Cheryl Thompson Advisory · Corporate Cohort Program
The Workforce AI Enablement Cohort
A six-week cohort where your team builds AI workflows that run without them.
A cross-company cohort for non-technical leaders and their teams in automotive and manufacturing, where your people don't just learn about AI, they build something with it.
The Problem
Your company bought the licenses. They show up on the invoice every month. Six months in, your people still use AI like a search engine, a question here, a quick draft there. The capability you are paying for is sitting unused. This cohort changes that. Your team goes from typing one-off questions to building AI that runs on its own.
This is a structured six-week program where three people from your company join peers from non-competing manufacturers and build AI workflows for their actual work. They start where most people do, asking one question at a time. They finish having built something that runs without them: a status report that writes itself from a shared file every Monday morning, an agent that holds their team's process, a workflow that turns a manual Friday afternoon into something that happens while they sleep. Every participant leaves with a working build and the skills to keep building. Your executive sponsor sees it firsthand at the final showcase.
How It Works
Pre
Survey and Intake
Every participant completes a pre-program survey. We map where each person is with AI, what their real pain points are, and what they want to build. No one starts from the same place, and the program meets them where they are.
1
Foundations and Orientation
Participants learn what the tools can actually do beyond the chat box, then identify the specific repetitive task in their own work they will turn into a workflow over the six weeks.
2
Prompting and Practical Application
Participants build their first repeatable prompt for a real task, then set it to run on a schedule connected to their own files. By the end of the week, something is running without them.
3
Building Your Solution
Each participant builds the core of their workflow with guided support. The cross-company cohort means people see how a procurement problem and an engineering problem get solved with the same moves, and borrow what works from each other in real time.
4
Refine and Stress-Test
Participants pressure-test their builds against real use, fix what breaks, and harden the workflow so it holds up after the program ends. Peer feedback catches what working alone would miss.
5
Polish and Prepare for Showcase
Final build refinements and showcase prep. Participants get their workflow ready to demonstrate live to the full group and their executive sponsors. Not a slide deck. A working build, running in the room.
6
Showcase Session. Executive Sponsors Attend.
Each participant demonstrates the workflow they built, running live. Executive sponsors from every company are in the room. The energy is different from any training program, because everyone is watching real builds do real work, not slides about what might be possible.
What Your Company Gets
✓
3 participants, full six weeksSend three people from any three functions: operations, HR, engineering, procurement, marketing. Each one builds their own workflow for their own job, from week one through the showcase.
✓
Pre-program survey and personalizationContent is shaped by your team's actual pain points and goals, not a generic curriculum.
✓
Cross-company cohort accessPeers from non-competing manufacturers. Your team learns from people solving similar problems in different contexts.
✓
A working build, not a certificateEvery participant leaves with an AI workflow they built and can use Monday morning: a scheduled report, a custom agent, or a workflow that runs on its own.
✓
Executive sponsor access to the showcase sessionYour executive sponsor attends the final session to see what the team built and hear from the full cohort.
✓
Two strategic advisory sessions for the executive sponsorReserved time with Cheryl to discuss AI priorities, team progress, and what comes next for the organization beyond the cohort.
AI Sprint · Return on time
What is the cost of doing nothing?
Most teams can't see what manual, repetitive work is costing them until they put a number on it. Move the inputs below and the figure updates as you go. Then read what the number leaves out, because that is usually where the larger value sits.
Tier one · the defensible floor
Time recovered
$11,700
recovered per year, at the conservative end of your selected range
3
hours reclaimed per week
156
hours reclaimed per year
That is the equivalent of 3.9 full work weeks or roughly 0.1 additional headcount of capacity, without hiring.
These figures reflect time only. They do not count faster decisions, fewer missed follow-ups, or reduced rework, which are often worth more than the hours saved. Hour ranges are conservative starting estimates, validated against each participant's own baseline in the Sprint, not assumed.
Tier two · where the real money is
Capacity redirected
The hours from Tier one do not disappear. They move. A buyer who stops chasing data spends that time negotiating a better contract. An engineer who stops rebuilding the same report spends it preventing the next failure.
This is where the real money is, and you are the one who can size it for your operation. We will not put a number on it, because the number depends on what your people do with the time they get back.
Tier three · the largest, least predictable
Risk avoided
One quality escape caught before it ships. One warranty issue spotted early. One recall avoided.
These are the biggest dollars on this page and the least predictable, so we do not model them. You already know what one of these is worth in your business. We name the category and leave the figure to you.
See what this looks like for your team
Set up a 15-minute conversation. We talk through what your team's repetitive work is actually costing, using your numbers instead of these defaults. No pitch. If the Sprint is the right next step, we will both know.
Set up a 15-minute conversation Investment
Founding Cohort Rate
$10,000
Per company. Includes 3 participants for all six weeks, executive sponsor access to the showcase session, and two one-on-one advisory sessions.
Founding cohort members lock in $10,000 and help shape the program. Cohort two begins at $15,000 with expanded executive advisory time.
Cohort Economics
- Minimum cohort size 6 companies
- Maximum cohort size 10 companies
- Participants per company 3 people
- Executive one-on-ones 2 x 30 min
- Program length 6 weeks
- Companies are non-competing Required
Who This Is For
Right for you if...
- You are a Tier 1 or Tier 2 automotive or manufacturing supplier
- Your leadership team knows AI matters but hasn't made it a real practice yet
- You want your people building with AI, not just watching demos
- You have an executive who is ready to sponsor and champion the initiative
- You want peer learning across companies, not a solo training program
Not the right fit if...
- You are looking for a technical AI implementation or software build
- You need to train 50+ people at once (ask about the enterprise workshop option)
- You are in the same market segment as another cohort participant
- Leadership is not aligned or willing to sponsor the program
What This Looks Like in Practice
Cheryl helped our leaders move past curiosity and start using AI on real work. The difference was her ability to translate between manufacturing reality and what AI can actually do. Our team built tools they still use today.
Senior leader, Tier 1 automotive supplier
About Your Facilitator
Cheryl Thompson is the founder of Cheryl Thompson Advisory, a solo AI strategy and consulting practice for automotive and manufacturing leaders. She worked her way up from the floor at Ford, through tool and die into engineering and then into global manufacturing leadership at Ford and American Axle, and founded and ran an industry organization serving the automotive sector for eight years. Through hands-on AI building and implementation, Cheryl works with executives and the people doing the day-to-day work, helping each find practical use cases for AI based on their role and what is on their plate, and building the fluency that turns adoption into real change.
Ready to Join the Cohort?
Seats are limited to 10 companies.
Founding cohort is forming now.
Reach out directly to start the conversation. No forms. No funnels.
Founding cohort · 6-10 companies · $10,000 per company