Getting Started as an AI Activator
# Activators
# Enablement
# Deployment & Adoption
Design AI workflows, integrate systems, and scale impact to help teams adopt new ways of working.
June 9, 2026Who AI Activators Are
AI adoption doesn't happen because people gain access to new capabilities. It happens when people are able to translate AI to real work, try useful workflow safely, and build the confidence to use it again and again.
That is what Activators help organizations do.
Activators are the Champions embedded in teams. They are close enough to the work to understand how it gets done, where people experience friction, and which AI workflow opportunities are worth exploring.
Activators don't need to be the most technical person in the room, and they are not expected to own their organization’s entire AI strategy. Their impact comes from helping people turn promising ideas into practical workflows, involving the people and tools required to implement them safely, and helping teams adopt what works.
The Activator's Role in the AI Champion Model
There are generally two types of Champions: Leaders and Activators.
Champions influence AI adoption in four ways: Lead, Deploy, Enable, and Integrate.
Role | How they Influence AI Adoption |
|---|---|
Leaders |
|
Activators |
|
Activators operate primarily within the Integrate pathway. They help translate organizational AI priorities into workflows that teams can use and rely on.
These roles reinforce one another. Leaders create direction, support, and safe pathways for adoption. Activators help make those priorities real in people’s day-to-day work. They also surface evidence, blockers, and lessons that help Leaders improve the broader adoption strategy.
Why Activators Matter
Most organizations do not struggle because they lack ideas. They struggle to turn those ideas into workflows people understand, trust, and use repeatedly.
Activators help close that gap. By testing AI against real work, helping peers learn, and sharing evidence from the field, they make new ways of working more practical and less abstract.
A single useful workflow can become an example for a team. A well-documented example can become a reusable asset. A reusable asset can eventually influence adoption across an entire organization.
What Activators Do in Practice
An Activator's work spans three connected skills:
- Design Workflows: Define the problem, intended users, workflow, agent role, human role, review points, and intended result.
- Integrate Systems: Determine the context, tools, systems, access, and actions the workflow requires, and coordinate with the appropriate technical and governance partners.
- Scale Impact: Test and launch the workflow, prepare and support users, and maintain and measure it so the team can rely on it over time.
1. Design Workflows
Strong AI workflows begin with a clear understanding of the work, not with a product feature or a general desire to “use AI.” Activators define the workflow from its trigger to its intended result, using:
- The current process and sources of friction
- The people who perform or depend on the work
- The tasks the AI workflow should perform in the process
- The responsibilities that remain with people
- The points where human review or approval are required
- The necessary escalation pathways
- Known exceptions or conditions the workflow should not handle
- The evidence that would indicate the workflow is useful
Start with the smallest useful version of the workflow. The goal is not to design the final solution in one shot. It is to create something focused enough to test with real users and learn from.
Resources
- Run a Use Case Discovery Workshop: Facilitate a team workshop that identifies and prioritizes AI use cases.
- Prioritize Potential AI Workflows: A simple way to identify which AI workflows to start with now, which to scale later, and which to deprioritize.
- Evaluate AI Workflow Readiness: Turn a real workflow problem into a clear recommendation to test now, validate further, sequence later, or avoid for now.
2. Integrate Systems
An AI workflow cannot operate reliably without the right instructions, context, tools, systems, and access. Activators help identify what the workflow requires, including:
- The instructions and boundaries AI must follow
- The relevant knowledge and context AI needs to complete the workflow
- What tools and systems AI needs to complete its defined actions
- Security, privacy, legal, or governance considerations to agree upon with stakeholders and partners
- Technical considerations to agree upon with IT / Workspace Admins
- Monitoring or maintenance requirements to ensure the workflow continues to run as intended
An Activator does not need to personally approve access, determine policy, or make governance decisions. The Activator is responsible for clarifying the workflow’s requirements, surfacing risks and dependencies, and involve the appropriate partners to build the workflow.
Resources
- Scope, Test, and Roll Out AI Workflows: Turn a validated workflow opportunity into a clear testing and deployment plan.
3. Scale Impact
Scaling impact means helping people understand the workflow, use it confidently, and repeat it regularly. It also means maintaining the workflow, learning from usage, and making the workflow's impact visible. Activators may:
- Test the workflow with its intended users
- Collect feedback to improve the workflow
- Packaging the workflow for reuse with instructions, checklists, templates, or other reusable assets
- Clarify when and how the workflow should be used
- Help users practice the new workflow
- Measure usage and practical impact for the team to share with Leaders
- Capture recurring issues, blockers, lessons, and unexpected outcomes and surface them to Leaders as needed
Resources
- Segment Users and Drive Habit Formation: Enable repeatable AI usage in real work across different stages of adoption.
- Capture and Share AI Use Cases and Impact: Identify what is working, capture the proof, and make successful workflows easy to repeat.
- Debug AI Adoption Blockers: Diagnose what is blocking adoption and choose the next practical action to help a team move forward.
What Strong Activators Do Differently
They begin with the work, not the technology
Strong Activators do not start with, “How can we use AI?”
They start with, “What are we trying to accomplish, and what is making it difficult? Where can AI help?”
They involve the people who perform the work. They ask users to describe the current process, test early versions, identify failure points, and help determine what a better workflow should look like.
This keeps experimentation tied to genuine needs and increases the likelihood that people will actually use the solutions.
They optimize for repeat use
The goal is not for everyone to depend on the Activator. Strong Activators ask whether the workflow is clear, accessible, credible, and easy to repeat. They think about instructions, examples, reinforcement, access, and how the workflow fits into existing team habits.
They leave people with the knowledge, assets, and confidence to use the workflow themselves. This helps ensure that successful workflows spread.
They surface friction and success
Activators share concrete examples of the pain they were trying to solve, what they tried, what worked, what didn't, what changed, and what they learned.
Strong Activators do not hide the rough edges. They surface where a workflow was confusing, unreliable, difficult to access, or poorly matched to the task. These insights can be just as valuable as the successful parts of a workflow story because they help the organization improve its support and avoid repeating the same mistakes.
This helps Leaders reinforce validated workflows that are ready to scale, and makes it easier for other teams to learn from the example.
They create momentum while reinforcing safe use
Activators help teams move forward while respecting their organization’s policies, approved tools, and governance requirements.
When the path is unclear, they pause, ask, and involve the right partner rather than creating unnecessary risk.
Start With One Workflow
Start with one real workflow.
- Identify a recurring problem or source of friction.
- Define the people, process, and intended result.
- Test the smallest useful version.
- Identify the systems, access, and partners it requires.
- Help users practice and improve it.
- Capture what changed and learnings.
- Share the workflow or lesson when it is safe and useful to do so.
Leverage the Champion Community
Need inspiration? Sign up for a Make Work Flow event to learn real AI workflows examples to adapt and try. Sign up for upcoming events here.
Learn what other Activators are building, what's working, and where they're getting stuck in the Champion Community. Share what's worked for you or connect with peers working through similar challenges. Introduce yourself in the Forum.
Final Thoughts
You do not have to have every answer before you begin.
Start with the work, involve the people closest to it, bring in the right partners, and share what you learn.
That is how Activators turn AI opportunities into durable new ways of working.
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