Training on AI and automation for business professionals: workshops, online courses, live sessions, all the way down to custom company training programs

Co-Founder

Circula

Advisor

Circula.com

Head of Operations

On Deck

Fellow

solarisBank AG

Senior Business Development Manager

payleven Global Mobile Payments

IT Team Lead

Fundraising - Internship

Helping startup operators move faster with automation

I train business professionals on AI and automation: workshops, online courses, live sessions, all the way down to custom company training programs

Alexandre Kantjas

What training 5,000+ operators on AI taught me: it's not about 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘴, it's about new 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘴. Here they are:

AI means new tools → new tools require new skills → new skills create new 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘴.

Skills training without role clarity will lead you nowhere. 

The companies moving fast aren't only hiring people with AI skills or running better training programs: they also understood the importance of 𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘴.

Here are the top 3 every company will hire for:

𝐀𝐈 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬. 
→ 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘰: Use AI tools to do their current job faster. Sales managers. Customer service reps. Marketers: all will be expected to lift their individual productivity with AI.
→ 𝘛𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘶𝘴𝘦: AI chat solutions (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini), AI in SaaS applications that support their workflows.

Prediction: This role will become the baseline. Use AI or get squared.

𝐀𝐈 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 
→ 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘰: Automate team processes using AI and no-code platforms. RevOps managers. BizOps leads. Operations analysts. They thought systems and processes in the past. The expectation in the future will be to turn them into  workflows and systems.
→ 𝘛𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘶𝘴𝘦: No-code automation platforms like Zapier, Airtable, n8n, Make and all the good stuff I won't list here.

Prediction: Every business function will hire at least one AI Builder to automate the team's work.

𝐀𝐈 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬 
→ 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘰: Build apps and scalable systems. They're today's engineers, but the way they ship solution is about to entirely change.
→ 𝘛𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘶𝘴𝘦: Cursor, Replit, v0, Bolt - AI-native IDEs and vibe coding platforms that let them ship 10x faster by pair-programming with AI.

Prediction: in less than 18 months, every engineer will be an AI engineer.

This time is different: your role too will change. 

Which role do you see for yourself?

It's one thing to see potential in AI. It's another to have identified 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘈𝘐 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴 that move the needle for 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 business.

Join me and Jan for our upcoming workshop where we'll reveal the 15 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐬 that power virtually every business automation. Whether you're in sales, operations, marketing, or finance, these patterns repeat across industries and functions.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐈 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬
👤 𝐆𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭: yours truly and Jan Meinecke
🕒 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞: Thursday, November 27th, 2025, 5:00pm CET
📍 𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Online

You'll learn:
- 5 frameworks for evaluating and prioritizing AI use cases
- How to recognize which patterns apply to your specific challenges
- The 15 fundamental AI building blocks that solve real business problems
- Live examples showing each building block in action

Want to join? Let me know in the comments.

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AI transformation is in every board meeting's agenda. Yet most initiatives will fall short. Here's why:

Most companies have started initiatives to transform with AI this year. 

They're picking between ChatGPT Enterprise and Claude for Teams. 
They're running workshops on prompting. 
They're setting up AI councils to "figure out strategy."

Most of it is going to fail. 

It won't build the necessary momentum.

The reason: AI transformation requires six interconnected dimensions moving together:

𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲: How you respond to AI's business implications (market shifts, product opportunities, operational redesign)

𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞: The behaviors that define whether people experiment or wait for permission

𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞: Building skills, allowing experimentation, rethinking roles as AI becomes part of every job

𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲: The platforms, tools, and governance that enable AI across the org

𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚: Not just structured data, but unstructured information and tacit knowledge trapped in people's heads

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬: Redesigning workflows with AI at the core, not just automating what exists

These aren't sequential: you can't perfect Strategy, then move to Culture, then People.

They're concurrent. 

Interconnected. 

Each dimension affecting the others.

Here's what we see working:
→ Assess where you stand in each dimension 
→ Identify your biggest bottleneck 
→ Fix that constraint first 
→ Move to the next

AI transformation won't happen all at once. It happens by removing bottlenecks systematically until momentum builds.

We'll be breaking down the full framework in a series of articles. 

First article published, link in the comments.

