They plan their next steps
Map how AI could change the work they do or want to do, and decide what to learn, try and pursue next.
For universities, companies and foundations
We help the next generation find their path in the future of work.
Bring our four-week talent accelerator to students in your university or professionals in your company. In a world nobody can map, they build the direction, the skills and the judgement they need to thrive with AI.
Eight live sessions. No coding experience needed.
Organisations we have worked with
Why we do this
People should grow with AI.
From climbing the ladder to riding the exponential curve.
With AI, people should gain more say over their working lives and the ability to build things they once needed a whole team to attempt. We want AI to expand what people can do and help them find new opportunities as work changes.
That means learning to direct AI, judge its work and decide what is worth doing. In the Accelerator, participants practise on real challenges, discovering what they can accomplish and choosing where to take it next.
What each person takes away
Participants work in teams of three to five on a real problem from a Challenge Partner, an organisation that brings the challenge.
They build their own AI workspace
Set up AI with their materials and instructions. Practise giving it work, checking results and deciding what to use.
They build and test a useful solution
Work on a real problem, test with the person it is for, and hand over the work with a short guide and its known limits.
They develop their own view of AI
Discuss difficult choices and write a stance they can explain, including which decisions they would keep for themselves.
We assess each person on their own work. Each participant demonstrates what they did and explains their decisions. The shared team result does not determine their assessment.
At the final, each person presents their AI workspace and contribution to the challenge, a career plan, and a brief connecting changes in AI to their own practice and stance.
How you can take part
You can bring participants, contribute a challenge or pay for someone to attend. Your institution can do more than one.
Host
Bring participants
Bring people you teach, employ or support, and help connect the programme with suitable Challenge Partners. A cohort can include up to 40 people.
Discuss hosting
Challenge Partner
Bring a real challenge
Bring a problem a small team can work on over four weeks. Introduce it, choose an approach and review the final work.
Discuss a challenge
Sponsor
Pay for someone to attend
Cover the cost for students or professionals who could not otherwise join. A host brings the participants and a Partner brings the challenge. You make sure people who need it can take part.
Discuss sponsoringEach Challenge Partner works with at least two teams. Alongside the Partner's three meetings, the person who would use the solution takes part in testing during sessions 6 and 7.
Ugo and Madison teach all eight sessions and guide participants through workspace setup, the project and the final presentation.
How the four weeks run
Every session combines work on your challenge, personal AI operating system, career roadmap and stance on AI. What you learn in one shapes the others.
Your challenge shipped
Your personal operating system
Your career roadmap
Your stance on AI
Week 1 Get started with your team and AI
Session 1 Set up your workspace
- Challenge
Meet your team and read the Challenge Partner’s brief.
- Personal OS
Set up your AI workspace with your files and instructions.
- Career roadmap
Map how AI could change your current or future work.
- Stance on AI
Discuss how AI could change your job prospects and your say at work.
Session 2 Define the challenge
Partner introduces the challenge- Challenge
Ask the Partner questions and agree what your team will work on.
- Personal OS
Write instructions that explain how you work and what matters to you.
- Career roadmap
Explain why this challenge matters to your next steps.
- Stance on AI
Examine when AI helps you learn. Write your first stance on using it.
- Challenge
Week 2 Understand the problem and explore approaches
Session 3 Understand the user’s work
- Challenge
Map the intended user’s work and identify where AI could help.
- Personal OS
Save useful context so you can build on previous conversations.
- Career roadmap
Choose who you want to help and the difference you want to make.
- Stance on AI
Consider who else is affected when you change how someone works.
Session 4 Compare possible solutions
- Challenge
Prepare three approaches for the Partner, including what each would test and cost.
- Personal OS
Question your AI’s answers and save instructions for a recurring task.
- Career roadmap
Choose what to learn next and find people learning it.
- Stance on AI
Examine the energy and resources your use of AI requires.
- Challenge
Week 3 Build, test and improve
Session 5 Build the first version
Partner chooses an approach- Challenge
Build the approach the Partner chooses and test it on a real case.
- Personal OS
Set limits on what AI can do independently as you build the workflow.
- Career roadmap
Choose a measurable result that shows your contribution.
- Stance on AI
Discuss how the location of your AI provider affects control over your data.
Session 6 Test with the intended user
- Challenge
Watch the user try your solution. Measure what changes as you improve it.
- Personal OS
Add an AI agent to check work against examples you graded yourself.
- Career roadmap
Map the people you can turn to and start one collaboration.
- Stance on AI
Discuss who owns AI-generated work and how its sources should be recognised.
- Challenge
Week 4 Hand over the work and plan what comes next
Session 7 Prepare the handover
- Challenge
Stop adding features. Watch the user follow your guide alone and improve unclear instructions.
- Personal OS
Schedule checks and review which files and actions your AI can access.
