One or two people often take to AI first. They accelerate adoption, or burn out as invisible support if unmanaged.
Asset and risk.
Champions combine curiosity, social credibility, and patience, not necessarily the most technical person.
Core principles
- Develop deliberately: allocated time (trade off other work), early access, public recognition, connection to other champions.
- Structure: weekly 20–30 min office hours; shared FAQ or prompt templates; feedback loop to you on recurring questions.
- Champions are not: IT access support, policy deciders, responsible for everyone's adoption.
Check yourself
What does this lesson say is the most important thing to give an AI champion beyond identifying them?
An unbounded champion role burns people out. Champions are not IT support, not policy deciders, not responsible for everyone on the team. They need bounded structure, allocated time traded off against other work, specific scope, and recognition.
Do this in Copilot
Identify one champion candidate; have a direct conversation (not assignment), willingness, support needed, bounded structure.
Paste this into Copilot Chat and work through it before moving on.
Champion charter
Draft a one-page charter for a team AI champion: purpose, weekly time commitment, what they will and will not do, how the team accesses help, and how we recognize the contribution.
Did you run this in Copilot? Mark complete when you have tried it.
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