Founding cohort5 live sessions · max. 20 leadersUpdated August 2026

The board wants AI results, your team wants to know what’s allowed, and both of them are looking at you.

The AI Leaders Journey is a five-week working program for leaders in large organizations. You leave with real AI skills, a plan for your team, and one initiative your organization will notice — built alongside leaders from other companies who sit exactly where you sit.

Format
5 live sessions 2 hours, one per week
Your time
~3 hrs/week 2h live + 1h transfer
Next cohort
4 November 2026 09:00–11:00 CET
Seat
€2,190 excl. VAT · invoiced
Certificate
Included Article 4 evidence

The application takes three minutes. We review every one to protect the seniority level of the room, and confirm your seat within two working days.

Bringing colleagues? Save 20% on two or more seats.

A leader working through the programme material on a laptop.
4.8

Average learner rating across all Bots & People programmes. 80,000+ people trained inside 30+ enterprises.

Built by the team behind AI programs at

We have trained more than 80,000 people inside 30+ enterprises. This is the program we built for the people who lead them.

The situation

The expectations come from above, the questions come from below, and the time comes from nowhere.

Your board has bought the tools and announced the strategy. Your team is somewhere between quiet skepticism and secretly pasting company data into free chatbots. And you sit in the middle, expected to turn one into the other.

Using AI for real, high-value work Licence bought, barely touched

You are not the exception. And the gap doesn’t close with another keynote — it closes when your team watches you use the tools yourself. That is exactly what this program trains.

79%

of German executives say their organization lacks basic AI competence.Stifterverband / McKinsey, January 2025

56%

of CEOs have seen neither revenue gains nor cost savings from AI so far.PwC Global CEO Survey

15% → 55%

jump in positive team attitudes when leaders visibly work with AI themselves.BCG, AI at Work 2025

And from August 2026 it’s a compliance question too. Article 4 of the EU AI Act requires organizations to ensure sufficient AI literacy among staff working with AI systems. Week 4 covers the obligation, and your certificate is usable as evidence toward it.

What changes for you

Three things move, and they move in this order

This is not a strategy seminar. It starts with your own hands on the tools, because nothing downstream works until that part is true.

FirstYou actually get good at using AI yourself

You bring your real leadership work — the decision memo, the team briefing, the difficult conversation you have to prepare — and rebuild it live with AI. Three of your weekly routines come back running differently. A leader who doesn’t use AI can’t credibly ask anyone else to.

Week 2
ThenYou can answer your team’s questions

What are we allowed to use? What happens to our data? Am I going to be replaced? You stop deflecting these and start handling them — with guardrails people actually follow, a position on shadow AI, and a straight answer on what agents will and won’t change next year.

Weeks 1 & 4
ThenYou have real use cases for your department

Not a list of ideas — a prioritized map of where AI creates value in your area, and one scoped initiative with a baseline and a 90-day plan. Written in language your management will take seriously, and pressure-tested by peers before anyone in your company sees it.

Weeks 3 & 5

What you leave with

Every session ends with something you keep.

This is a working program, not a lecture series. Each of the five sessions produces something you take back into your organization the next morning.

Your AI Leadership Map

An honest baseline of where you and your team actually stand — including the AI use nobody has told you about.

Your leadership workflow, rebuilt

Three of your real leadership tasks now run with AI, because a leader who doesn’t use AI can’t credibly ask anyone else to.

The AI Opportunity Map for your team

A prioritized view of where AI creates value in your area, written in language your management will take seriously.

Your adoption playbook

A practical plan for resistance, guardrails, shadow AI and the EU AI Act training obligation — the unglamorous work that decides whether anything sticks.

Your AI initiative

One concrete, scoped project for your organization, pressure-tested by leaders from other companies before anyone in your company sees it.

An AI tool without a trained user is a very expensive screensaver. The same is true one level up: an AI strategy without a trained leader is a very expensive slide deck.

How it works

You meet once a week for two hours, and you work in every session.

Each session combines short input with hands-on work on your own material and a moderated exchange in your peer circle, cameras on. Between sessions you apply what you built inside your real team, not in a sandbox.

5 weeks5 live sessions10 hours live~1 hr/week transferMax 20 leaders
1The honest baselineWeek 1 · 2 hours

You map where AI genuinely stands in your team, including the shadow use, and where you stand yourself. We cut through the vocabulary so you can hold your own in any AI conversation, from your board to your most technical hire.

You leave with your AI Leadership Map and a clear picture of the gap you’re closing.

2Lead by usingWeek 2 · 2 hours

You bring your actual leadership work: the decision memo, the team briefing, the preparation for a difficult conversation. You rebuild it live with AI, hands-on and independent of any specific tool. This is the week the program pays for itself in hours.

You leave with three working AI routines in your own calendar.

3The opportunity mapWeek 3 · 2 hours

You scan your team’s work for the use cases that matter, and you learn to separate the impressive from the valuable. We give you the same impact-versus-feasibility method we use inside enterprise rollouts.

