Become Your Company's AI Hero (Part 2): The Mini-Course Blueprint

Create This Mini-Course (Before Someone Else Does)

Hey Adopter,

So you sent that email from yesterday’s newsletter and now your boss actually replied with "Great idea, can you put something together for next week's leadership meeting?"

Cue internal panic

Don't worry—I've got your back. While everyone else is still figuring out how to create a decent PowerPoint without Comic Sans, you're about to become the AI strategy guru your company desperately needs (even if you just discovered what "LLM" stands for last week).

Your Biggest Concern: "But I'm Not an AI Expert!"

Let's address the elephant in the room. You're probably thinking:

• "I don't know enough about AI to teach others"

• "What if they ask questions I can't answer?"

• "I'll be exposed as a fraud"

Here's the reality: you don't need to be an AI expert. You just need to be one step ahead of your audience. And with this blueprint, you will be.

Nielsen Norman Group research confirms that business users improve productivity by an average of 66% when using AI tools – a statistic your executives will care about. Your job isn't to explain how transformer models work; it's to show how AI delivers business value.

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The 4-Module AI Leadership Course You Can Build This Weekend

Here's your ready-to-use framework for a mini-course that positions you as the internal AI expert without requiring a PhD in machine learning:

Module 1: AI as a Strategic Thought Partner

What to Cover:

• How AI has evolved from "that thing that writes emails" to a legitimate strategy collaborator

• Why AI matters specifically for leadership roles (hint: it's about decision velocity)

• Real examples of strategic applications (use your industry!)

Research Resources:

• Pull key insights from the BMW and Mercedes AI approaches (BMW's humanoid robots saved $10M+ in operational costs)

• Reference the "AI's exponential trajectory" section from Anthropic's CEO predictions (systems as intelligent as Nobel Prize winners within 3-4 years)

• Include stats like "AI increased business throughput by 66%" from the Nielsen Norman Group study

Beginner-Friendly Tips:

1. Start with real business problems your company faces, not technical AI explanations

2. Use the WIIFM principle (What's In It For Me?) for each executive role

3. Create a simple comparison chart: "Traditional Approach vs. AI-Enhanced Approach"

Module 2: Prompting Strategies That Actually Work

What to Cover:

• Basic vs. advanced prompting techniques

• Context-enhanced prompting for business questions

• How to structure queries for strategic insight

Research Resources:

• Use the Value Proposition Canvas format (a business framework executives already understand)

• Include executive-specific prompts from Google's resource for business leaders

• Show examples of AI-driven competitive intelligence gathering

Beginner-Friendly Tips:

1. Create a before/after demonstration using a real company challenge

2. Provide a fill-in-the-blank prompt template for different business functions

3. Show actual outputs from basic vs. advanced prompts to make the difference obvious

Module 3: Five High-Impact AI Applications for Leaders

What to Cover:

• Strategic decision analysis using scenario modeling

• Competitive intelligence and market scanning

• Enhanced stakeholder communications

• Predictive trend analysis

• Innovation and process optimization

Research Resources:

• Extract the real-world examples from Mercedes' integration of ChatGPT

• Reference how voice interfaces are transforming industries

• Use the "invisible work" concept from MIT Sloan Review

Beginner-Friendly Tips:

1. Create a 1-page scorecard where executives can rate their department's current AI readiness

2. Include screenshots of actual AI tools in action for each application

3. Provide a simple decision tree for identifying which AI application fits which business need

Module 4: Implementation Roadmap

What to Cover:

• Creating a personal AI workflow

• Ethical considerations that matter in the real world

• Building an implementation timeline with quick wins

• Measuring success beyond just "it seems faster"

Research Resources:

• Use the Three Types of Middle Managers framework (Dismissers, Dabblers, Champions)

• Adapt the implementation steps from Harvard Business Review

• Reference the tiered offerings structure from productivity research

Beginner-Friendly Tips:

1. Create a "30-60-90 Day Plan" template for AI implementation

2. Provide a simple "AI Ethics Checklist" with your company logo

3. Include 3 low-hanging fruit opportunities executives can implement tomorrow

The Lazy Genius Way: Let AI Build Your AI Course

Want to know the ultimate irony? You can use AI to create your AI training materials. Here's how:

• Use Gamma.app for instant, professional presentations

  • This AI-powered tool creates beautiful slides from a simple outline

  • Just input your module structure and key points, and it generates a full presentation

  • Specific Gamma prompt:

Create a professional presentation titled 'AI for Strategic Leaders' with four sections: 
1) AI as a Strategic Partner
2) Effective Prompting Techniques
3) High-Impact AI Applications
4) Implementation Roadmap

Use a professional business theme with minimal stock photos. Include speaker notes with key talking points.

• Generate case studies with ChatGPT or Claude

Create a detailed case study of how a [YOUR INDUSTRY] company successfully implemented AI for [SPECIFIC FUNCTION], including challenges faced, solutions found, and measurable outcomes achieved. Format it as a 1-page narrative with bullet points for key learnings.

• Create your AI assessment tool prompt:

"Create an 'AI Readiness Assessment' with 10 yes/no questions that help a department evaluate their preparedness for AI implementation. The questions should cover data quality, technical infrastructure, skills availability, process documentation, and change management capability. Format it as a simple scorecard with a scoring guide."

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Addressing Your Fear: "What If They Ask Questions I Can't Answer?"

This is where preparation meets honesty. Create a "Parking Lot" slide for questions you can't answer immediately. Say: "That's an excellent question. I want to give you a thoughtful answer rather than an incomplete one. I'll research that and follow up by [DATE]."

Executives respect subject matter experts, but they trust honest communicators. Your willingness to say "I don't know, but I'll find out" builds more credibility than fumbling through a half-answer.

You don't need to become the world's foremost AI expert overnight. You just need to be the person who can translate complicated concepts into business value. That skill alone will make you invaluable as AI continues to transform every industry.

Next week, I'll share the exact slide deck one of our members used to deliver this course at a Fortune 500 company. Spoiler alert: They created it in less than 3 hours using AI tools, leading to a department-wide AI implementation project with them at the helm.

Until then, remember that in the land of AI confusion, the person with a clear framework is king (or queen).

Adapt & Create,
Kamil

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P.S. Still feeling nervous? Remember that 87% of executives report skill gaps in their workforce—with AI literacy at the top of the list, according to McKinsey. You're not presenting yourself as the ultimate AI expert; you're positioning yourself as someone who knows enough to help bridge that critical gap. That alone makes you incredibly valuable.