> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://academy.pathfindr.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Building Your Champions Group

> Set up the people and governance structure that turns individual AI experimentation into organisation-wide adoption.

export const Quiz = ({question, options, correctIndex, explanation}) => {
  const [selected, setSelected] = useState(null);
  const [showResult, setShowResult] = useState(false);
  const handleSelect = index => {
    if (showResult) return;
    setSelected(index);
    setShowResult(true);
  };
  const isCorrect = selected === correctIndex;
  return <div className="my-8 p-6 rounded-2xl border border-zinc-200 dark:border-zinc-700 bg-gradient-to-br from-zinc-50 to-white dark:from-zinc-900 dark:to-zinc-800 shadow-sm">
      <div className="flex items-center gap-3 mb-4">
        <div className="flex items-center justify-center w-10 h-10 rounded-xl bg-blue-100 dark:bg-blue-900/40">
          <span className="text-xl">📝</span>
        </div>
        <div className="flex flex-col">
          <p className="font-semibold text-zinc-800 dark:text-zinc-100 m-0">Knowledge Check</p>
          <p className="text-xs text-zinc-500 dark:text-zinc-400 mt-0.5 m-0">Select the best answer</p>
      </div>
      </div>
      
      <p className="text-zinc-700 dark:text-zinc-200 font-medium mb-5 text-lg leading-relaxed">{question}</p>
      
      <div className="space-y-3">
        {options.map((option, index) => {
    const isSelected = selected === index;
    const isCorrectOption = index === correctIndex;
    let optionStyles = "border-zinc-200 dark:border-zinc-600 hover:border-blue-400 hover:bg-blue-50 dark:hover:bg-blue-900/20";
    if (showResult) {
      if (isCorrectOption) {
        optionStyles = "border-green-500 bg-green-50 dark:bg-green-900/30";
      } else if (isSelected && !isCorrectOption) {
        optionStyles = "border-red-500 bg-red-50 dark:bg-red-900/30";
      } else {
        optionStyles = "border-zinc-200 dark:border-zinc-700 opacity-60";
      }
    }
    return <button key={index} onClick={() => handleSelect(index)} disabled={showResult} className={`w-full text-left p-4 rounded-xl border-2 transition-all duration-200 ${optionStyles} ${!showResult && 'cursor-pointer'} ${showResult && 'cursor-default'}`}>
              <div className="flex items-start gap-3">
                <div className={`flex-shrink-0 w-6 h-6 rounded-full border-2 flex items-center justify-center text-xs font-bold ${showResult && isCorrectOption ? 'border-green-500 bg-green-500 text-white' : showResult && isSelected && !isCorrectOption ? 'border-red-500 bg-red-500 text-white' : 'border-zinc-300 dark:border-zinc-500 text-zinc-500 dark:text-zinc-400'}`}>
                  {showResult && isCorrectOption ? '✓' : showResult && isSelected ? '✗' : String.fromCharCode(65 + index)}
                </div>
                <span className="text-sm text-zinc-700 dark:text-zinc-200 leading-relaxed">{option}</span>
              </div>
            </button>;
  })}
      </div>
      
      {showResult && <div className={`mt-5 p-4 rounded-xl ${isCorrect ? 'bg-green-100 dark:bg-green-900/40 border border-green-200 dark:border-green-800' : 'bg-amber-100 dark:bg-amber-900/40 border border-amber-200 dark:border-amber-800'}`}>
          <div className="flex items-start gap-3">
            <span className="text-xl">{isCorrect ? '🎉' : '💡'}</span>
            <div className="flex flex-col">
              <p className={`text-sm font-semibold m-0 mb-1 ${isCorrect ? 'text-green-800 dark:text-green-200' : 'text-amber-800 dark:text-amber-200'}`}>
                {isCorrect ? 'Correct!' : 'Not quite right'}
              </p>
              <p className="text-sm text-zinc-600 dark:text-zinc-300 m-0 leading-relaxed">{explanation}</p>
          </div>
          </div>
        </div>}
    </div>;
};

## What you will learn

You have been experimenting with AI as a leadership team. Now you need a structure that scales what you have learned across the organisation. That structure is a Champions group, and this page shows you how to build one.

<CardGroup cols={4}>
  <Card title="Understand the model" icon="square-1">
    Learn the funnel that moves AI from leaders to the broader team
  </Card>

  <Card title="Define roles" icon="square-2">
    Know the difference between a Driver and a Champion
  </Card>

  <Card title="Size your group" icon="square-3">
    Work out how many Champions your organisation needs
  </Card>

  <Card title="Set up governance" icon="square-4">
    Create guardrails that enable experimentation without risk
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

## The adoption funnel

AI adoption does not happen by licensing a tool and sending a login link. It moves through layers.

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="How most organisations do it" icon="circle-xmark">
    Buy licences. Send an email. Hope people use it. Three months later, check usage reports and wonder why adoption is flat.
  </Card>

  <Card title="How it actually works" icon="circle-check">
    Leaders learn first. A small Champions group stress-tests tools for your specific context. Then the broader organisation gets onboarded with real use cases, not generic training.
  </Card>
</Columns>

The funnel works in three layers: <b>Leaders</b> (you, right now), <b>Champions</b> (your next step), and <b>Broader Organisation</b> (where it all scales to).

***

## Drivers vs Champions

These are two distinct roles. Getting the distinction right matters.

