The Human Advantage for the AI Era

Enduring Skills for AI Impact

Learn from Faculty, develop with your Coach, practice with your Tutor

First, build individual AI Literacy to raise the floor of productivity through ethical adoption. Then develop enterprise-wide AI Fluency to raise the ceiling of innovation for new opportunity. Finally, learn AI Transformation Skills to create new competitive advantage from the pioneers who are shaping the frontier of what’s possible.

YouTube

Co-Founder & CTO

Steve Chen

OpenAI

Former Head of Go-to-Market

Zack Kass

Google

Former Executive Partner

Ann Hiatt

AI Fluency

First Principles Thinking

Des Traynor

What You Will Learn

Obsess over Success, not Preservation
Prioritise successful outcomes above preserving existing infrastructure, products, or thinking. Let go of yesterday’s good ideas when their time has come.
Be Radically Open-minded
When confronted with new evidence, accept it — don’t fight to protect old ideas. Design a business that thrives in the new world rather than clinging to one that no longer exists.
Be Deeply Resilient
Don’t just tolerate change — actively seek it out and self-inflict it. Push for necessary change even when it’s painful. It won’t always be fun, but it’s always necessary.

What to expect

First Principles Thinking breaks problems down to their most basic, undeniable truths and rebuilds solutions from the ground up, rather than relying on assumptions, conventions, or the way things are usually done. Accepting the reality of AI demands more than incremental change. It requires the courage to reinvent and rebuild, rather than preserve what already exists.

In this SkillStack, you’ll learn the core principles of First Principles Thinking and hear firsthand stories of how they were applied at Intercom to challenge legacy assumptions, make bold decisions, and pioneer agentic customer support.

Design Thinking

Jayney Howson

What You Will Learn

Start with the Human: Problems are timeless; solutions are temporary. Great design begins with understanding people and the challenges they face, rather than starting with the capabilities of a technology and searching for a use case. Think in Systems: Once you’ve identified a problem, look beyond the immediate issue to understand its wider consequences.
Consider the secondary and tertiary effects of decisions and solutions. This ability to connect complex systems remains one of humanity’s greatest strengths.
Embrace Relentless Iteration: Innovation requires challenging the mindset of “we’ve always done it this way.” Continuously seek opportunities to improve, identify flaws, learn from them, and refine your approach. Find the bug, fix the bug, learn from the bug, and repeat.

What to expect

In this SkillStack, Jayney challenges us to look to the past to design the future. Through the stories of remarkable women who defied the odds, she explores how innovation is born when people refuse to accept the status quo to design the future. From fashion and healthcare to technology, these trailblazers changed the world and, in doing so, reveal timeless lessons in Design Thinking. Jayney takes us on a journey through pivotal moments in history that shaped entire industries and eras, before connecting those insights to the challenges and opportunities of today. The principles she uncovers are centuries old, yet more relevant than ever in the age of AI. Learn from pioneers such as Coco Chanel and Florence Nightingale, and discover the fascinating story behind the origin of the term debugging.

Mastering Human Judgement

Jayney Howson

What You Will Learn

Form your own opinion first — Before turning to AI, develop your own judgment to protect and strengthen your decision-making ability.
Zoom out — Consider the wider system, context, and second-order consequences of your decisions.
Use human connection — Apply active listening to understand the impact of your decisions on the people around you.

What to expect

As AI becomes an increasingly powerful partner in our work, it’s more important than ever that we strengthen our own judgment rather than outsource it entirely. Like any muscle, human judgment develops through deliberate practice and repetition. In this SkillStack, Jayney shares three principles for ensuring that human insight remains at the heart of every decision before turning to AI for support.

Creating Thinking

Margaret Heffernan

What You Will Learn

Curiosity: Nobody ever had a great idea sitting behind a desk. Get out into the world, look around, be present, listen and observe what’s bothering people, delighted people. Question the problem and consider less obvious, alternative solutions. It’s a mindset of questioning what you observe until it coalesces into an idea.
Opposite of habit: Don’t go down the traditional path. Efficiency dampens creative thinking. Travel a different route, step out of routine to create the space for creative thinking.
Open-minded: Once you break a habit, you have to be open-minded to what you observe. Think of those “hang on a minute” moments and consider how a thought could also be a solution to what you observe.
Just Start. Creative thinking doesn’t have an agenda. It is not a conclusion. Before you have any degree of certainty or you have all the facts, we must first start. Don’t wait for certainty; embrace uncertainty.

