For chiefs of staff & operators

You already have the seat. Now own it.

Become the AI Chief of Staff your CEO can't run without, and charge what you're worth. Our next cohort begins Monday, August 3.

Next cohort begins Monday, August 3 · seats are limited
The AI Chief of Staff InstituteAct 02 · The problem
02

You create executive-level value. It's time to get paid what you're worth.

The gap between the value you create and what you take home: that's the villain of this story. And AI just made it wider: given the right context, AI now beats 14-year domain experts roughly nine times out of ten, and CEOs have stopped delegating it to IT. Someone is going to bring this to your CEO. The only question is whether it's you.

Out there
The market moved without you

The expert line has been crossed. CEOs want the result and don't want to do the work. You don't yet have the stack or the playbook to be the one they hand it to.

In your head
“I'm not technical. I'm not a salesperson.”

Everyone seems ahead of you. Michelle said those exact words, “I'm not a negotiator,” the year before she closed three six-figure deals.

The principle
The people who create the value should capture it

You run the company behind the scenes. It's simply wrong that the value you create keeps landing in someone else's column.

The AI Chief of Staff InstituteAct 03 · The guides
03

We've been exactly where you are, and we know the way out.

“Two years posting into the void. 400 followers. I told Steve, ‘I'm not a negotiator.’ Last month I closed my third six-figure deal.”

Michelle Defouw
20 years a chief of staff

“AI came for my 20-year business. Rather than fight it, I rebuilt it, then took a thousand companies through the same transformation.”

Steve Cunningham
Founder, Humans + Agents
100K+
Leaders trained
1,000+
Companies transformed
3
Six-figure deals · Michelle
100+
Consultants with CEOs daily
The AI Chief of Staff InstituteAct 04 · The plan
04

Three steps. One month.

1
Now
Enroll now

Claim your seat in the August cohort. Enrollment is open and seats are limited, so lock yours before it fills.

2
Weeks 1–4
Build the stack

Sprints and boot camps, Mon–Thu. Build your agent fleet, ACE your day, and prove tens of thousands of dollars of ROI, every single day.

3
Then
Close your first deal

The GTM OS full day, Michelle's deal frameworks, and a community that negotiates beside you: retainers, revenue share, exit participation.

The plan, on a calendar · August 2026 · the Intelligence OS
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
3Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
4Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
5Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
6Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
7Stand-up 9:15a
8
10Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
11Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
12Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
13Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
14Stand-up 9:15a
15
17Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
18Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
19Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
20Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
21Monthly forum · full day
22GTM OS day · full day
24Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
25Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
26Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
27Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
28Stand-up 9:15a
29
31Stand-up 9:15aIntelligence OS 4:00pSprint 5:00p
Daily AI coachingDaily stand-upIntelligence OS bootcampAgent Builder SprintFull-day forum
The AI Chief of Staff InstituteAct 05 · The curriculum
05

What you'll actually build.

Every cohort runs the same spine: a daily Agent Builder Sprint that gets you shipping, and a twelve-session bootcamp that installs one operating system. Three systems, one month each, on a loop that sharpens every cycle as the models improve. Your August cohort runs the Intelligence OS.

The Agent Builder SprintDaily on-ramp · every session

Runs alongside the bootcamp every day. Four moves that take you from an empty folder to a working agent fleet, pointed at your real work.

01
Build Your First Agent in Four Steps. Create a folder, install the pattern, and ship a working agent in a single session.
02
Which Agents Should We Build? Map your role, find the repeatable work, and pick the agents worth building first.
03
Crush Your Goals. Turn your goals into deliverables your agents can produce every week.
04
Execution ROI. Run the numbers: what your agents earn, what they save, and what to build next.
Execution OS BootcampJuly · 12 sessions

The foundation month: the folder structure, the agents, and the standards that make a deliverable producer you can trust.

01
Intro. The map of the three weeks and the operating system it installs.
02
Folder Structure. The six-folder spine, work lane and machinery lane.
03
Tasks, the Kanban. The dumping ground and the four fates.
04
Agents and SPECS Overview. The five-file anatomy of a deliverable producer.
05
The Golden Example. The deep dive, the whole hour on what good looks like.
06
Context. What agents read, then build your own.
07
Process. How work runs: steps, decisions, failure handling.
08
The Standard. Standards, quality control, two-stage QC, write your own qc.py.
09
Projects. The project file as operating memory, one live run end to end.
10
Programs. The coordination layer, this bootcamp live on screen.
11
ACE. The daily loop: Approve, Check, Evaluate.
12
Demo Day. Participants ship, show, and get scored.
Intelligence OS BootcampYour August cohortAugust · 12 sessions

The month you turn raw company data into judgment. One repeatable Machine, pointed at each of the ten functions, ending in a single daily executive brief.