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="The Driver" icon="steering-wheel">
    The Driver is the person who owns the AI adoption programme. They coordinate the Champions, set the agenda, track progress, and report back to leadership. Think of this as the head Champion.

    In a small organisation, the Driver is often one person. In larger teams, it might be a pair. The Driver needs to know the business deeply enough to make informed decisions about which tools and use cases are worth pursuing.

    <b>Key responsibilities:</b> Set the agenda for Champion meetings. Track licensing and tool decisions. Escalate governance decisions to leadership. Maintain the Opportunity Tracker.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The Champions" icon="users">
    Champions are the hands-on testers. They sit across different teams and functions, experimenting with AI in the context of their actual work. They are not IT specialists. They are curious people from operations, marketing, finance, HR, and other departments who are willing to try new things and share what they find.

    <b>Key responsibilities:</b> Test use cases in their own workflows. Compare tools against specific criteria. Share wins and learnings at huddles. Flag risks and limitations. Help onboard the broader team when it is time to scale.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<Info>
  For a deeper guide on what makes a great Champion and how to select them, see <a href="/driver/identifyingAGoodChampion">Identifying A Good Champion</a> in the Accelerator resources.
</Info>

<Tip>
  Consider hiring or formally assigning a dedicated AI Champion or Driver role. Organisations that have someone whose job explicitly includes driving AI adoption see significantly more momentum than those relying on volunteers alone.
</Tip>

***

## Sizing your Champions group

A good rule of thumb is <b>around 5% of your organisation</b>. For a 45-person company, that is 4 to 5 people. For a 200-person company, aim for 8 to 10.

The group should represent a spread of functions. You want someone from finance seeing different opportunities than someone from operations or marketing. Cross-functional representation is what makes the Champions group valuable.

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Too small" icon="triangle-exclamation">
    One or two people carry all the load. They burn out. Adoption stalls when they get busy with their day job.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Right size" icon="circle-check">
    Enough people to cover key functions. Peer accountability keeps everyone moving. Workload is shared.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Too large" icon="triangle-exclamation">
    Meetings become unfocused. Decision-making slows. The group feels more like a committee than a task force.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

## What Champions actually do

Champions are not just "people who like AI". They have a specific brief.

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Test use cases for your industry" icon="flask">
    Generic AI demos look impressive, but your business has specific workflows, data types, and compliance needs. Champions stress-test tools against real tasks in your context. A financial services firm needs different things from AI than a construction company.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Compare and evaluate tools" icon="scale-balanced">
    Champions should have access to multiple tools so they can compare. One organisation tested Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT, and Copilot against three criteria (research, analysis, and content creation) and found that different tools won for different use cases. That insight only comes from structured comparison.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Track what works" icon="chart-line">
    Every use case that works goes into the Opportunity Tracker. Every one that fails gets documented too. This creates the evidence base for scaling decisions and budget conversations.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Share and teach" icon="chalkboard-user">
    The most effective adoption signal is <b>peer teaching</b>. When Champions share wins without being asked, when they show colleagues a better way to do something they already do, that is when adoption starts compounding. Watch for this signal.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

***

## Governance without bureaucracy

Governance is not about slowing things down. It is about making sure your organisation adopts AI safely while still moving fast.

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="What governance covers" icon="shield-check">
    Which tools are approved. What data can be used. Who reviews new use cases. How incidents are handled. How tool decisions are made and reversed.
  </Card>

  <Card title="What governance does not mean" icon="ban">
    A 50-page policy document no one reads. Approval committees for every prompt. Blocking experimentation until legal signs off. Making people afraid to try things.
  </Card>
</Columns>

<Info>
  Start with the AI policy framework from the onboarding module. Your Champions group should review and adapt it as they learn what works in practice. Governance is a living document, not a one-off exercise.
</Info>

***

## Tool licensing strategy

The AI market moves fast. Lock-in is risky.

Keep tools on <b>month-to-month contracts</b> wherever possible. This gives you flexibility to switch if a better option emerges or if a tool underperforms its promises. Annual contracts save money on paper, but they cost more in practice if you are stuck with a tool your team stops using after three months.

Give Champions access to <b>two to three tools</b> even if you have a primary one. Comparison is how you make informed scaling decisions.

<Accordion title="Test your understanding">
  <Quiz
    question="Why should Champions have access to multiple AI tools?"
    options={[
  "So they can choose their personal favourite",
  "So they can compare tools against specific use case criteria for the business",
  "Because one tool is not enough for any task",
  "Because it looks better in the budget"
]}
    correctIndex={1}
    explanation="Champions compare tools against specific business criteria. Different tools perform better for different use cases. Structured comparison produces the evidence base for scaling decisions."
  />
</Accordion>

***

## Quick checkpoint

<CardGroup cols={4}>
  <Card title="Funnel understood" icon="circle-check">
    You can explain the Leaders, Champions, Broader Org adoption model
  </Card>

  <Card title="Roles defined" icon="circle-check">
    You know the difference between a Driver and a Champion
  </Card>

  <Card title="Group sized" icon="circle-check">
    You have estimated how many Champions your organisation needs
  </Card>

  <Card title="Governance framed" icon="circle-check">
    You have a starting point for tool governance and licensing
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<div className="mt-8" />

<Card title="Next: set your operating rhythm" icon="arrow-right" href="/leadership-cohort/week-7-wrap-up-rollout/operating-rhythm">
  Establish the cadence that keeps your Champions group moving
</Card>