At AHEAD, we believe that AI transformation is not just a technology story — it’s a people story. Before we could confidently help our clients navigate the age of AI, we knew we had to walk the path ourselves. That commitment gave rise to one of the most deliberate, phased workforce AI enablement efforts in our industry: the AI Passport Program, powered by our AI Champion Network, and anchored to a clear AI People Transformation Maturity Model.
This is the story of how we enabled our nearly 3,000-person workforce — and what we’ve learned along the way.
The Foundation: Setting a Shared Baseline with AI Passport Essentials
Every transformation begins with a shared understanding. Ours started with AI Passport Essentials — an enterprise-wide learning experience designed to ensure every AHEADian, regardless of role or technical background, could speak a common language around AI.
AI Essentials covered the foundational “what and why”:
- Core AI concepts, capabilities, and limitations
- Responsible and ethical AI use
- Generative AI and Large Language Models in practice
- Prompt crafting fundamentals
The results spoke for themselves. AI Passport Essentials achieved ~95% completion across the enterprise — a signal that our workforce was not just willing, but eager to engage. The program has since been embedded into new hire onboarding, ensuring every AHEADian starts their journey with a solid AI foundation from day one.
This wasn’t just a training rollout. It was the moment we established a shared foundation for responsible AI adoption— building the trust and common vocabulary needed for what came next.
Moving to Practice: AI Passport Practitioner and Glean Foundations
Awareness alone doesn’t transform how work gets done. The second phase of our AI Passport journey — AI Passport Practitioner: Glean Foundations — was built to move employees from “I know what AI is” to “I use AI every day.”
Launched in alignment with our enterprise-wide rollout of Glean, our enterprise GPT, AI Practitioner was intentionally structured as a condition of access: employees completed training to unlock their Glean license. This created both accountability and momentum.
The Practitioner curriculum is a four-route journey, each building on the last:
| Route | Focus | Key Skills |
| 1 | Prompt Design & AI Interpretation | Core 4 framework, reasoning read, two-cycle refinement |
| 2 | AI Output Verification & Quality Standards | Hallucination detection, quality benchmarks, citation review |
| 3 | Problem Framing & Task Decomposition | Breaking complex work into AI-ready tasks |
| 4 | Workflow Design & AI Playbook Development | Designing and documenting repeatable AI workflows |
The results have been remarkable. As of mid-April 2026, over 2,990 employees — more than 90% of licensed users — have completed Glean Foundations, with multiple business units reaching 100% completion including AHEAD UK, Enterprise Transformation, Legal & Compliance, Sales (98%), and Enterprise Engineering (98%).
What sets this program apart is how it’s designed: not as a standalone training event, but as learning embedded directly into the flow of work. Employees practice with real AHEAD scenarios, use tools they already have, and build reusable prompt templates and workflow playbooks their entire team can leverage.
Business-Led Adoption: The AI Champion Network
We knew from the start that AI adoption can’t scale through training alone. It requires trusted voices inside every team — people who model the behavior, surface real use cases, and make AI feel accessible and relevant.
That’s the role of our AI Champion Network.
Launched in March 2026, our AI Champions represent every business unit across AHEAD. They were the first employees to complete AI Practitioner training and were equipped with a dedicated toolkit, a role charter, and a direct connection to our centralized AI Hive team. Their mandate is clear:
- Drive adoption — model “Glean-first” behaviors in their daily work and ensure teammates complete training
- Translate AI into business value — partner with BU leaders to prioritize high-value use cases and surface measurable wins
- Serve as the first line of support — host micro-sessions, Learning Labs, and office hours to embed AI into team routines
- Provide governance feedback — surface what’s working, what isn’t, and what the business needs next
Champions are not expected to build agents or write code. They’re expected to be the trusted “travel guide” for AI in their business unit — influential, credible, and deeply embedded in how their team actually works.
Since kickoff, AI Champions have been meeting weekly in dedicated enablement forums, co-facilitating BU-specific Glean Learning Labs, and helping teams document their first AI-enabled workflow wins.
The Roadmap: A Phased Model for Lasting Transformation
Underpinning all of this is a deliberate AI People Transformation Maturity Model — a five-level framework that defines where we are, where we’re going, and how we’ll know we’ve arrived.
| Level | Stage | Outcome |
| 1 — Foundational✅ | AI Awareness & Readiness | The organization understands AI, trusts its intent, and has a shared foundation for responsible adoption |
| 2 — Emerging🔄 | AI Fluency in Real Work | Employees apply AI confidently in daily workflows |
| 3 — Integrated🔄 | AI Improves How Work Gets Done | AI drives measurable productivity and quality gains through human + AI workflows |
| 4 — Embedded(FY27) | Human + AI Operating Model | AI is the default way work is done, embedded in performance, leadership, and role expectations |
| 5 — Adaptive(Future) | Continuously Evolving AI-Native Workforce | Workforce continuously adapts as AI, work, and strategy evolve |
We have completed Level 1. With our Glean rollout and AI Champion Network now active, we are firmly in Levels 2 and 3 — focused on getting employees using AI with confidence and documenting the productivity wins that prove the model works.
What This Means for Our Clients
AHEAD’s commitment to AI workforce transformation isn’t just an internal story — it’s proof of concept for the work we do with clients every day. As a member of the Glean Partner Network, AHEAD brings that firsthand experience to its clients, helping organizations move from AI strategy to adoption and measurable business value.
We believe that AI is most powerful when real people know how to use it, trust it, and embed it into how they work. By walking this path ourselves — building fluency at scale, activating business-led adoption, and measuring progress against a clear maturity model — we’ve developed the muscle memory, methodology, and lived experience to help our clients do the same.
We are AHEAD’s own best and first AI client. And we’re just getting started.
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