The AI Exec Toolkit

Understanding Replaces Skepticism

When executives build with AI tools themselves, abstract concepts become concrete. They learn what AI does well (rapid prototyping, synthesis, automation) and where it struggles (complex reasoning, maintaining context, knowing when to stop). This nuanced understanding is impossible to gain secondhand.

Credibility Through Demonstration

When a leader says "You can't get into a meeting with me without a prototype," that expectation carries weight because they've built prototypes themselves. Leading by example creates authentic momentum that mandates alone cannot achieve.

Eye-Opening Experiences Spread

The most heartwarming feedback from Builder Day participants was that the experience was "eye-opening." When people see what's possible through their own hands-on work, they become advocates who spread that enthusiasm organically throughout the organization.

Meeting Audit

Your AI analyzes your calendar and for each meeting suggests:

• Whether your presence is actually required
• Who could attend instead if you can't
• Whether the meeting could be handled asynchronously
• What context or decision is needed from you

Delegation Messages

The AI doesn't just identify meetings to skip:it drafts the delegation messages. "Hey [person], I won't be able to make this meeting but [delegate] can cover for me. Here's the context they'll need..." This reduces the friction of delegation from several minutes to a few seconds.

Focus Time Protection

Beyond auditing existing meetings, the AI can identify patterns:which time blocks are consistently productive, which recurring meetings could be less frequent, and where you need to protect time for deep work.

Build It, Use It, Discard It

Not every tool needs to be maintained forever. Building a quick prototype for a specific planning session, a one-off analysis tool, or a temporary dashboard creates value without creating technical debt. When the need passes, the tool can simply be archived or deleted.

Imperfection is a Feature

Personal tools don't need to handle edge cases they'll never encounter. They don't need beautiful UIs if the functionality works. They don't need to scale beyond one user. This freedom to be imperfect is what makes rapid building possible.

Software as Documents

Just as you might create a spreadsheet for a specific analysis and then never look at it again, you can now create interactive tools with the same mindset. The barrier to building is low enough that software becomes a medium for temporary thinking, not just permanent infrastructure.

1. Identify Your Friction

What repetitive tasks eat up your time? Meeting prep, email triage, research synthesis, status updates? Pick one area where automation would have immediate impact.

2. Start Your Knowledge Base

Create a folder of markdown files with context about your role, preferences, and common tasks. This becomes the foundation for any AI tools you build.

3. Build Something Small

Use a tool like Cursor or Replit to build a simple prototype. It doesn't need to be perfect:a meeting prep assistant, a calendar analyzer, or a research synthesizer. The goal is learning, not polish.

4. Share and Inspire

Once you've built something useful, share it with your team. Not as a polished product, but as an example of what's possible. Your enthusiasm and firsthand experience will be more persuasive than any slide deck.

5. Create Space for Your Team

Consider running a Builder Day for your organization:dedicated time for hands-on AI exploration. Combined with clear expectations, this creates the conditions for org-wide transformation.