Welcome
Congratulations on being selected as an AI champion! You've been picked because you're curious, already excited about AI, and the people around you listen to you.
The idea is simple: getting the most from AI means people genuinely changing how they work, and that shift spreads person to person. It starts with people like you.
It comes with real perks, too: protected time to learn and build, early access to new tools, and a network of fellow champions. You'll come out more capable and a step ahead, and bring your people along with you.
What a champion is
Being a champion means playing a few roles at once. You're the trusted peer people turn to on anything AI, and the eyes and ears on the ground who can see what's really working and what isn't. Above all, you keep the energy up, sharing what you try and bringing the channels to life.
You don't need to be the resident AI expert or know every tool. Curiosity, enthusiasm and a willingness to share matter far more. The best champions are often better at bringing people along than they are with the tools themselves.
Stay ahead
- Use AI for everything
- Try every new tool
- Build things you'll reuse
Build the culture
- Share your work in the open
- Help people and run sessions
- Bring the hesitant along
- Set the tone, celebrate wins
Be the eyes and ears
- See how people really use AI
- Flag what's not working
- Compare notes with champions
Stay ahead
A great champion is the person others go to for anything AI, so you need a good, current feel for what the tools can really do. That's harder than it sounds, since AI keeps moving fast. Mostly it comes from staying genuinely excited: trying things yourself, noticing how others use it, and keeping up as it changes. A few habits help:
Use it for everything. Reach for AI as much as you can in your own work, and try every new model, feature and tool as it lands.
Know what else is out there. Keep an eye on tools you can't use yet, too, so you've got a real feel for what's possible beyond your own tool, and can tell IT what's worth backing. For example, if your company is on M365 Copilot, get to know what Copilot Cowork can do.
Build things you'll actually use. Anchor it in your real work: build workflows you'll reach for again and can share, like a prompt for a recurring job, a skill or agent for something tedious, or a whole workflow rebuilt end to end.
You'll know it's working when you're reaching for AI daily and your own stack of use cases keeps growing.
Build the culture
Adoption spreads person to person. People will follow a colleague who's clearly getting value from AI long before they act on any message from the top, and that's what makes this the most important thing you do. Do this well and AI stops being something people are asked to adopt, and becomes just how your team works.
Work in the open. Don't keep your AI work to yourself. Share it in the channels rather than in DMs: the wins, the prompt that finally cracked it, the workflow you rebuilt from scratch. React to what others post, and keep the channels lively. Most people learn what's possible by watching a colleague, so the more that happens in public, the faster it spreads.
Help people directly. Be easy to come to: answer questions, sit with someone who's stuck, show them the thing that just saved you an hour. Make it clear no question is too basic.
Run sessions. When a few people need the same thing, pull them together: a quick demo, a hands-on half hour for your team, or regular office hours. It draws out the people who'd never have asked on their own but had the same question. And you don't have to build it all yourself: when Solaris already has a session or resource for it, point people there instead.
Bring the hesitant along. Don't just rally the people who are already keen. The ones who are quietly unsure, or quietly sceptical, are where culture is won or lost. Meet them on their own work, show them one thing that genuinely helps, and let small wins do the persuading rather than any pressure.
Set the tone. Experiment out loud, shrug off the flops, and celebrate wins, yours and other people's, calling them out in the channels and meetings and nudging people to the events that suit them, so it all feels normal rather than risky.
You're not the helpdesk, though. Point people to the right resource, person, or the DRI when something's beyond you, and never guess on what's safe or allowed for company data: send that to the policy or IT.
You'll know it's working when more of your people are experimenting than a month ago, you're the one they come to, and the channels stay busy.
Be the eyes and ears
You sit closer to the real work than any dashboard does, so you see how the rollout is really landing. That matters, because AI moves too fast for a plan to be set once and left to run. It keeps adapting, and much of what it adapts to comes from you: what you feed back shapes the tools IT backs, the workshops on offer, and the plan itself.
Learn how people are really using AI. Talk to the people around you and notice where AI is clicking and how they're actually using it. That gives the DRI an honest read on where the teams really are, so courses and resources can be aimed at the right level.
Surface what's not working. Spot where people keep getting stuck, especially the same skill gap showing up across the team, and flag it to your DRI. A clear, common pain point is what gets acted on: a course recommended, a workshop brought in, a session you and fellow champions run yourselves, or a tailored one Solaris builds and comes in to deliver.
Compare notes with other champions. Share what you're seeing in the champions channel and your syncs. A struggle that looks like a one-off to you is often a pattern once a few champions compare notes, and that's exactly what the rollout needs to hear.
You'll know it's working when you turn up to your syncs with real signal on what's working and what's stuck.
You've got support
You're not doing this alone, you're part of a network.
Lean on the network
You've got a shared channel, regular time with the other champions, and a direct line to the DRI, so use all of it, especially for the questions you'd rather not ask in front of your own team.
Your time is protected
Expect to spend an hour or two a week on the role, and your manager knows it's part of the job, not something to squeeze in around the edges.
Speak up if it slips
If your time's getting squeezed or your momentum's fading, tell your DRI early. It usually just means you or the cohort need a reset.
Across the rollout
Your focus shifts as the rollout moves through its four phases.
Prepare
You come on board: selected, brought into the cohort, set up with your own channel and protected time, and clear on the role and what's ahead.
Prime
You get ready for the role itself. Through a change-management workshop and some self-serve learning, you get to grips with what the role involves and what a healthy team looks like. It's about the role, not the tools, since the AI workshops come later. You also take a first challenge, like asking your people how they already use AI, set a light cadence with the DRI, and help stress-test the tools before launch.
Accelerate
You go all in: join the workshops alongside everyone else, answer questions in the open and at office hours, keep a read on how your team and the accelerator are going, and feed it back to the DRI in your health checks.
Sustain
You keep it alive: stay active in the channels and keep posting your latest workflows and learnings, keep up the regular syncs with the DRI and fellow champions, push into more advanced builds and automations, and help organise the occasional workshop or hackathon to keep the energy up.
You won't get it all right, and you don't need to. The tools will keep changing, and champions like you are how your company keeps up. It's a rare chance to shape how the place works for years to come, so make the most of it, and enjoy it.