You leave with the AI Opportunity Map for your team, ready to share upward.

4Adoption, resistance and guardrailsWeek 4 · 2 hours

You deal with the human part: the skeptics, the overwhelmed, and the enthusiasts who are three prompts away from a compliance incident. You set guardrails that people actually follow, you cover the EU AI Act’s Article 4 training obligation, and you take an honest look at what AI agents will and won’t change in your team next year.

You leave with your adoption playbook.

5Your initiativeWeek 5 · 2 hours

You turn the map and the playbook into one initiative that is scoped and measurable, with a baseline and a 90-day plan. Then your peer circle takes it apart before your organization gets the chance to.

You leave with an initiative that survives scrutiny — and you pick up your certificate on the way out.

A working parent fitting a session in from home.

The time commitment, honestly

Two hours live per week, plus roughly one hour of transfer work. That transfer work isn’t homework on top of your job — it is your job, done with new methods.

Sessions run 09:00–11:00 CET, deliberately early, so they sit before most calendars fill up.

The peer circle

The other leaders are the part you can’t download.

Every participant joins a fixed peer circle of four to six leaders from different companies, matched by seniority rather than industry. The circle meets inside every session and stays connected between them.

Two colleagues working in a shared workspace.

This is where the program stops being a course. You will hear how a logistics leader handled the resistance you are facing right now, and what a bank did about the tool your team already uses in secret. Everything runs under the Chatham House Rule — you can use everything you learn, but you never attribute it to a person or a company.

4–6leaders per fixed peer circle
20seats in the whole cohort, capped

The cohort is capped because working sessions stop working much beyond that, and a peer circle only has value if everyone in it actually talks.

Industries we work in

AutomotiveTelcoInsurance & bankingEnergyIndustrial manufacturingRetailAviationPharma & health

Need to run this past someone first?

We’ll email you the full curriculum as a PDF, together with a one-page business case you can forward to your manager or L&D team. No sales call attached.

Curriculum request form loads here.

One email, then nothing unless you ask. See our privacy policy.

Who teaches

The trainers run this format inside enterprises every week.

Nico Bitzer

Co-founder & CEO, Bots & People

Nico has spent the last five years building AI programs inside Europe’s largest organizations, from Deutsche Telekom to Daimler Truck. Before founding Bots & People he taught at a vocational school and later consulted for corporates like Bayer and Henkel, which is where he learned that companies rarely have a tool problem and usually have a training problem. He leads the strategy and leadership sessions himself.

Placeholder — trainer 2

Trainer name

Senior AI Trainer, Bots & People

Two or three sentences of enterprise delivery track record — for example “has delivered 200+ leadership sessions at Siemens Energy, Pfalzwerke and Innomotics” — plus one human detail. Real photo required; no stock.

Between them, the trainers run this format inside DAX and Fortune 500 companies every single week. You get the same people, without needing a framework agreement first.

Proof

Every B&P program gets measured, and these are the current numbers.

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People trained across 30+ enterprises

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Average learner satisfaction, with an NPS of 59

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Saved per employee per day at Deutsche Telekom

+85%

Increase in AI adoption at Daimler Truck, across 40,000 employees in six countries.

20,000

AI upskilling participations at Daimler Truck within six months.

These numbers come from our enterprise programs and were measured together with our clients. The founding cohort of this open program will be measured the same way — and that is part of why the seat price is what it is.

Exactly what we wanted

“We got exactly what we wanted. It was strongly practice-oriented and that is exactly what I appreciate so much about Bots & People. For me, that’s what sets it apart from other providers.”
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A hands-on, well-structured introduction

“The practical examples and real-world use cases helped our team better understand how to leverage AI tools for day-to-day challenges. It was both insightful and directly applicable to our work.”
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Comprehensive coverage, inspiring lecturers

“Our colleagues were given a holistic view of the topic, and the opportunity to discuss their challenges together with the experts and work out possible solutions.”
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Quotes from Bots & People enterprise programs. The founding cohort of this open program hasn’t run yet.

Who this is for

This is built for leaders in the middle of it, not for spectators.

This is for you if

  • You lead a team, a department or a function inside a large organization, and AI adoption has landed on your desk — officially or not
  • You’re a VP, director, head of function or team lead. We match peer circles by seniority, so both ends of that range work
  • You’d rather build something concrete than collect certificates. Although yes, you get one of those too
  • You can commit two hours a week for five weeks, live

This is not for you if

  • ×You want tool tutorials. The program is tool-agnostic and works with whatever your company allows
  • ×You want to delegate the thinking. You will work in every session, on your own material
  • ×You need a keynote for your next town hall. We know people, but that is a different booking
  • ×You’re an engineer who wants to build AI systems. If you lead engineers, though, you’re in the right room

Details & price

The founding cohort

€2,190
per seat, excl. VAT · invoiced to your company

The application form loads here.

