI Workshop for Executive Buy-In at Scale

Challenge

A wide cross-functional group needed a shared foundation for using AI responsibly, with no existing starting point and no consistent sense across departments of what was safe, useful, or worth their time.

Approach

Rather than a narrow pilot group, I ran an uncapped half-day session open to the whole organization, preceded by a short organizational AI readiness briefing call to tailor the content. The session covered an AI overview, vision-setting, a current-state assessment, opportunity identification, and roadmap building — structured so a call-center employee and a C-suite executive left with equally usable next steps.

Results

• Nearly 50 attendees, including the organization's entire C-suite — not a delegated training session, but leadership showing up personally because it mattered.

• Every attendee left with a completed AI Roadmap specific to their function — a working plan built in the room, not a template handed out afterward.

• Delivered a full session workbook, reference guides, and post-session handouts for every participant, so the team had something to work from after the session ended, not just notes.

• Grounded in a pre-workshop organizational AI readiness briefing, so the content was tailored to Lutheran Services Florida before the room ever filled.

• 100% of attendees reported increased confidence post-workshop, and 100% saw greater business value in AI implementation, per post-training assessment data.

Why This Matters

Executive attendance is the tell. Leaders don't personally sit through half-day trainings for initiatives they consider optional — they delegate those. Full C-suite presence here was the clearest signal I've seen that an organization understood AI readiness as a leadership responsibility, not a staff training line item.