FOR MID-MARKET LEADERS
Build confidence, get ahead, and make AI work for you.
The AI Adoption Institute is where leaders at mid-market companies figure out AI together. Small circles, real problems, and a way to measure whether any of it worked.
The gap
Almost everyone is using AI. Far fewer can show what it returned.
~90%
of companies use AI
In at least one part of the business.
~29%
report meaningful return
The rest cannot point to a number.
Most
pilots never reach daily use
They stall at the experiment stage.
You have probably tried this
Internal training
The course is out of date by the time it ships. It teaches the tool, and the hard part is the workflow around the tool. There is no plan for the next change, and the next change is coming.
Or this
AI consultants
The roadmap describes the day it was delivered. The expertise leaves with the engagement. Mid-market budgets tend to buy the junior team and a deck.
Both fail for the same reason: AI changes faster than either can keep up. The way to get ahead is to stay in the room with the people who are solving it right now.
Adoption is solved. Return is the open question. That gap is the reason AiAi exists.
Figures are directional and will carry dated sources before launch.
Where this came from
It started with one question, asked about 2,000 times.
AiAi started with a question. Over two years, our founder Brett Schklar put it to nearly 2,000 CEOs and business leaders in keynotes, boardrooms and Vistage groups: how is AI going for you? Nearly everyone had tools. Almost nobody had a number. The ones making progress were learning from peers a few steps ahead. AiAi turns that into a system: small circles, a trained Catalyst, and a score every quarter.
Our vision
Build confidence, get ahead, and make AI work for you.
Our mission
AiAi helps companies turn AI experiments into results they can measure, through independent research, small peer circles, and events that move what's working from the companies who solved it to the ones still stuck.
How it works
Research keeps score. Circles do the work. Events bring everyone together.
Research
Somebody has to keep score.
Independent benchmarks on who is getting a return from AI and how. ROAI, Return on AI, is our metric. The headline findings are public. The deeper cuts go to members and their CEOs.
Circles
A room of leaders. Once a month.
People who do your job, at companies that aren't competing with yours, working on real problems with a trained Catalyst in the room. This is the heart of AiAi.
Events
Gatherings, regional events, the Summit.
Quarterly gatherings in your city, regional events across cities, and the annual State of AI Adoption Summit where the report comes out. Events kick off in the second half of 2027. See the calendar.
The circles
You bring something real. The room takes it apart.
A workflow that won't automate. A team that won't adopt. An agent that keeps breaking. A leadership group that won't commit. A room of 10 to 16 people with the same job works on it with you. Nobody sells you anything.
Two weeks later you all get back on a call and say what you actually tried, what worked, and what broke. That loop is the whole thing. Nobody gets confident with AI by reading about it, and almost nobody gets there alone.
Circles are grouped by role and by company size, so the room is people with your problems.
A month in a circle
Day
The in-person day · 8:00am to 3:00pm
Coffee and check-in. A focused topic. A working block on live problems. Out by three with time to turn it into a plan.
+2w
The mid-month call · two hours
What you tried, what worked, what broke. No new content, just accountability.
Host
Hosted by members
Everyone takes a turn. A Catalyst, a trained AiAi facilitator, runs the room.
Two people have to say yes
The member has to grow. The company has to see the number.
For CEOs
- A leader in every function who owns AI instead of waiting on it
- A quarterly ROAI report: where each function sits, and what moved
- Benchmarks against companies your size, so you know if you're behind
- One trusted place your people go for AI, instead of a dozen vendors
For members
- Peers with your exact job who will tell you the truth
- A real problem worked on every month, and a plan you leave with
- A clear view of what's actually working at other companies right now
- Standing as the person who leads AI for your function
Where you stand
Five levels. Most companies are on level two.
The Operational Maturity Scale is how we place a company, benchmark it against its peers, and track whether it is actually moving.
1
Awareness
You've identified where AI could help. Nothing is in motion yet.
2
Experimentation
Pilots are running. This is where most companies stall.
3
Integration
AI is embedded in at least one workflow people use every day.
4
Strategic Scaling
Deployed across several functions, with return being tracked.
5
AI-Native
The core of the business depends on AI-enabled operations.
Knowing your level is the start. Moving up is the work.
The AiAi Code
There is no shortage of opinion about AI. There is very little evidence.
AiAi is building the reference point. These are the rules we hold ourselves to.
We measure.
Adoption is proven by a documented business outcome, never by deployment or spend. ROAI is how we express it.
We stay independent.
Findings are reported as we find them, including when they're unfavorable. Sponsors fund how far research travels. They never touch what it says.
We stay in our lane.
Business and professional practice. We leave the politics of AI to everyone else.
People and systems together.
Adoption fails in workflow, governance, incentives and skills far more often than in the model. We study both as one.
We publish on time.
Insight in this field depreciates quickly. We publish while the decision is still open, and revise when the evidence changes.
Members are the research.
Practitioner experience is a primary source. We collect it, examine it, and return it in a form others can apply.
Who it's for
Mid-market companies. Real operating roles.
- 50 to 5,000 employees. Big enough that AI matters, small enough that nobody has a forty-person AI team.
- Outside technology. Manufacturing, services, healthcare, construction, finance, distribution. Companies that buy AI rather than build it.
- Functional leaders and the CEOs who own the whole picture.
- In person in Denver, New York City, Miami, San Diego and Sacramento to start, with virtual circles open to leaders anywhere.
Probably not a fit
AI vendors and consultants looking for an audience. Anyone wanting a software demo or a training course. Companies who want a report but not a room.