Three minutes, no payment now. We review every application to protect the seniority level of the room and confirm within two working days. By applying you agree to our privacy policy.

Full refund up to the halfway point of the programme, or move to a later cohort at no cost.

Bringing colleagues? Save 20% on two or more seats.

Already work with Bots & People? Your company may have seats already — worth asking your L&D team first.

What the seat includes

  • Five live working sessions2 hours each, one per week, capped at 20 leaders
  • Your fixed peer circle4–6 leaders from other companies, matched by seniority, under the Chatham House Rule
  • All five deliverablesLeadership Map, rebuilt workflow, Opportunity Map, adoption playbook, scoped initiative
  • Every template and working materialThe same ones we use inside enterprise rollouts
  • The AI Leaders Journey certificateIssued by Bots & People, LinkedIn-ready, and usable as evidence toward the EU AI Act Article 4 training obligation
  • Optional certification path afterwardsIf you want an external credential, we’ll point you at Microsoft AB-731 — booked separately, entirely optional

Why this price

Comparable leadership programs in the US charge $5,000 and more for content you watch. This is the founding cohort price for a program you work in, and most participants expense it against their training or transformation budget. We send an invoice your procurement team won’t blink at.

Paying for it

Most people expense this

It sits comfortably inside a typical L&D or leadership-development budget. Here’s everything you need to get it signed off.

Get your company to pay

Don’t write the email yourself. Copy the one below, add your numbers, send it to your manager.

Subject: Approval request — AI Leaders Journey (€2,190) Hi [Manager], I'd like to join the Bots & People AI Leaders Journey, starting [date]. Why it's worth it: • It's 5 live sessions of 2 hours over 5 weeks, about 3 hours a week, so it won't affect delivery. • I don't come back with notes. I come back with an AI opportunity map for our area, an adoption playbook, and one scoped initiative with a baseline and a 90-day plan. • It gets me genuinely using AI in my own leadership work, which is the part our team is currently waiting on. BCG found positive team attitudes jump from 15% to 55% when leaders visibly use AI themselves. • The certificate is usable as evidence toward our AI literacy obligation under Article 4 of the EU AI Act, which applies from August 2026. • I'd be working alongside leaders from other large companies. Bots & People have trained 80,000+ people at Deutsche Telekom, Daimler Truck, Siemens Energy and 30+ others. Cost: €2,190 excl. VAT per seat, invoiced to the company. If two or more of us join, it's 20% less each. Full programme: [link] Happy to share what I learn with the wider team afterwards. Thanks, [Your name]
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Team discount

Send two or more people from the same organization and every seat drops by 20%. Leaders who go through it together tend to actually act on it — one person coming back with a plan is easy to ignore, three is not.

Apply for multiple seats

Private in-house cohort

Training your whole leadership team? We run this as a closed cohort built around your industry, your tools and your strategic priorities — the way we deliver for Daimler Truck and Deutsche Telekom.

Talk to us

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a technical background?

No. You need a team, a calendar, and the willingness to work hands-on. Everything technical is explained in plain language and practiced live.

Which AI tools do you use?

We are deliberately tool-agnostic. You work with the tools your organization allows, and the methods transfer across all of them. If your company is mid-rollout on a specific platform, bring it.

What is the real time commitment?

Two hours live per week, plus roughly one hour of transfer work inside your normal job. The transfer work is not homework on top of your job. It is your job, done with new methods.

What if I miss a session?

Sessions are designed as working sessions, so recordings can’t fully replace them. If you already know you will miss more than one, wait for the next cohort — your peer circle will thank you. You can move to a later cohort at no cost.

Is what I share confidential?

Yes. The whole cohort operates under the Chatham House Rule, and the peer circles agree on confidentiality in the first session. You control what you share, and most participants find the honesty is exactly what they can’t get internally.

Can my company pay for this?

Yes, and it usually does. You receive a proper invoice, and the certificate plus the Article 4 relevance make the internal approval conversation short. There’s a ready-made approval email in the Paying for it section above.

Why is this so much cheaper than Section or MIT?

Because this is our founding cohort and we measure it like an enterprise program. Early participants get the full format at a price that is a rounding error in most transformation budgets. That won’t stay this way.

What language is it delivered in?

The open cohort runs in English. For in-house cohorts we deliver in German and six other languages.

We might want this for our whole leadership team. Is that possible?

Yes. This open cohort runs the same format we deliver in-house for leadership teams at large organizations, adapted to their tools and context. Talk to us after Week 1, or before.

Five weeks from now, you can have an initiative on the table instead of another AI article in the team channel.

The founding cohort has 20 seats, and leaders from different companies fill them. The application takes three minutes.

Confirmation within two working days · Invoiced to your company · Full refund up to the halfway point

Training your entire leadership team?

We deliver in-house executive programmes customized to your industry, your tools and your strategic priorities — the same way we work with Daimler Truck, Deutsche Telekom and Siemens Energy.

Book a free consultation
€2,190
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