What to expect

If you don’t know the future, it creates an opportunity to create it. As AI upends every corner of our businesses, we must reimagine how we create value for our customers in the Age of AI. One of the paradoxes with new technology, we often slowly but surely look to how others are using it, and they copy each other, and it all becomes generic. Having the breadth and imagination to conceive new application sit what will set us apart, and that starts with Creative Thinking. Embrace uncertainty.

Reimagining Learning

Janey Howson

What You Will Learn

You are the product
Treat yourself like a product — document every learning moment, build credentials, and market your skills. This creates your “talent signature,” a personal fingerprint of your capabilities.
Have the courage to play without a playbook
Embrace curiosity and experimentation without fear. Play triggers the prefrontal cortex and switches off the fight-or-flight response, creating the conditions for real growth.
Work is the learning, and learning is the work
Stop seeing learning as something separate from your job. Every challenging moment at work is a learning moment. Lean into discomfort — that’s where growth happens.

What to expect

Much of the way we learn today was designed for a different era, one shaped by standardisation, scarcity and industrial-age constraints. In the age of AI, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink learning entirely and unlock our ability to continuously develop the skills needed for the future of work. As one of the world’s leading voices on the future of learning, Jayney shares the principles behind ServiceNow University, one of the largest AI-enabled learning movements in the world. She challenges traditional learning mindsets, introduces new ways to create playful and engaging learning systems, and encourages us to view work itself as the classroom. By embracing AI as both a thought partner and a personal professor, we can accelerate our growth and build the capabilities that matter most. In a world of constant change, those who learn fastest will have the greatest advantage.

AI Literacy

AI Decision Making

Margaret Heffernan

What You Will Learn

Consider all stakeholders — Think carefully about everyone who could be impacted by the decision, including secondary and tertiary consequences.
Test the underlying assumptions — All AI models contain assumptions about how the world works. Challenge whether those assumptions are still true and relevant.
Consider unintended consequences — Every decision is a hypothesis about the future. Ask: who gets hurt by this decision?
Do no harm — Like in medicine, ensure the technology has been rigorously assessed. Bring in outside expertise (ethicists, sociologists, etc.) if needed.
Explain — A good decision can be explained and accepted even by those who disagree with it. Make sure you can articulate how and why the decision was made.

What to expect

We now live in a world where decisions are shaped by data on a scale and complexity we once could hardly imagine. It’s tempting to let AI decide for us, handing over judgment to machines that seem more precise and certain. But while we may outsource the process, we can never outsource the responsibility. That is what makes AI decision-making more demanding, not less. Because decisions are never purely technical, they are deeply human. We may judge ourselves by our intentions, but in the end, we are judged by the consequences.

In this SkillStack, Margaret explores five principles that help us think more carefully about AI-driven decisions. The aim is not to reject these tools, but to engage with them more intelligently—to look beneath the surface of models and data, and to ask better questions about what they produce. Because ethical decision-making isn’t about compliance. It’s about attention. And it begins with a simple discipline: never accept AI at face value.

Critical Thinking for AI

Margaret Heffernan

What You Will Learn

Sceptical Mindset. Have the capacity to doubt. Challenge assumptions and stress-test every decision before acting.
Seek Different Perspectives: Ask different questions, in different ways, to different people. Shift your lens to reveal important insights.
Imagine Failure: Ask “how could this go wrong?” to identify where the risks actually lie before committing to a decision.
The Newspaper Test: Ask how you’d feel if your decision was front-page news. Apply the TED discipline:

1. Tell — why the decision was made
2. Explain — what it means for stakeholders
3. Describe — how it was reached and will unfold

What to expect

In this SkillStack, you’ll learn directly from Margaret Heffernan, as she explores why Critical Thinking has become one of the most critical skills in the Age of AI, and how to practice it with clarity and confidence. Margaret defines a good decision as one that can be fully understood by every person responsible for implementing it. In an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, this principle matters more than ever. We can’t just outsource judgment to AI and expect people to execute decisions we ourselves haven’t fully qualified. Effective implementation requires trust in information and judgment, and central to that is critical thinking by human beings. One of the most powerful ways to think critically is to shift your perspective, to deliberately examine a challenge through different lenses, contexts, and viewpoints. How might the issue look to someone with a different background, a different role, or at a different moment in time? Expanding the frame is often what reveals the most important insights.

