The people with most to gain from a deeper experience of generative AI are the ones with the least opportunity to get it: The C suite.

I ran a C-level workshop for 30+ CEOs, board members and executives from a German retail group.

It was super hands-on. I guided all the participants through a pre-defined sequence of innovating and prototyping with generative AI. Each stage had its own assets – detailed prompts, business context, frameworks and canvases - all prepared by me in advance.

In the space of 3 hours, the participants covered a set of activities and outputs that would have taken 2-3 weeks in the pre-AI era.

“Knowing something and viscerally experiencing it are two very different things.”

Why this matters:

  1. It gives leaders a clear lens. It transmits powerful first-hand knowledge of what can – and can’t – be achieved with AI. This aligns everyone around a grounded, common understanding of what’s realistic, rather than the typical ‘my boss just wants me to do everything with AI’ syndrome that alienates a lot of the workforce.

  2. It plants a seed for experimentation. Leaders who have experienced a personal revelation, leveraging tools and frameworks they wouldn’t have had time to prepare themselves, are more likely to champion and fund further experiments. And hands-on experimenting is by far the fastest way to make real progress in unlocking the value of AI across the business.

  3. It shifts the business from Powerpoints to Prototypes. This one is the most important. For decades a slick presentation was a powerful unit of value in the corporate world. A good one, in front of the right people, could secure promotions and build influence. But AI locked in a deck won’t shift the needle for your business. Only a prototype can do that, by validating a hypothesis based on your actual data, infrastructure and the new tools and processes you want to leverage.

After the workshop, one of the CEOs commissioned the same format for 80 leaders in his own organisation – and went on to set up an organisation-wide AI training and enablement programme.

That’s how convinced he was of AI’s impact after seeing it fully in action. He already knew it mattered. But knowing something and viscerally experiencing it are two very different things.

So what’s the ultimate learning?

Taking time out to experiment with prompt chaining, context-building, workflow design and prototyping is an indulgence that the C-suite can’t normally afford in the midst of their intense schedules.

But given the benefits of rolling up their sleeves and witnessing its power for themselves, they can’t really afford not to.