AI Champions Programme — Executive Edition · Autumn 2026 · Central London
You can delegate AI execution. Not AI judgement.
AI is becoming a material decision about where to invest, how to compete, how work should change and what risks to take. The Executive Edition of our AI Champions Programme is four weeks, hands-on, for senior business leaders and investors who want the judgement to make those decisions well.
REQUEST A PLACE · Starts 6 October
Autumn 2026 · Central London
Four Tuesday evenings in Central London
One small cross-company cohort of senior leaders and investors. Each session runs for 2.5 hours, in person, with laptops open. This is the four-session Executive Edition, distinct from the eight-session AI Champions Programme we run in Amsterdam.
Tuesday evenings
18:30 to 21:00 · 4 weeks · in person
6, 13, 20 and 27 October 2026
The exact Central London venue is confirmed before the first session.
Why this programme, why now
AI is moving from experimentation to consequential business decisions.
The question is no longer whether your organisation should be using AI. The harder questions are now about where to place bets, which economics are real, what should change in the operating model and what level of risk is acceptable.
Those decisions are difficult to make from presentations, demos and second-hand advice. You need enough first-hand experience to distinguish real capability from theatre, a scalable opportunity from a clever prototype, and credible execution from an expensive distraction.
What you will leave able to do
Judge AI with a much higher bar
Develop a first-hand benchmark for what leading AI can and cannot do today. Know what good looks like when challenging your teams, suppliers, management companies or investment cases.
Make an informed investment decision
Take one real AI opportunity through value, feasibility, process, data, adoption and risk. Leave with a clear view on whether to invest, redesign, buy, build or stop.
Recognise what credible execution requires
Build and test AI against your own work. Experience why some initiatives stay impressive demos while others become reliable business capabilities, and the role workflow, context, data, controls and accountability play in that difference.
This is not about becoming an AI expert. It is about becoming a much harder person to fool on AI.
The four sessions
Four sessions. Four leadership questions.
Autumn 2026 · Tuesdays 18:30–21:00 · 6 to 27 October · Central London
Each session starts with the bigger picture: what is changing in AI, what it means for organisations and what decisions it creates for leaders. We then make those questions tangible through hands-on experimentation with the technology itself.
Session 1
What can AI actually do now?
Start with the AI landscape. What has materially changed, where is the technology heading, and which developments belong on a leadership agenda now? Then put the leading models to work on real tasks from your own week.
In this session you will
- ✓Explore the latest capabilities across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot, from reasoning and deep research to multimodality, automation and agents
- ✓Put the leading models to work on real tasks from your own week and see where they are already remarkably capable, where they remain unreliable and how quickly the frontier is moving
- ✓Judge what these developments could mean for competitive advantage, productivity, customer experience and new ways of operating
- ✓Leave with a current executive perspective on the AI landscape and a shortlist of where AI could have the greatest impact on your organisation
Tools covered
In person in Central London. Around 2 hours of application between sessions, plus weekly office hours for troubleshooting, challenge and support.
Your business is the case study.
How it works
Bring a real business challenge
An investment question, workflow, commercial opportunity, productivity challenge or AI initiative from your own organisation. No fictional cases. No generic exercises.
Pressure-test it in the room
Each 2.5-hour session combines concise executive context, live demonstrations and substantial working time. Laptops open, with WAIMAKERS practitioners alongside you to help you test assumptions, build, challenge and improve.
Put it into live work
Between sessions, apply what you have built in your actual environment. See where it creates value. See where it fails. Bring the evidence back. That iteration is what turns AI understanding into executive judgement.
Four 2.5-hour in-person sessions, plus around 2 hours of application between sessions. Weekly office hours are included for troubleshooting, challenge and support.
Designed for people who are accountable when AI decisions go right or wrong.
Who is in the room
CEOs and business leaders
Making decisions about competitive advantage, investment priorities, organisational capability and how AI changes the economics of the business.
P&L and functional leaders
Accountable for translating AI into commercial, operational or functional performance.
Private equity and investment leaders
Assessing AI value creation, challenging portfolio-company plans and distinguishing credible transformation from AI theatre.
Transformation, digital and AI leaders
Responsible for moving the organisation from disconnected experimentation to adoption, repeatable capability and measurable value.
The room is part of the value
You will work alongside leaders confronting similar decisions from different industries and ownership perspectives. Compare where others are investing, what they are challenging and what they are learning from execution.
Trusted by leadership teams and investors
What leaders and investors say
Greg and WAIMAKERS did a brilliant job both inspiring our leadership team about the transformative potential of AI and showing us how to move forward with practical, high-impact steps. The biggest shift was realising that this isn't just about tools or software - it's about people, behaviours, and how we work. We've already dedicated resources and are moving fast.
WAIMAKERS helped our Private Equity team at Wise Equity not only understand the opportunities of Generative AI but also apply them through real, practical use cases. Their hands-on capability-building sessions allowed us to move beyond theory and integrate AI directly into our investment processes.
Wouter and his team at WAIMAKERS helped us incorporate AI into our daily operations, from portfolio companies to the investment team. Their practical, no-nonsense approach enabled us to see immediate benefits.
Your programme leads
Led by senior practitioners, not lecturers
Greg Nieuwenhuys
Senior Partner & Chairman
Greg opens the programme with what he is seeing across the CEOs, boards and businesses adopting AI today.
Martine Uijland
Programme lead, London
Martine leads the Executive Edition in London and works alongside participants between the sessions.
Robin Jackson
Programme lead
Robin shapes the programme content and leads sessions across our cohorts.
AI Champions Programme · Executive Edition · London · Autumn 2026
The best AI advice you will get is your own experience.
AI is moving quickly into investment decisions, operating models, customer propositions and core workflows. The leaders who navigate that well will not be those who know the most terminology. They will be those who can ask better questions, recognise real value, challenge weak assumptions and know what credible execution looks like.
8.7
NPS across 330+ participant responses
9/10
would recommend WAIMAKERS to a colleague
Investment
£2,495
per person (excl. VAT)
What's included
- ✓Four 2.5-hour in-person sessions in Central London, 10 hours in total
- ✓Work on your own business challenge throughout, not a fictional case
- ✓Weekly office hours for troubleshooting, challenge and support
- ✓A prioritised AI opportunity map and a one-page decision case
- ✓A redesigned workflow and a working Claude Skill you keep using
- ✓A working agent prototype built in Claude Code
- ✓A small cross-company cohort of senior leaders and investors
6 to 27 October 2026
Tuesday evenings, weekly, 18:30 to 21:00 · Central London · in person
Interested in a place on the Executive Edition in London?
The cohort is deliberately small and places are limited. Request a place and we will follow up personally.
Request a placeLondon · Autumn 2026
Request a place on the Executive Edition
Leave your details and Martine will follow up personally to discuss whether the programme is the right fit for you or your leadership team.