Experimental Mindset

Janey Howson

What You Will Learn

Hold Tightly, Cling Lightly
Radically listen to what’s happening around you, while being willing to let go of what you planned to say or do. Stay open and build on what others contribute.
More is More
Put out ideas fearlessly and relentlessly. Every failed attempt is not a failure — it’s a First Attempt In Learning (FAIL). Each try builds your skill and gets you closer to your masterpiece.
Learn Out Loud (LOL)
Treat learning as a team sport. Share your failures and experiments openly so others can learn with you. Your job is to make those around you look good — and they do the same for you.

What to expect

In a world of constant change and AI transformation, clinging to the old playbook is no longer enough. Drawing on the art and science of improvisation, this SkillStack explores how to embrace uncertainty, experiment boldly, and turn every setback into a stepping stone. Jayney Howson, Chief Learning Officer at ServiceNow, draws on the unexpected world of improv comedy to show how embracing uncertainty, listening radically, and sharing your failures openly can unlock faster learning, stronger teams, and a mindset built for the age of AI.

Agency through Learning

Margaret Heffernan

What You Will Learn

In a world that’s changing so fast, we can sometimes feel helpless. A new world requires learning, and it’s in the learning that our agency resides. In this SkillStack, Margaret shares powerful principles about how to think radically differently about how we learn in the flow of work. It’s what gives us agency, keeps us relevant and gives us a competitive advantage in the rapidly changing age of AI.

What to expect

Be open-minded. Being open-minded is the foundation of creating understanding
Systems thinking: Breadth of expertise is often where hidden value is realised. The value of your expertise and how it impacts other functions, people, is determined by your capacity to know and understand.
Invest Time in Relationships. You don’t need to know everything, but it’s helpful to know people who might. The more people you know and take an interest in, the more you will know. Being interested in people is another way of learning. Relationships take time – invest time in building them, as we need to have them before we need them.
Don’t stereotype yourself. Don’t limit your potential by pigeonholing – follow your interest, not your perception of yourself. Lean into things you don’t understand. Shape the future you want for yourself, not one that’s shaped by others.
Protect the time to learn. Don’t fit it in. Protect the time to learn and apply what you learn as soon as you can. A skill is like a muscle – it’s not the reps that build it. It’s the repair of the tear. Intrinsic motivation is inexhaustible and enjoyable

Leading for AI Transformation

Leading in the Age of AI

with Elias Torres, Founder of Agency AI

What You Will Learn

Question Everything You Know
Every process and tool must be challenged. Just because something worked in the past doesn’t mean it should continue. Replace outdated systems with ones that do more for you, not the other way around.
Learn for the Customer
Don’t learn in isolation — learn alongside your customers. Elias went from feeling behind on AI to building solutions for companies like the NBA and Red Bull by immersing himself in customer problems and solving them in real time.
Do More with Less
Build lean, high-performing teams of doers — not large hierarchies full of titles. Elias’s goal is to build a multi-billion-dollar company with fewer than 100 people, using AI to amplify their impact.

What to expect

AI is reshaping what it means to lead. In this SkillStack, Elias Torres cuts through the noise with three battle-tested principles for building and scaling in an AI-native world — questioning every process, learning through your customers, and achieving more with smaller, sharper teams. Expect real stories, hard-won lessons, and a framework you can apply immediately.

Leading AI Transformation

with Des Traynor, co-founder of Fin (Intercom)

What You Will Learn

Understand the Gravity of Change — AI is a relentless force upending every business function. It requires a ground-up rewrite, not incremental adjustments.
Blank Sheet Your Company — Redesign your entire business from scratch, as if starting today in a post-AI world. Relitigate every decision: sales, marketing, product, support, pricing.
Execute Mercilessly — Become the company you designed. Make hard, painful decisions fast — changing roles, leaving products behind, stopping things customers love. No delays, no dilution.

What to expect

In this SkillStack, you will learn from one of the foremost pioneers of AI transformation and one of the industry’s most respected technology leaders: Des Traynor, co-founder of Fin (Intercom).
Intercom, Ireland’s first tech unicorn, spent over a decade defining and leading the global customer support software category. Then, in November 2022, the ground shifted. With the arrival of ChatGPT, the very foundations of the business were called into question. Intercom declared a “Code Red.” What followed has since been described as a defining “Netflix moment” for AI transformation, a bold, decisive reinvention that has become a blueprint for the next generation of AI native companies. Within days of recognising the implications of large language models, Des and his co founders made a courageous, contrarian choice: to build an AI product that would deliberately disrupt and potentially cannibalise their €400M ARR core business.
Just ten weeks later, they launched Fin, an AI powered customer support agent that didn’t simply evolve the product, but fundamentally redefined it. This transformation extended far beyond technology. It required rethinking every dimension of the organisation: how talent is hired, how products are built, who customers are, how value is priced and delivered, and how the company goes to market. Ultimately, it reshaped the culture itself. In this SkillStack, Des offers a rare, behind the scenes perspective on the critical decisions, trade-offs, and leadership principles that made this transformation possible.