01
The Repeatable Pattern. The Intelligence OS, and where it sits in the stack of operating systems the company runs on.
02
Strategy Intelligence. The strategy machine. You will not run the loop; you will build the team of agents that does.
03
Product Intelligence. Stop guessing what to build. The same Machine, pointed at what users do and say.
04
Marketing Intelligence. Find the words that sell. The Machine, aimed at the offers the market responds to.
05
Sales Intelligence. Know which deals are real. The Machine, aimed at the pipeline that is actually moving.
06
Finance Intelligence. Know which work makes money. The Machine, pointed at where the money actually goes.
07
Operations Intelligence. Deliver what you sold. Every delivery date is a bet on capacity; this Machine watches the bet.
08
IT / Data Intelligence. Trust your own numbers. Every number you trust is a bet on a pipe.
09
HR / Admin Intelligence. Read your own room. Are your people okay, and is the admin holding them together still holding?
10
Legal Intelligence. Read your own exposure. What did you actually promise, and which obligation comes due next?
11
Continuous Improvement Intelligence. Read what keeps breaking. The tenth function: the Machine that watches the system itself.
12
The Daily Executive OS. Run the company from one screen. Ten functions fan into one morning brief. The capstone.
Growth OS BootcampSeptember · 12 sessions

The third month: agents that don't just run the work, they move the numbers — propose, approve, run, measure, and keep what works.

01
The Decide Layer. Execution ships, Intelligence senses, Growth decides. The growth loop pattern, and where it sits in the four-layer stack.
02
The Goal Tree. Wire goals down the five-level ladder into targets agents can work toward. Your KPI chain becomes the scoreboard.
03
The Experiment Engine. Turn morning briefs into proposed bets: hypothesis, cost, expected lift, and the kill criteria stated up front.
04
Acquisition Experiments. The Machine proposes tests on lead flow: channels, hooks, and the census motion, scored against pipeline.
05
Offer and Conversion Experiments. The voice-of-customer swipe file becomes test copy: offers, pages, and pitches, measured against close rate.
06
Pricing and Margin Experiments. Every price is a bet. Experiments on packaging and anchors, aimed at the leaks the margin waterfall found.
07
Retention and Delivery Experiments. Keep what you sold: tests on onboarding, cadence, and the moments the churn signals point to.
08
The Scoreboard. Baselines, honest attribution, and the three verdicts: keep, kill, or scale. No experiment ends unread.
09
The Weekly Growth Council. The cadence: agents propose Monday, you approve, results land Friday. The meeting that replaces the growth team.
10
Autonomy Dials. How much the agents may do alone: budgets, guardrails, and the approval gates that keep judgment human.
11
Compounding. Test-then-graduate: winning experiments become standing processes, and the playbook thickens every week.
12
Demo Day. The growth loop live: a quarter of experiments, the numbers, and the next round of proposals, on stage.
The AI Chief of Staff InstituteFrom the first cohort

Week one, in their words.

“First session yesterday made it clear this entire experience will be value-packed.”

Cohort 1 · after session one

“Week one blew my mind. I've been operating AI from a framework already, but Steve Cunningham's framework is far superior for how to sequence prompts and data for quality outputs — and the fact that he just gifts us agents is wild, generous, and makes the time and money worth it.”

Cohort 1 · week one

“Michelle, I really like what I've learned so far. This is beyond my imagination!”

Cohort 1 · day three
The AI Chief of Staff InstituteAct 06 · What's inside
06

Everything in the month, stacked.

AI Black BeltYours foreverThe core training, personal use
Keep it
Elite AI OperatorOne month: the program that gets you to level nine
Included
The Go-To-Market OSThe full-day selling forum, updated monthly
Included
Group coaching with MichelleLive group sessions: retainers, revenue share, bonuses, exit participation
Included
The communityLive forums, daily AI coaching, a full month inside
Included

$499 for the month. Land one client with what you build and it's paid for many times over. Seats for August are limited, and enrollment is open now.

The August cohort
Enroll now and lock your seat in the August cohort.
Join the Institute · $499
$0

The no-questions money-back guarantee. Spend the month learning the edge of what's possible with AI, and the edge of what you can charge for it. If you still want your money back at the end of the month, it's yours. No questions asked. To date, we have refunded exactly $0 under this guarantee.

Want your company to fund it? Many chiefs of staff have their employer cover the seat as a capacity investment. We built a CEO-ready case you can forward.

Send your CEO the case →
The AI Chief of Staff InstituteAct 07 · The stakes
07

The window doesn't wait.

