AI Champion role description
Also known as: AI Ambassador, AI Super-User, AI Buddy or AI Lead (team level)
Be the first port of call for AI in one team, and own its guides.
What the AI Champion is for
Not a hire: a role someone takes on inside their own team, for a small, agreed amount of time. The AI Champion is the first person colleagues ask about using AI on the team's work, owns the team's workflow guides and shared skills, and helps run sessions alongside the enablement lead.
One enablement lead can't personally help every team. Champions networks are how AI enablement reaches the whole company: one trusted person in each team who knows the work from the inside. They're easy to start and hard to keep, which is why the role needs to be written down, with time agreed by the champion's manager, before anyone is asked.
AI Champion responsibilities, stage by stage
AI enablement runs as a cycle: discover, prioritise, train, measure, scale, then round again. Here's what this role owns in each part of it.
Discover
- Notice what colleagues are trying with AI, what's working and what's frustrating them.
- Suggest people for discovery conversations and flag recurring tasks worth looking at.
Prioritise
- Help the enablement lead understand which of the team's workflows matter most and how they really work.
- Help agree a realistic baseline for workflows the team takes on.
Train
- Co-run sessions and sprints with the enablement lead, then run them for the team.
- Own the team's workflow guides and shared skills: keep them current and approve changes.
- Be the first port of call for 'how do I use AI for this?' questions.
Measure
- Share one example a month of something that worked, or didn't.
- Pass on honest feedback from the team about what's helping and what isn't.
Scale
- Join the champions' check-in (thirty minutes, fortnightly) and, in time, help chair it.
- Review the team's guides each quarter: run each once on a real task, then fix or retire it.
- Help find and hand over to a successor when stepping down.
Skills to hire for
Must have
- Trusted by the team: colleagues already go to them with questions
- Does the team's real work and knows the workflows from the inside
- Curious and careful: tries things and checks things
- Explains patiently, without jargon
- Has a manager who will protect the time
Nice to have
- Has already found a few uses of AI that work for the team
- Has run a team meeting or shown colleagues a process before
- A former sceptic, who knows the objections first-hand
What good looks like
Use these to set expectations when someone takes the role on, and to check in at six and twelve months.
At six months
- Owns at least one team guide or shared skill, kept current
- Has co-run and then run a session for the team
- Attends most champions' check-ins
- Colleagues come to them first, and fewer questions reach the enablement lead
At twelve months
- The team's guides reviewed on schedule
- Has helped another champion get started or has a successor in mind
- Named credit in programme reports for the guides they maintain
AI Champion interview questions
Questions for choosing a champion, for you and for their manager. Open each to see what to listen for.
1.Who in your team do people go to when they're stuck, AI or not?
Listen forAsk this of the manager. The answer is often the right champion, and it's rarely the loudest AI enthusiast.
2.Show me something you've used AI for in your work recently.
Listen forSomething real and modest, with a sense of what they checked. Careful beats clever.
3.How would you explain to a sceptical colleague when to use AI and when not to?
Listen forPatience, plain language and respect for the sceptic's point.
4.What time could you give this each month, and has your manager agreed it?
Listen forA realistic answer and a manager who's already on board. No manager agreement means not yet.
5.What would make you want to step down after six months?
Listen forAn honest answer you can design around: time squeezed out, no credit, questions they can't answer.
6.What would you not want to do as a champion?
Listen forHealthy boundaries, such as not being IT support or chasing colleagues to use the tools.
Red flags
Some of these look like strengths in an interview. Ask what actually changed.
- Volunteered mainly because they're bored with their current work
- Nominated because nobody else would do it
- Is the team's manager (the team may defer rather than ask honest questions)
- Is far ahead of the team in a way that intimidates rather than helps
- Their manager won't agree protected time
AI Champion role description template
Copy it, then replace the [highlighted] fill-ins with your details. Or build a tailored version in the generator.
AI Champion, [Company]
About the role
We're looking for an AI Champion for [team] at [Company]. This isn't a new job: it's a role you take on alongside your current one, for about [agreed time] a month agreed with [manager], for an initial six months. You'll be the first person colleagues ask about using [tools, e.g. Microsoft Copilot / ChatGPT / Gemini] on our team's work, you'll own our team's workflow guides, and you'll help [enablement lead] run sessions for the team.
What you'll do
- Be the first person colleagues ask about using AI on our team's work
- Own our team's workflow guides and shared skills: keep them current, review them quarterly and approve changes
- Co-run sessions with [enablement lead] when we take on a new workflow
- Join the champions' check-in (thirty minutes, fortnightly)
- Share one example a month of something that worked, or didn't
What you won't do
- IT support (that's [IT contact])
- Policy decisions (that's [enablement lead], with [security / legal])
- Chasing colleagues to use AI, or reporting on who does
What you'll bring
- A good understanding of how our team's work actually gets done
- Colleagues who already come to you with questions
- Curiosity about AI, and the habit of checking what it produces
- Patience explaining things without jargon
- Agreement from [manager] to protect the time
Nice to have
- A few uses of AI you already rely on
- Experience showing colleagues a process or running a team meeting
What you'll get
- A direct line to [enablement lead], and early access to new guides, skills and training
- Named credit on every guide you maintain and in programme reports
- A development objective agreed with [manager]
How we'll measure success
- Our team's guides are current and reviewed on schedule
- You've run or co-run sessions for the team
- You're attending the champions' check-ins
- Not your team's adoption numbers. You won't be chasing anyone.
Questions about the AI Champion role
What's the difference between an AI enablement lead and an AI champion?
The AI Enablement Lead is a hire who owns the programme across the company. An AI Champion is a volunteer inside one team who gives a small, agreed amount of time to being the first port of call and owning the team's guides. The lead recruits and supports champions; champions are how the programme reaches every team.
How much time should an AI champion spend on the role?
A small amount, agreed in writing with their manager before they start: enough for a fortnightly thirty-minute check-in, keeping guides current and helping with sessions. If it's not agreed, the day job will squeeze it out.
Should AI champions be paid extra?
Usually the role is part of their job rather than a paid extra. What keeps champions is protected time, named credit, early information, direct access to the enablement lead and a development objective that recognises the work.
Are AI champions responsible for their team's adoption?
No. Measuring champions by their team's adoption turns a helping role into a policing one and isn't in their control. Measure the network by active champions, guides reviewed on schedule and sessions run.
How many AI champions do you need?
Start with three to five in teams you've already worked with, rather than recruiting twenty across the company at once. Add more as the programme reaches new teams; a large network that loses momentum is hard to revive.
How long should someone be an AI champion?
Six months, then a review. People are far more willing to say yes to a fixed term, and the review lets anyone step down without losing face.
Running a champions network? Give its lead the kit.
Membership is for you and your small enablement team: the champions tracker, the onboarding deck in your brand, the Role Book's lesson on keeping a network alive, and everything else you run. Champions take part through what you run; they don't need a seat.
Doing this job already?
One useful thing a week for people running AI enablement: a session outline, a survey question, a slide, a way to prove it's working.
Related roles
All AI enablement rolesAI Enablement Lead
Get people across the company using AI well on their real work, and prove it.
Read the job description
AI Enablement Manager
Run the AI skills programme day to day so sessions happen and stick.
Read the job description
AI Adoption Lead
Take an AI tool rollout from licences issued to work done differently.
Read the job description