Zapier

Head of Enterprise Innovation

NoCodeOps (acquired by Zapier)

Co-Founder & Community Member

Co-Founder & CEO

Compass

Solutions Architect, National Operations

National Agent Experience Specialist

Gett

‌• Enabled 50% reduction in driver onboarding time though creation of streamlined digital workflow (Defined requirements, sourced white-label platform, customized features, built Applicant Tracking System on Google Sheets, and deployed iOS app for Brand Ambassadors)
‌• Results: 10x driver growth (3K to 30K+); Same-day driver activations (US record time); First self-service driver onboarding station globally
‌• Producer & Director of US Driver Training Video in conjunction with customizing LMS platform for scaling driver onboarding experience
‌• Developed & implemented SalesForce integrated web form enabling drivers to update documents; Reduced SLA from 5 days to under 2 hrs
‌• Tech Day B2C Brand Activation Project: Secured title sponsorship; Built gamified interactive experience driving 800+ new users in 1 day

US Head of Driver Onboarding Product

• Pioneered and executed the company’s first US Brand Ambassador (BA) Program, onboarding new drivers in the field in entirety 
• Majorly contributed to over 70% reduction in driver acquisition cost through optimizing BA pay structure, deploying technology enabling BAs to recruit drivers offline, creating and analyzing KPIs, and implementing feedback loops to allow for continual improvement
• Created channel-specific landing pages to track ROI of Multi-Million Dollar OOH Campaign; Increased conversions by 50% with A/B testing
• Established strategic partnerships (ex: Luxor Car Dealer, Large Auto Brokerage) to expedite ongoing driver lead generation

US Driver Acquisition Team Lead

Your NYC Concierge

• Clients included: Fever, TableList, SeatGeek, Served by Stadium, and Gett
• Partnered with $5M-$640M funded companies to garner 5K+ app installs via street teams; Generated $40K in 6 months; Recruited by Gett
• Built company-specific playbooks with methodology/unique breakdown of product knowledge; Managed up to 15 brand ambassadors
• Administered ongoing quantitative analysis of BA performance that pinpointed locations to reach 300 installs/day KPI

CEO & Co-Founder

Handy HQ

• Led transition of street team from an awareness campaign to on-site voucher sale; ROI increase prompted replication in several markets 
• Top performer in NYC market; Trained management on brand activation methodology and sales technique which was pushed to scale

Lead Brand Ambassador

Davenport Theatrical Enterprises

• Created and maintained street teams for the following Broadway and Off-Broadway shows:  Avenue Q, Rent, Godspell, Million Dollar Quartet, & The Gazillion Bubble Show
• Launched “Your Broadway Genius” Street Team which sold tickets to Broadway & Off Broadway shows in Times Square, direct-to-consumer
• Hired and trained 30+ brand ambassadors to cross-functionally serve show-specific promotional and direct-to-consumer sales teams

Street Team Manager

Empowering Ops Professionals that use #NoCode with Operator (an automation management platform) and community at NoCodeOps 🧰

I lead Enterprise Innovation at Zapier, focusing on redefining how businesses scale automation. Previously, I was the co-founder and CEO of NoCodeOps, a community and automation management platform acquired by Zapier. Before that, I built the onboarding program for 15,000+ real estate agents at Compass. With 8+ years in operations, internal systems, and automation, I’m passionate about empowering teams with no-code solutions.

Fun fact: Before tech, I was an actor—appearing on Law & Order, in films at Cannes and Tribeca, and in way too many off-off-off Broadway shows.

Philip Lakin

We don’t talk enough about the figure-it-out people.

You know the ones. The folks who quietly go learn the new tool, wire up the system, and make things work before the company even realizes it needed doing.

They don’t wait for permission or perfect clarity. They just start building.

And weirdly, those same people are often the ones who feel the most out of place right now.

They’re not sure what to call themselves.
They’re not data scientists.
They’re not engineers.
They’re not influencers.
They’re just figuring it out.

Here’s the truth:
That instinct to learn fast, connect dots, and turn chaos into clarity is the essential skill of the AI era.

If you’re that person:
• You’re not behind.
• You’re not an imposter.
• You’re infrastructure.

The future of AI transformation won’t come from consultants in slide decks.
It’s going to come from the inside. From the builders, the operators, the ones who already see how it could all work better.

You don’t need to become someone else to matter in this next wave.
You just need to recognize what you already are.

I’m spending the next few months helping these “figure-it-out” people step into real AI Transformation Lead roles inside their companies and across industries.

If that’s you, or you want to hire someone like that, let’s connect.

Philip Lakin 

Head of Enterprise Innovation at Zapier. Co-Founder of NoCodeOps (acq. by Zapier ’24).

I’m in Zion National Park right now with some of the world’s best B2B content creators. You can now steal their stacks :) 

We’re here for Zapier’s Zion Outpost, and of course, I had to ask the one question that always reveals the most:

“What tool right now is absolutely blowing your mind?”