Stay at level 1–2, and stay replaceable.
Watch an outside consultant claim the seat next to your CEO.
Keep creating executive-level leverage without executive-level pay.
The arbitrage moment closes whether you move or not.
The AI Chief of Staff InstituteAct 08 · Where this ends
08

From invisible to indispensable.

Before
  • Invisible in the org chart
  • Paid for hours, not outcomes
  • Chasing tasks someone else assigns
  • “AI-curious,” stuck at prompting
  • Building someone else's roadmap
After
  • The operator beside the CEO
  • $1,000+ an hour, ten hours a month
  • A 20-minute morning runs the work
  • Level nine: running a portfolio
  • A business of your own, impossible six months ago

That right-hand column is Michelle's actual life, twelve months after saying “I'm not a negotiator.”

The AI Chief of Staff InstituteCoda · See it live

See it live, or watch the replay.

See the whole thing in action: the AI moment, the live daily-brief demonstration, and Michelle's deal-by-deal walkthrough. Missed the live event? Watch the replay of the last workshop below — the best way to see how the Institute works, on your own time.

The AI Chief of Staff InstituteFrom the Q&A

Before you ask, answered.

When does the next cohort start?
Monday, August 3. Enroll now to lock your seat — you'll get pre-week instructions and Black Belt access the moment you're in, so you can start before the cohort does.
What will we actually cover?
Every day runs a two-part rhythm: the Agent Builder Sprint (build a working agent fleet, pointed at your real work) plus a twelve-session bootcamp. August installs the Intelligence OS — one repeatable method aimed at all ten business functions (strategy, product, marketing, sales, finance, operations, IT/data, HR, legal, and continuous improvement), ending in a single daily executive brief that runs the company from one screen. It's one turn of a three-month loop: Execution OS in July, Intelligence OS in August, Growth OS in September. The full session-by-session breakdown is in the curriculum above.
What are the live session times?
Live programming runs Monday through Thursday: a daily stand-up at 9:15a CT, the Intelligence OS bootcamp at 4:00p CT, and the Agent Builder Sprint at 5:00p CT, plus short daily AI coaching. Two full days anchor the month — the Monthly Forum on August 21 and the GTM OS Day on August 22. All times are US Central.
Do I have to be there live, or is it asynchronous?
You don't have to attend live. Every session is recorded and turned into easy-to-review artifacts, so you can run the entire program asynchronously and never lose a session you miss. Live is great for momentum and real-time Q&A, but the whole system is built to work on your own schedule.
Is this something you should ask your company to pay for?
Absolutely. Many chiefs of staff have their employer fund the seat as a professional-development and capacity investment. We built a CEO-ready business case that reframes the month as company ROI, with the numbers and the usual objections already answered. Here's the page to make the case to your CEO →
Is the $499 one-time or recurring?
One-time. The $499 covers the full month — it is not a recurring subscription and you won't be billed again. If you decide to continue after the cohort, we'll walk you through the ongoing options then, but there's nothing automatic and no rebill.
Do I need prior AI experience?
No. We assume no prior knowledge: if you can download a file, create a folder, and hold a conversation, you're ready. The real bottleneck is unlearning twenty years of how work is “supposed” to get done, and we start that on day one in the Agent Builder Sprint.
What do I keep after the month?
Personal-use access to the AI Black Belt training is yours to keep, no strings. The Elite Operator access, forums, and community run for the month; if you want to continue, we'll talk about the ongoing options then.
What do I need to bring?
Your AI setup of choice. We strongly recommend Claude Cowork: it's the easiest to use and requires a $20/month Claude subscription. We give you step-by-step setup instructions for the desktop app when you join.
I'm not in North America. Will the times work?
Most live programming runs mid-afternoon US Central, evening in the UK and Europe. We have members in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. Everything is recorded and turned into easy-to-review artifacts, so you never lose a session you can't attend live.
My company (or my clients) only allow Copilot. Does this still work?
Yes. The system underneath is model-agnostic: the file structure, the agents, and the operating loops all travel. We've deployed it inside Fortune 500 Copilot environments: one company took a ramp-up process from 18 months to two weeks, on Copilot. Claude is better; Copilot still works.
What if it's not for me?
Then you say so at the end of the month and we give you your money back, no questions asked. You'll still walk away with the Black Belt and everything you learned. We've refunded exactly $0 under this guarantee so far.
The AI Chief of Staff InstituteYour move

Own the seat. Charge what you're worth. Start in August.

Next cohort starts Monday, August 3 · enroll now · money-back guaranteed
The AI Chief of Staff Institute Steve Cunningham & Michelle Defouw · 2026