- Career roadmap
Share what you learned where the people you want to reach gather.
- Stance on AI
Decide what needs human supervision and what a scheduled checker should record.
Session 8 Present your work and take it forward
Partner receives the handover- Challenge
Demonstrate your solution to the Partner and hand over the files.
- Personal OS
Adapt your personal operating system to a task from your week.
- Career roadmap
Finish your roadmap, including work boundaries, and discuss it with your team.
- Stance on AI
Examine how AI influences your choices and finish your stance.
- Challenge
FACILITATORS
Learn with Ugo and Madison
Ugo Bot
CO-FOUNDER, FUTURE OF WORK LAB
I run the Accelerator so that students and professionals leave with the mindsets, the skills and the AI tools they need to face today’s disruption and keep learning as work keeps changing.
The program draws on years of hands-on work: with the United Nations on systemic problems, in San Francisco setting up and running an innovation accelerator for social change, then running talent accelerators for professionals and university students across Europe, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf. Most recently I have dedicated my time to building personal AI operating systems with individuals and small businesses who see AI as a way to widen the scope of what they can imagine and build.
Madison Bonovich
CO-FOUNDER, FUTURE OF WORK LAB
I help professionals, new graduates and small businesses thrive in an economy where AI is part of every job. The people who do best will manage AI the way a good manager handles people: brief it well, delegate real work, review the output, raise the standard. That is what I teach.
I ran my own company for more than eight years and worked at the United Nations on complex global challenges. Today I build personal AI operating systems with professionals and students, and help universities and leadership programs bring AI and new ways of working into their curriculum. The question I keep coming back to: what is meaningful work when intelligence becomes abundant?
Questions you may have
When could it run?
Four weeks, eight live sessions, two a week, online or in person. We set the start date with you so it fits a term or a quarter.
What does it cost?
We price a cohort, not a seat. A cohort is up to 40 people in teams of three to five, with one Challenge Partner for every two teams. A host or a foundation can fund the whole cohort, or a sponsor can pay for individual places. Tell us how many people you have in mind and we will come back with a figure.
How much time does it take?
Eight live sessions of three hours over four weeks, two a week. Between sessions, teams work on their challenge and each participant on their own setup. How much time that takes depends on the setting: a university that offers credit will ask for more documented hours than a company. We agree the load with you.
What do participants need?
A laptop they can install software on: a Mac running macOS 13 or later, or a Windows 10 or 11 machine. Any laptop from the last five years is fine. Locked company laptops are the usual problem, so if your participants use one, we talk to your IT before the cohort starts. Included in the price: two months of a Claude or ChatGPT Team subscription per participant, the desktop app (Claude Code or Codex) the personal AI OS runs on, and a Slack workspace for the cohort.
Who finds the Challenge Partners?
We do, with you. Each accelerator runs on a challenge theme, and we curate Partners around it: organisations from a host's network, from a sponsor's, or from ours. A host introduces us to the ones they would like in the room, and we take it from there. Sponsors and foundations often become Partners themselves.
What does a Challenge Partner commit to?
About eight hours of one person's time over four weeks. A one-page brief before the cohort starts. Presenting it to the team in session 2. Choosing between the team's three options in session 5. Receiving the handover in session 8. One person from the Partner who will actually use what is built joins testing in sessions 6 and 7. After the handover, the Partner can implement the solution on its own, or continue with the team if everyone involved wants to.
Can a university offer credit?
Yes. The programme fits the shape universities already recognise: an internship-substitute or laboratory activity worth around 6 credits, with 24 contact hours plus documented individual and team work, assessed on the outputs and a live final demonstration. We adapt the hours and the assessment to your regulations and can share the proposal text as a template.
Who owns the work?
Three things are built and they have three owners. Each participant owns their personal AI operating system and takes it with them. The team's solution to the challenge is handed to the Partner in session 8, with the Partner and the team free to continue together or apart. What each person learned is theirs to show, and we ask permission before we share any of it.
How is sensitive information handled?
By default, teams work only on public material and on what the Partner chooses to share in the brief. A Partner who wants the team to use internal data signs a confidentiality agreement with the participants before the cohort starts, and we help draft it. Nothing a Partner shares is used outside the team that received it.
What does a sponsor receive as evidence?
Three things, at the end of the four weeks. An invitation to the final session, where each team demonstrates its solution live to its Challenge Partner. A short report from us on the cohort: attendance, what each team built and handed over, and what the participants say they will do next. And, where participants agree, their own work: the personal AI operating system they built, the roadmap they wrote, and a line from them on what changed. We ask each participant's permission before anything with their name on it reaches a sponsor.
Let's build a pro-human future together.
We build each accelerator around you: your organisation's focus, and what the students and professionals you work with need. Tell us who they are and whether you would like to host, bring a challenge or pay for someone to attend.
ugo@futureofworklab.co