Here’s what the group shared. Steal this stack 👇

🧠 Core Productivity & Systems
• Notion for collaboration, content systems, and team ops
• Zapier  still the backbone for connecting everything together
• Air  like Google Drive on steroids for creators managing images and video
• Lucid Software for visual thinking and whiteboarding
• Fathom AI note-taking and meeting insights

✍️ Writing, Ideation & Research
• ChatGPT, Claude/Claude Skills, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity for  the power group for writing, thinking, and research
• Stanley (Your Content Coach) an AI LinkedIn writing tool that actually replaced ChatGPT for a few people
• Granola top pick for capturing, transcribing, and managing notes
• Jamie lightweight and smart for quick note capture
• Typeless speak instead of type

🎨 Visuals, Design & Creation
• Gamma the go-to for decks, visuals, and content design
• Descript  fast, transcript-based video editing
• Sora 2 experimental AI video generation that’s just fun
• ElevenLabs for AI voice and song creation

📣 Social, Marketing & Distribution
• Ordinal  (formerly Assembly) powerful for social publishing and webhooks
• Intently tracks signals from LinkedIn, Reddit, and beyond
• Clay for data enrichment and audience insights

What stood out
No one here is waiting for the perfect AI tool.
Everyone is building creative systems around the tools they already love.

The best stack isn’t one app to rule them all.
It’s the right tool for the right job.

So… what’s one tool in your stack that’s quietly changing everything right now?

🚨 I accidentally built the world’s 1st database of AI transformation talent.

A few days ago I posted asking for recommendations for AI transcription and enablement professionals. You know, the kind of people who can help entire workforces actually go AI-first.

I figured I’d get a few new leads to connect with the enterprise client I work with at Zapier whoa re seeking this new role.

Instead, 300+ DMs later, I realized I had to organize it all.

So I built a quick form on Fillout and site using Zite (duh).
And boom... it turned into something much bigger: AI Rolodex, a vetted database of professionals ready to help companies operationalize AI.

What’s inside the AI Rolodex
✅ 83+ vetted applicants so far
✅ Experience from Amazon, ServiceNow, Optum, The Weather Company, Gradient, and more
✅ 85% have already led or contributed to AI transformation projects at their orgs

This is real, practitioner-level talent that knows how to turn AI from theory into workflow.

Why this matters:
Every company right now is AI curious.
The ones that win will be AI native.

That shift doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because someone inside the org is dedicated to enabling it.

If your company is hiring full-time AI enablement or transcription talent, send me a DM.
I can connect you with vetted candidates right away.

Bonus twist: The Nonprofit Loop

Not everyone has “AI Transformation” on their résumé yet, but tons of people clearly have the skills.

So we’re partnering with nonprofits for free short-term AI transformation projects that give emerging pros hands-on experience while helping good orgs modernize.

Nonprofits win.
Talent wins.
Companies win.

If you’re a nonprofit who wants help on this front, DM me too.

What started as a total accident has become a living, breathing directory of the world’s next generation of AI transformation talent.

If you’re hiring, building, or enabling... let’s talk.

#AI #Enablement #AITransformation #AITalent #Automation #AIFirst #Transcription #WorkforceEnablement #FutureOfWork

If you’re hiring your first AI Transformation lead, don’t start from scratch. I’ve put together a guide just for you: including a JD, question bank, & eval scorecard you can plug right into your process.

This is built from the trenches. Everything I’ve learned from:
👉 Doing this role myself
👉 500+ hours in the field with our clients at Zapier on all things AI
👉 Helping companies find the right talent through AI Rolodex (the world’s first AI transformation talent firm).

Drop GUIDE (or your favorite emoji) below and I’ll send the packet your way.

🚨 AI BRAND TRIP INCOMING 🚨

Pack your ring light and your API keys, babes. We’re going to Zion.

Zapier is hosting a 3-day creator retreat called Outpost: Zion and yes, it’s giving corporate hot girl winter with a side of workflow wizardry.

We’re talking 20 creators, real builds, probably tears, definitely vibes.

We’ll be making content, fixing automations, sharing secrets, and pretending our Google Sheets are vision boards.

It’s like Coachella, but instead of flower crowns we brought custom Zaps and emotional resilience.

Also, small detail… our CEO Wade Foster will be there.
So yes, it’s officially #BossBabe season.

Expect sunsets, spreadsheets, and scandalous takes on B2B content strategy.

If you see me holding a ring light in one hand and a s’more in the other, mind your business. I’m building in nature.

Love you, automate you 💋
Phil

#ZapierOutpost #B2BBrandTrip #IRLInTheAgeOfAI #BossBabe #AutomationHotGirlEra

Most “this could be automated” projects don’t fail because of tech. They fail because someone has to actually think it through. Someone has to:

1. align decisions across the right people
2. make tradeoffs visible
3. communicate what’s changing and why

It’s not the automation capabilities that hold things back, it’s the human capability to align, decide, and explain.

That’s the real work. And ironically, it’s the part you can’t automate (yet).

🧾 Sometimes it’s not the big stuff that kills your soul…
It’s manually screenshotting every Lyft transaction and uploading it to Navan.