Creating Conditions for Transformation

Jayney Howson

What You Will Learn

Know — Define a clear direction and give your team a compass, not just a map
Feel — Build environments of high care and high standards so people feel safe to take risks and grow
Do — Identify and remove the barriers that slow progress so work can flow forward

What to expect

Transformation can often feel like a complex tapestry of decisions, behaviours, and circumstances, many of which seem difficult to define or influence. In this SkillStack, Jayney shares her powerful trifecta for creating the conditions in which transformation can thrive.
Using the analogy of a garden, she explores how leaders are both the gardener and the rose. We grow and flourish in the environments we create, and so do our teams. When people have a clear sense of direction, feel supported and challenged in equal measure, and are enabled to do their best work, they can truly blossom.

AI Transformation

with Des Traynor,

What You Will Learn

This SkillStack you will learn the six factors to consider when getting started with AI.

Culture eats AI for breakfast
User Guidelines (safety and governance)
Augment vs Replace
Pain is Gain when you know what Gen AI is good for (use cases and data management)
Go Again: Trial, Learn, Refine, Repeat
Nerds Rule! Data management is the keystone

What to expect

Leading Across Silos

Margaret Heffernan Author, TED Speaker and CEO

What You Will Learn

Intentional relationship-building across departments to speed up problem-solving and reduce friction.
Shared stakes — designing cross-silo projects so every team has a clear stake in the outcome.
Flat contribution — creating environments where hierarchy does not block anyone from being heard.
Unexpected sources — actively seeking ideas from outside traditional areas of expertise.
Innovation mindset — leading cross-functional collaboration to unlock collective intelligence.

What to expect

AI transformation is the defining moment of our era, yet there is no AI-shaped hole in our organisations. It is impacting every corner of our organisations, and to fully harness its potential, we must first break down silos, apply first-principles thinking and work across traditional domains of expertise. In this SkillStack, award-winning Author, TED Speaker and CEO, Margaret Heffernan shares stories to teach the fundamental principles of leading across silos.

Leading Boldly Through Transformation

Jayney Howson

What You Will Learn

Trust Boldly
Start with full trust — give your team a “trust battery” charged to 100% from day one. Confidence in yourself and your team are inseparable. Extending trust creates accountability, ownership, and growth.
Communicate Clearly
Clear is kind. Don’t focus only on the long-term vision — in times of uncertainty, people need clarity on the next step. Prioritise clarity over reassurance.
Champion Change Together
Transformation isn’t done alone. Seek diverse perspectives from stakeholders inside and outside your team. When people feel heard and involved, they drive change rather than resist it.

What to expect

Trust is one of the most valuable forms of human currency. Yet in an AI-powered world, it can often feel as though trust is becoming harder to influence and even harder to sustain. As leaders, we naturally focus on setting the vision and painting a compelling picture of the future for our teams. But during periods of transformation, the challenge is rarely the destination. More often, it’s uncertainty about the next step. In this SkillStack, Jayney draws on her own experiences to share practical lessons for navigating change with confidence. Through personal stories and real-world insights, she introduces a simple but powerful formula for leading boldly through transformation.

Redefining Your Value Proposition in the Age of AI

Des Traynor

What You Will Learn

Identify the job your customers are really hiring you to do — Separate the timeless problem from your current solution, so you know what to protect and what to reinvent.
Find the right level of ambition for your AI solution — Avoid two traps: overshooting what AI can reliably deliver, and undershooting what is now possible.
Guide your customers through their own AI transformation — Bring customers with you by helping them rethink their metrics, roles, and ways of working.

What to expect

AI doesn’t just mean your product gets a little faster. It will create new problems, wipe out entire product categories, and change everything about how customers buy and use solutions. In this SkillStack, Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom and one of the pioneers of AI transformation, shares the three principles he used to reinvent Intercom into Fin, an AI-native business acquired by Salesforce for $3.6 billion in 2026.