Frequently asked questions

AI fluency coaching is a structured six-week programme that gives C-suite executives and senior leaders direct, hands-on experience with AI tools. Unlike one-off workshops or briefings, participants work with AI on their own real tasks - with a personal AI agent, weekly guided challenges, and coaching from Ewan MacLeod and Holly Joint, who build and use AI agents every day.

The goal is genuine fluency: the ability to use AI confidently, judge its capabilities honestly, and make informed decisions about AI investment and governance.

It ranges from a three-hour hands-on masterclass to a month-long AI agent course and the six-week one-to-one Executive Programme.

AI fluency is being able to use AI confidently on your own work, and judge where it's reliable and where it needs checking. It's practical, not technical: no coding, no theory. For senior leaders it matters because it's the difference between approving AI decisions on instinct and approving them from experience.

Most executive AI training is a one-off event - a keynote, a half-day workshop, or a briefing session. These create awareness but not fluency.

The AI Fluency programme runs for six weeks. Each participant gets their own personal AI agent configured for their role and sector. Weekly challenges use the participant's actual work, not generic exercises. The result is hundreds of real AI interactions and genuine capability - not just a certificate or a set of slides.

No. This is not about learning to code, understanding neural networks, or mastering prompt engineering. It is about giving senior leaders enough direct experience with AI that they can make better decisions about it - investment decisions, governance decisions, strategic decisions, and people decisions.

The programme meets participants where they are. Many start with zero AI experience and finish with genuine confidence and practical capability.

Most leaders go from sceptical to confident in four to six weeks of regular, real use. Reading about AI doesn't get you there; a few hundred real interactions on your own work does. That's why our programmes run for weeks, not a single afternoon.

Because you can't judge what you've never used. Leaders are being asked to approve AI budgets, sign off governance and decide which roles change, and the ones who've used the tools themselves make faster, better calls. A few hours hands-on replaces months of relying on briefings and vendor demos.

Yes, if the three hours are spent building rather than listening. You leave with an assistant set up on your own laptop and workflows you can use the next morning - most people win the time back within the first week. It's the shortest route from "I should really look at AI" to actually using it.

How to move from chatting with AI to having it do the work. Most regular users are asking questions and copying answers; the masterclass shows you how to connect Claude to your files and tasks, hand it multi-step jobs and build tools with it. It's the difference between a clever search box and an assistant.

Use it on one real task every day for the next two weeks - that's what turns a good afternoon into a habit. If you want structure and someone to ask when it goes wrong, the agent course and the six-week Executive Programme are the next steps. Ask us which fits; we'll tell you straight.

A hands-on, three-hour session where senior leaders learn to put Claude to work on real tasks, not just chat with it. You'll set Claude up as a daily assistant in Claude Cowork, let it loose on multi-step tasks as an agent, and build a working dashboard with Claude Code in the room. It's led by Ewan MacLeod and Holly Joint, and runs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and on request in London and Europe.

No. The masterclass is built for executives who have never written code. Everything is done in plain English, and we build alongside you step by step. If you can use email and a spreadsheet, you'll be fine.

Your own laptop - Mac or Windows - or an iPad, with the Claude app installed and a Claude Pro subscription. We don't provide devices or accounts on the day, so please come set up. We send setup instructions beforehand so you arrive ready to build.

AED 787.50 per person, which includes 5% UAE VAT (AED 750 plus VAT). Seats are booked through Luma, and each session is capped at 15 people so everyone gets hands-on help. If your company is paying, we can invoice it directly - get in touch before booking.

Get in touch as soon as you know, at ewan@beacon58.com or on WhatsApp, and we'll find a resolution that works for you. The same applies to the agent course.

You'll leave able to use Claude as a working assistant that handles admin and drives projects, hand it multi-step tasks and check its work, and build a simple dashboard or app from scratch. You also leave with the workflows, prompts and habits we use ourselves every day.

Claude is Anthropic's AI assistant; Cowork and Claude Code are two ways of letting it act rather than just chat. Claude Cowork works on your files and tasks from the desktop app, like a colleague handling your admin and research. Claude Code builds software - dashboards, tools and small apps - from plain-English instructions. The masterclass covers both.

Yes, and group rates are available - get in touch at ewan@beacon58.com or on WhatsApp before booking and we'll give you the details. Colleagues often come together, and it helps to have someone to compare notes with afterwards. For larger groups, a private session tailored to your organisation may suit you better. Companies can pay by invoice.

Yes. We run private sessions for leadership teams and organisations, in person in the Gulf, London and Europe. The content is tailored to your sector and your tools. Get in touch at ewan@beacon58.com or on WhatsApp.

A coached programme that gives senior leaders their own working AI agent: a half-day intensive in person on Yas Island, then a month of weekly one-hour group calls online. We set up your agent before you start, so day one is about using it, not installing it. It's capped at 10 people and costs AED 6,300 including VAT.

An AI agent doesn't just answer questions - it takes action for you: sending email, researching, updating documents and spreadsheets, setting reminders, and working through multi-step tasks on its own. A chatbot waits for your next message; an agent keeps working. It makes mistakes, and learning when to trust it and when to check is a big part of the course.

Lumen is our own AI agent software. It sits on top of the latest Claude models and gives each participant a persistent agent on a private server, with its own email, documents, web search and Telegram, so you can reach it from your phone or desktop. It runs on your own Claude subscription, so you stay in control of the account.