Navan is so close to perfect , and this fixes the last gap for me.

Here’s how I finally deleted that tiny daily pain forever 👇

There are two things that make it possible:
 1️⃣ Navan’s badass receipt email automation: just make sure it recognizes your email and tags your receipts automatically.
 2️⃣ Zapier Copilot + Gmail: which can magically forward your Lyft receipts even if your company blocks Gmail auto-forwarding.

All it takes:
Create a Gmail label called “Lyft”
Copilot builds the rest. Steal my prompt below.

Tiny automation. Massive relief.

After 500+ hours helping teams go AI-first, here’s what I’ve learned:  Company-wide adoption doesn’t start at scale. It starts in small rooms, human to human, when people finally see what’s possible for themselves.

You can give people tools.
You can launch courses.
You can roll out portals and share prompt libraries.

But nothing replaces being in the room.
Seeing people move AI out of chat and into their real workflows.
Watching them build something, hands on keyboard, that saves them time every single day.

You can feel the moment it clicks.
The anxiety about AI coming for their jobs starts to fade.
And in its place is curiosity, creativity, and confidence.

That’s when transformation actually begins.
Not when a mandate is given.
Not when a dashboard turns green.
But when a human helps another human truly see the magic for themselves.

If you want real AI adoption inside your company, don’t just hand people tools.
Get them in a room.
Guide them.
Show them what’s possible.

And if you need help on this front, you know who to DM 😉.

Most companies aren’t “going AI-first.”
They’re just adding AI tools and hoping magic happens.

Real transformation doesn’t start with tech.
It starts when someone owns the change.

That’s why every serious company needs an AI Transformation Leader.

Not a hype artist.
Not a “prompt whisperer.”
A builder who knows how to turn AI strategy into operational reality.

Here’s what they actually do:

1. Translate the buzz into action.
They sit with each team and ask, “What’s stealing your time?”
Then they rebuild those workflows, with humans in the loop and AI at the core.

2. Connect the dots across functions.
Marketing’s experiments inform Ops.
Legal’s guardrails protect Sales.
Finance’s automations feed RevOps.
AI isn’t siloed, it’s orchestrated.

3. Pair domain experts with AI builders.
That combo is where the breakthroughs happen.

4. Codify what works.
Prompts, playbooks, governance - it all lives in one place.
So everyone levels up together.

5. Measure the right wins.
Not “how many prompts did we write?”
But accuracy, speed, pipeline, and employee energy.
AI done right makes people feel more powerful, not replaced.

Without this role, AI adoption stays scattered.
Cool prototypes. No compounding impact.

With it, you get momentum, six-week sprints that actually shift metrics and morale.
You see teams asking, “what else can we rebuild?”

That’s when AI stops being optional.
It becomes operational.

If you’re serious about AI-first, make it someone’s job.
Give them the mandat, room, and budget to build horizontally.

Because the companies winning right now?
They’re not the ones chasing tools.
They’re the ones training muscle.

What getting a vanity license plate with my name on it (decided by LinkedIn) taught me about B2B SaaS…

Co-founder & CEO at Zapier, YC & Mizzou Alum

For the first time in 14 years, we opened Zapier's All-Hands to the public.

2,932 of you showed up.

We didn't hold back. We walked through our complete 2026 AI transformation strategy: the same roadmap our ~800-person team is using.

𝘁𝗹;𝗱𝗿: Here are our two ‘big bets’ for 2026:

1. The "Zapier Digital Twin" (an AI right hand for every team member, piloting in Support) 

2. "AI-Powered Value Engineering" (turning every employee into a customer automation expert)

(The presentation is public, you can read it here: https://lnkd.in/gvUEnq2N)

437 questions came flooding in after we presented (we answered maybe a dozen). Here are 3 great ones we didn't get to answer:

"What's your AI stack across all employees?” (Jack Volkov, Imubit)
👉 We all use Zapier as our AI orchestration layer, plus ChatGPT and Claude Enterprise for LLMs. Then there are additional tools like Glean for knowledge management, Granola for meeting transcription, and team-specific tools like Gong for Sales.

"How do you score and track the progress for AI transformation success?" ( John Noonan, Assurant)
👉 We track three things: efficiency (time saved), quality (work improved), employee experience (joy increased). If you only measure one, you risk missing the big picture.

"Where do you draw the line on automation?" (Naomi Trickey, Mews)
👉 Our CTO Bryan Helmig says it best: You can delegate the work, but never the accountability. That principle keeps humans centered while AI scales.

—

Stuck on your next move? We turned Philip Lakin, our Head of Enterprise Innovation, into a Zapier chatbot to help you get started.

Talk to him here: https://lnkd.in/gKvu_KQc

(It's trained on the same transformation playbook we're using in 2026)

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