What is the AI-First Accelerator?

A 4-phase program that takes your organization from AI policy to working AI tools. Your team leads every step: governance first, then ideas, implementation, and a showcase finale.

How is the Accelerator structured?

Four phases: Reduce Risk (align leadership, assess readiness, launch governance), Ignite Ideas (inspire teams, propose use cases, get green light), Implement Improvements (design, create, and refine AI tools), and Scale Success (showcase results, plan next steps).

Does the Accelerator include AI governance?

Yes. Governance comes before experimentation. Your organization gets an acceptable use policy and decision framework before any AI tools are built.

Is funding available for the Accelerator?

Funding may be available for eligible Nova Scotia organizations through programs like WIPSI, which has seasonal intake windows. Contact us to discuss your eligibility.

What results have other organizations seen?

Nautel trained 50 staff with a 92% skills increase. DeNova built 4 working AI tools with a 94% skills increase. Digital Nova Scotia reached 226 learners with an 88% completion rate.

What do teams build during the program?

Custom AI agents and automations designed for their workflows. Past builds include contract review tools, RFP triage systems, and quoting automations.

AI-First Accelerator™

You already have the right team. They just need the right system.

A structured program where your team builds real AI capability across four phases. Two dedicated consultants work alongside you from kickoff through the final Showcase. Your AI policy goes live first. Results are measured at every stage. 35+ Atlantic Canadian organizations have already run it on their own calendars.

Book a call See how it works

WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT

Your team walks out using AI.
Building skills that stick.

Six reasons the Accelerator works.

Governance First

Your AI policy and safeguards go live before your team ever experiments. Safety is the foundation. Every step builds on it.

AI Tools Built for You

Custom agents, templates, and guides at every stage. Your team always has expert support available.

A Showcase Finale

Teams demo their results and present bold recommendations. A live event designed to celebrate what your people built.

Measurable ROI

Every AI improvement feeds a calculator that tracks value from Step 1. Impact is visible and measurable.

Weekly Touchpoints

Your team meets weekly from Step 2 through Step 9. No one is ever more than a few days from support.

Weekly Labs

Dedicated office hours from Weeks 3 to 8 where the volunteer army can get hands-on support, ask questions, and build momentum.

HOW IT WORKS

4 phases. Your roadmap from policy to results.
Change management underneath the whole thing.

Every step has a clear agenda, a real deliverable, and measurable outcomes. Click a phase to see what happens inside.

Your leadership gets aligned. Your policy goes live before anyone touches a tool.

Align

Your leadership and guiding coalition kick off the program with your two AI-First consultants. Schedule, goals, draft AI policy, and coalition roles locked in.

Assess

Your guiding coalition aligns on the policy, readiness survey, and comms strategy so no one is caught flat-footed when the wider team joins.

Launch

Your whole team joins a live kickoff. LMS access opens, safeguard training goes live, and skeptic concerns get answered directly. About 60 minutes per group, per week from here.

Phase 1 of 4

THE NUMBERS

$520,000

sitting inside your workflows every year, waiting to be reclaimed

Fifty knowledge workers, four hours each per week on tasks AI could handle, fully loaded at $50 an hour. That is the math. Your team can run their own numbers in the calculator below.

40-70%

of knowledge workers use AI without guardrails (industry estimate, 2024-2025)

35+

Atlantic Canadian organizations have run the Accelerator already

10,400

hours a year of addressable capacity in a 50-person team

FIND YOUR FIT

Three tiers. Same methodology, different depth.

Every tier runs the same four-phase program. The difference is how many teams you bring through, how much coaching time you get, and how deep the custom builds go. We scope it together before you commit.

Small teams ready to start

Essentials

The full methodology with governance, training, and a Showcase. Right-sized for a single department or a team that wants to move quickly.

Multiple departments, deeper coaching

Growth

Everything in Essentials, plus more coaching sessions, more Spotlight Sprints, and support across multiple teams running in parallel.

Organization-wide rollout

Premium

The full program at enterprise depth. Extended timelines, custom AI agent builds, executive coaching, and a larger Showcase event.

Book a scoping call

Up to 75% covered by WIPSI for eligible Nova Scotia organizations. Deadline: May 1, 2026.

YOUR NUMBERS

Run your own numbers.

Move the sliders to match your team. See the hours and dollars sitting inside your workflows every year, waiting to be reclaimed.

Knowledge workers20

5200

Hours/week on AI-addressable tasks2

2h10h

Fully-loaded hourly cost$40

$30$100

Annual cost sitting in your workflows

$83,200

2,080 addressable hours per year

From the field

35+ organizations. In their own words.

Every quote below came unsolicited, from leaders who ran the program on their own calendars and saw the results firsthand. Workshops, accelerators, lunch-and-learns. Different formats, same pattern: their teams walked away doing the work.

Participating in the AI-First Accelerator was incredibly valuable for DeNova. It helped us build the foundational skills, tools, and governance frameworks needed to integrate generative AI into our operations responsibly and effectively. The team was exceptional to work with: deeply knowledgeable, professional, and committed to delivering a program that was thoughtfully customized for our organization.

Talia Boates

AI Program Lead, DeNova

We hired AI-First to present at our company's offsite manager's meeting. The team was incredibly engaging, breaking down complex topics and explaining them in an easy to consume manner. Tremendous value added to our meeting, and we look forward to working with them again.

Drew Redden

Atlantic Poultry Incorporated

The lunch and learn was awesome. I took a lot from it, it was organized in a very digestible manner and impressively effective presenting.

Lee Vicars

Project Manager, Pomerleau

Practical and tactical information. Always so good. Well done.

Crystal MacGregor

Food Island Partnership

Relevant to the industry, used storytelling effectively. Always delivers!

Ila Jay

Digital Nova Scotia