Contents · 5 min read
01 / 05 · Ownership
Start with the management team
In short
An AI partner can help, but the management team must start the work. It owns company direction and the use of funds and staff. Those calls cannot move to IT or a project office.
Take a media company whose production and engineering teams use AI well. Its leaders still make key choices without AI in the room. They decide what to commission and where to invest.
The team picks what gets made. It also chooses where people and funds go. An outside partner cannot carry those calls.
IT can still buy tools and run a rollout. The tools may save time.
But IT will tend to see tools and speed. It does not own the P&L. That is why AI transformation must start with the people who do.
A partner can bring working tools. It can guide the work. It cannot take the team's place, so the first duty is hands-on use.
02 / 05 · Practice
Leaders must use AI on live decisions
In short
The team must work with AI in its own day-to-day role. A course about AI is not enough. Leaders can only set a sound aim for skills they have used.
For the media company, this means putting a working tool inside a live choice. The team could use it when it weighs what to commission. It could use it when it picks which group to put first.
The choice must be real. It must belong to the leader using the tool. That is how AI training for executives builds skill that can guide the firm.
The media leadership brief uses three sessions. Working tools arrive in the first week. Leaders start by doing, not by watching.
The CEO does not need to become technical. Each leader does need direct use. That practice gives the team judgment about where AI helps and where it fails.
03 / 05 · Judgment
Practice builds the judgment to lead
In short
Use teaches leaders where AI helps a choice. It also shows where the output cannot be trusted. That judgment lets the team pick sound bets from what it knows firsthand.
For the media company, the team can put one live choice through the tool. It can then ask where the choice became stronger. It must also mark where doubt remains.
An AI rollout may save real time. It may improve a draft.
But speed is only the first gain. For leaders, AI's value shows in the quality of the choice. So does the impact of each hour they spend.
Direct use gives the team a sound limit. Leaders see what the tool can add. They also see where a person must keep the call.
For the media company, that may mean using AI to test a program choice. It can now draw the line between its role and the partner's role.
04 / 05 · The boundary
Leaders decide while the partner supports
In short
The team sets the aim and commits funds and staff. The partner brings working tools and supports the work. It cannot make P&L calls or create ownership for leaders.
Leaders do the live work
Each leader uses AI on choices from their own role. The partner can guide that use. It cannot gain that firsthand view for them.
Leaders make company calls
The team sets the aim. It decides where funds and people go. The P&L stays with those who carry it.
The partner supports the work
It brings tools and helps the team practice. It can help turn the team's aim into a clear plan.
IT supports delivery
IT can manage tools and access. A project office can track agreed work. Neither should set the company's AI aim.
For the media company, the partner may help leaders test a program plan. It may help them use AI on audience work. The team still decides what to back and what to stop.
The CEO and leadership team own the AI strategy. The CEO and the team keep it.
05 / 05 · Commitment
Proceed only when the team commits
In short
Proceed only when the management team will give the work real attention. Its leaders must do the hands-on work and make the calls that follow.
For the media company, the CEO can use this check before choosing a partner.
Book the team
The CEO protects time for the full team. That includes the work between sessions.
Bring live choices
Each leader brings work from their own role. They use the tools themselves.
Keep the key calls
The team sets the aim. It commits the funds and staff needed to act.
Own what follows
The team names who will carry each agreed move. The CEO checks that the work gets done.
Resolve a refusal
If a key leader will not take part, the CEO deals with that gap first. The firm should not claim that the team is committed.
The same standard sits behind AI for leadership teams. A partner can support a team that meets it. It cannot turn a refusal into ownership.
Commit before you start
The CEO's next task is to secure a real commitment from the full management team: protected time for hands-on use, followed by ownership of the decisions and work that result. See The Opportunity turns that commitment into three workshops where leaders use AI themselves and leave with a ranked roadmap of opportunities, without handing the company's choices to an outside partner. It gives the team a defined setting to practice together and decide where to start.
Three to four weeks, three workshops with your management team: hands-on use of AI, custom AI agents for each leader, and a ranked roadmap of opportunities. Fixed fee, no access to your live systems.
Questions CEOs ask about this
What must our management team commit for an AI transformation partner to succeed?
Your management team must commit its own time and make its own decisions. Proceed only if every leader will use AI on live work firsthand. The team must also keep every P&L call. The CEO must decide whether the full team will practice and own what follows.
How much executive time is genuinely required?
There is no sound fixed figure for every team. Leaders need enough time to use the tools on live choices and make the calls that follow. The media example uses three sessions, with working tools from the first week.
Which decisions cannot be delegated to IT or a project office?
Company direction and P&L choices stay with the management team. So do calls on funds and staff. IT or a project office may support the tools and track the work.
What work should executives do hands-on?
They should use working AI tools on real choices from their own roles. For the media company, that could be a program choice or a call on which audience comes first. The aim is direct judgment about where AI helps and where it fails.
Who must own follow-through between sessions?
The CEO and management team still own the result. Before the work starts, the team should name the leader who will carry each agreed move.
What should happen if a key executive will not participate?
There is no set process that fits each case. The CEO should resolve the gap before calling the team ready.
Founder, GRAIL
Johan has spent fifteen years in management consulting and executive leadership, including as Chief Product Officer of a SaaS company. He founded GRAIL to help European leadership teams work out what AI changes at the core of their business. He is the author of The Execution Revolution and the host of the ThinkRoom podcast.
Related reading
Sources
- AI for Leadership Teams: why change cannot move past what the leadership team has seen for itself. (accessed October 8, 2026)
- AI Training for Executives: why skill comes from using working tools on live executive work. (accessed October 8, 2026)
- AI Transformation vs Digital Transformation: why the people who own the P&L must start the work. (accessed October 8, 2026)
- How to Build an AI Strategy: why the CEO and leadership team own the aim. (accessed October 8, 2026)
- Copilot Is Not an Agent: why leaders should judge AI by better choices and impact per hour. (accessed October 8, 2026)
- AI in Media & Communications: the media case and the use of working tools from the first week. (accessed October 8, 2026)
Next scheduled review: January 22, 2027