What Makes a Great AI Champion?
Key Takeaways
Great AI champions are curious, trusted, and connected—not just technical
Champions act as guides, helping teams explore, learn, and apply AI meaningfully
Influence, empathy and sharing are more powerful than formal expertise
Some of the best champions come from unexpected places in the organisation
When organisations start thinking seriously about adopting AI, one of the first questions is:
“Who’s going to lead this internally?”
Too often, the assumption is: find the techiest person in the room. But while technical skills are helpful, they’re far from the whole story.
To drive meaningful adoption, you need champions—not just coders. And the best AI champions? They often surprise you.
Why Do You Need AI Champions in the First Place?
An AI champion is someone inside the organisation who:
Builds confidence and curiosity among peers
Spotlights early wins (and learns from missteps)
Connects AI experiments to real business needs
Acts as a bridge between teams, not a bottleneck
Think of them as a guide, not a guru.
What Qualities Make an AI Champion Stand Out?
1. Are They Curious, Not Just Clever?
The best champions ask good questions:
“Could this help us save time?”
“What if we tested it with that repetitive report?”
“How could we make this easier for the team?”
They don’t need all the answers. But they do need the willingness to explore.
2. Are They Trusted by Others?
Trust gives champions influence.
They might be a team leader, a well-liked peer, or simply the person others turn to when they’re stuck. What matters is:
They surface concerns without shutting things down
They invite others to experiment without pressure
They model safe learning, not performative expertise
3. Can They Connect AI to the Bigger Picture?
A good AI champion looks beyond tools. They’re asking:
How does this support our strategic goals?
Could this reduce workload stress?
What’s the impact on employee experience or customers?
This helps prevent AI from becoming a shiny distraction and instead frames it as a genuine enabler.
4. Do They Share What They’re Learning?
Champions aren’t just early adopters—they’re generous ones.
If they’ve found an amazing prompt to summarise meetings or automate tasks, the win is in sharing it.
This mindset builds momentum and fosters a culture of peer learning.
5. Do They Need to Work in Tech?
Not at all. In fact, some of your most effective champions might be:
The operations manager who improved scheduling
The HR advisor who built an onboarding chatbot
The PA who saved hours with a simple email workflow
What they all had in common? They understood their team’s context—and were willing to try.
Final Thought: Are You Choosing for Mindset First?
You can always teach someone prompt design or AI tools. But curiosity, empathy, and influence? Those are harder to train.
So when you’re looking for your AI champions, ask:
“Who’s trusted? Who’s curious? Who helps others learn?”
That’s your starting point.
Want to Find Your AI Champions?
It’s probably not who you think—and that’s exactly the opportunity.
Our Explore AI Together programme helps you identify and support the right people to lead meaningful AI adoption from the inside. Let’s talk.