For leadership teams whose AI pilots never reach the P&L. Each leader brings a real AI initiative, and over 12 to 16 weeks the strongest are built with AI and pitched for funding. We give your leaders the tools and the method, so they can transform the company themselves.
Your initiative, built with AI, decided by your leadership.
An education-led transformation, not a consultancy project: we give your leaders the tools, the method and the coaching, and they do the work themselves, during the Studio and long after it. Two days in person start it, virtual labs and coaching carry it, and a Pitch Day ends it, where your leadership funds the strongest initiatives for a first stage or stops them. About one-third teaching, one-third practice and one-third coaching, all on your own work.
Any AI initiative with a sponsor behind it.
Each leader nominates two candidates and names a sponsor. Teams form around the strongest, and one candidate per team goes on.
- A new ventureAn AI-native business your company could launch.
- A spin-offA capability you already have, turned into a company of its own.
- An offeringA new product or service for customers, or one you have today, redesigned with AI.
- An internal productA solution for internal customers, such as finance, HR, risk or operations.
- A workflowWork your teams run today, redesigned with AI from a blank page.
From using AI to redesigning the work.
Architect
Redesigns where judgement sits in the work, step by step.
Orchestrator
Leads people and AI together, with every decision placed.
Steward
Brings a value case Finance has checked and signed.
Sponsor-ready
A funded first stage, with named owners and a reason to stop.
Boards have stopped funding AI pilots.
Most companies are adopting AI; few have changed how they make money with it. The gap is rarely the model or the budget. It is a leadership discipline: turning an idea into redesigned work, numbers Finance has checked and a plan a sponsor will fund. The Studio teaches that discipline on the initiative your leaders already care about.
Two days in person. Labs and coaching. A Pitch Day that decides.
Selection
Each leader nominates two candidate initiatives and names a sponsor. Teams form around the strongest.
Kick-off
What AI changes, the initiative taken apart step by step, the first scrappy agents built in the room, and a challenge gate where one candidate goes on.
Labs
The work redesigned with AI, every decision placed with a person, a person with AI, or AI alone, and the value case built with Finance.
Coaching
Peers challenge each plan and write its stop-rule. A dry run before a hostile shadow board.
Pitch Day
Each team pitches to a CEO, CFO and COO panel. The strongest are funded for a first stage; the rest are stopped, and stopping counts as winning.
- Arrive with your initiative drafted, or observe.
- Your peers write your stop-rule.
- Every claim holds a number, a condition or a named owner.
- Stopping is winning: a stopped project is portfolio intelligence, not failure.
One canvas. Six questions. Three moves.
Every team works on the Civico AI Transformation Canvas: see the problem, design the work, lead the change. The same page the team fills in is the page the panel scores on Pitch Day, and the one your leaders keep using after we leave.
“Every field holds a number, a condition or a named owner.”
Each team says how far it is going.
Deploy. The same process, with AI assisting it.
Reshape. The work redesigned end to end.
Invent. A new offer, venture or business model.
Agent first. Big tools later.
Start from the work, not the tool
Take the initiative apart step by step and decide what stays human, what AI assists and what an agent can run.
Build scrappy agents first
Prove value in weeks with the tools you already license, such as Copilot, before buying platforms.
Measure it in your numbers
A baseline, a target and a return Finance has checked. Leaders learn how to measure the return on AI.
Your people do the work
We give them the tools and the method; they transform the company themselves. Not a consultancy project.
Three chairs decide. Every answer comes from the team's own canvas.
CEO
Does this win us share? What does the customer feel? Does it scale beyond one team?
CFO
What is the return, and by when? What does it cost to run? Is the number validated or asserted?
COO / CHRO
Is the work rebuilt, or a tool bought? Which decisions change hands? Whose job changes, and who has said yes?
The strongest initiatives are funded for a first stage, with named owners and a stop-rule.
Leadership teams with initiatives worth funding.
A cohort of 20 to 30 leaders in 5 to 8 teams: CEOs, COOs, business-unit heads and owner-successors, with a sponsor who will decide. Finance and IT usually decide whether a case holds, so the case is built for them as well as for the CEO. The two days in person run at your company or in Vietnam.
What you leave with
- Three to five initiatives funded for a first stage, each with a named owner
- One canvas per team that survived peer challenge
- The agents and prototypes built in the room
- Leaders who can run the method again without us
Leaders' day
Senior sponsors set the direction and agree what they will fund.
Expert check-in
An expert review as the first stage goes live.
Built on programmes our faculty run with Manulife, Linde and Sembcorp.
Leadership cohorts at Manulife have taken their strongest projects into operations, including agents built on tools the company already licensed instead of new AI purchases, and an agent that took on work a long KYC pilot had been planned for. The Studio's tools were tested with the Hanoi cohort of Sasin's Connect+ Executive MBA and run again in Ho Chi Minh City in January 2027.
Speed is the curriculum, not the backdrop.
of high-speed railway decided in one vote
from passing its first AI law to having it in force
in Southeast Asia for AI readiness and trust
Led by Alvin Ng, with Jakub Wachocki.
Alvin Ng is the Studio's Programme Director. He designs and runs AI transformation programmes for leadership teams at companies including Manulife and Linde, after thirty years as an operator. Jakub Wachocki brings the masterclass The Autonomous Organisation and runs companies whose own research, proposals, recruitment and marketing are done with a team of AI agents.
How big is a cohort?
20 to 30 leaders in 5 to 8 teams. Each leader brings an AI initiative, and teams form around the strongest.
How long does the AI Transformation Studio take?
12 to 16 weeks: pre-work three weeks before, two days in person, three virtual labs and team coaching, then a Pitch Day.
Can it run at our offices?
Yes. The two days in person run at your company or in Vietnam. The labs and coaching are virtual.
What do our leaders need to bring?
Two candidate AI initiatives each, with real numbers and a named sponsor: a new venture, a spin-off, an offering, an internal product or a workflow.
Which AI tools do teams use?
The tools your company already licenses first, such as Microsoft Copilot. Teams build scrappy agents to prove value in weeks, and buy bigger platforms only after.
What does Finance need to do?
Check each team's baseline and value case before Pitch Day. The CFO on the panel asks whether the numbers are validated or asserted.
What happens to initiatives that are stopped?
Stopping counts as winning. The team records why, and that becomes evidence for the next round of decisions.
Is this a consultancy project?
No. We give your leaders the tools, the method and the coaching; they do the work and own the result.
Download the AI Transformation Studio brochure
The Studio in a short PDF to share with your leadership team: what teams bring, the shape, the method and what you leave with.
Tell us the initiatives. We'll scope the cohort.
A half-day scoping workshop is how companies start. Tell us about your leadership team and the AI initiatives they would bring.
- A 20-minute call, no preparation needed
- A tailored outline after the call
- Your brief stays confidential