A Claude Pro subscription and a phone or laptop with Telegram. We set up everything else: the server, the agent's Google account, search and the Telegram connection.

The calls are one hour every Wednesday evening (Gulf time) for about a month after the in-person day, and every call is recorded, so you can catch up if you miss one. Between calls there's a facilitated WhatsApp group, so you're never stuck waiting a week for help.

Yes. When the course ends you can keep your agent running, move it to your own environment with our help, or carry on to the advanced level. Ask us for the options and costs.

The course starts with a half day in person on Yas Island, and everything after that is online. If you can't be in Abu Dhabi, the six-week Executive Programme is fully remote, and we can run private versions for teams elsewhere.

A six-week, one-to-one programme where a senior executive gets their own dedicated Lumen AI agent on Telegram, running on the latest Claude models on a private server kept separate from work systems. Each week has a theme, suggested tasks based on your real work, and a 30-minute coaching session with Ewan and Holly. It costs USD 10,000.

The Executive Programme is one to one and built entirely around you; the agent course is a small group of up to 10. The Executive Programme runs for six weeks, fully remotely, with individual coaching. The agent course starts with a half day in person and then runs weekly group calls for a month.

The programme is designed for C-suite executives, board members, and senior leaders - particularly those in commercial, strategic, or operational roles who are influential in decisions about AI but haven't used it systematically.

Typical participants include CEOs, Chief Commercial Officers, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Risk Officers, Chief HR Officers, COOs, and Managing Directors. No technical background is required. The only prerequisite is curiosity and a willingness to try things.

Absolutely. Many participants find this programme themselves - they've heard enough about AI, they know it matters to their role, and they want to get hands-on rather than sit through another presentation. You don't need your L&D team to enrol you. You can start a conversation directly and we'll tailor the programme to your role, your sector, and your goals.

Each participant receives:

A personal AI agent configured specifically for their role, sector, and goals. This isn't a shared tool or a generic chatbot - it's their own AI, set up to be useful from day one.

A personalised guide tailored to their experience level and the themes they'll explore each week.

Weekly themed challenges based on real work. The six themes are: First Conversations, Writing and Thinking, Strategy and Analysis, Data and Decisions, Governance and Risk, and Commercial Opportunity.

Tips, challenges, and support via WhatsApp throughout the programme.

One-to-one coaching with the instructor as needed.

The programme is designed around 30 minutes a week so it fits any executive schedule - but in practice, most participants end up preferring a full hour once the conversations get going.

It's built around the participant's existing work, with no classroom sessions or mandatory video calls. The weekly challenges are done as part of normal work - for example, using AI to prepare for a real meeting, draft a real document, or analyse real data.

Genuine AI fluency - more meaningful AI interactions than most senior executives. Real experience, not borrowed opinions.

Grounded judgement - a tested view of where AI is capable and where it needs oversight. Judgement that comes from finding limits firsthand.

Commercial perspective - 3+ AI opportunities identified in the leader's own function, mapped against effort and impact, ready to act on.

A personal AI statement - a written reflection: what the leader found, what changed their thinking, and concrete recommendations for next steps.

No. The programme is specifically designed for people who have never used AI in any meaningful way. There's no coding, no technical setup, no jargon. Your AI agent is configured and ready before we even meet. Week 1 starts with a guided conversation together - you won't be left on your own to figure anything out. Most participants are surprised how natural it feels by the end of the first session.

Both - but the first one is what matters. By Week 3, most participants are already using their AI agent to help with real tasks: exploring ideas, researching topics, preparing for meetings, getting started on things they've been putting off. By Week 6, they have a fundamentally different relationship with the technology. They know what it's good at, where it breaks, and how it fits into their work. That's not a novelty. That's a competitive advantage.

That's actually the most common starting point. Most executives have had a brief, underwhelming interaction with a generic AI tool and concluded it's not for them. The difference here is that your AI agent is configured for your role and your context, the challenges are structured around real work, and you have a coach guiding you through what to try and how to get value from it. The distance between "I tried ChatGPT once" and "I've used AI systematically for six weeks" is enormous.

Yes, if you want to. When the programme ends you can keep your agent running, or let it be retired - in which case the server and workspace are shut down. Either way you keep your personal AI statement, your saved conversation history and, most importantly, the fluency. Ask us for the options and costs.

A subscription gives you a chat window; this gives you an agent that acts on your behalf, plus six weeks of coaching that turns it into a habit. Most executives who try a chatbot alone stop after a few days. Structured weekly challenges on your real work, with someone to ask when it goes wrong, is what gets you to fluency.

No. The Executive Programme is delivered entirely remotely - your agent lives on Telegram and coaching sessions are online - so it works wherever you are. We have participants in the UK, Europe and the Gulf.

Yes. We run private programmes for leadership teams and boards, set to your cadence and your context, with debriefs for the sponsor. It gives the people who set direction a shared, first-hand baseline of what AI can and can't do. Formats range from a single private masterclass to a full multi-week programme.

Yes. The programme works for individual executives or across a senior leadership cohort. Running it for a team has additional benefits: shared vocabulary, aligned understanding of AI capabilities, and the ability to discuss AI opportunities in the context of the whole organisation rather than a single function.

Each participant still receives their own personal AI agent and individual coaching.

A simple test: ask each of them what they used AI for last week. If the answers are "nothing", "I tried it once" or "my team handles that", the team is making AI decisions without first-hand experience. That's common, and it's fixable in weeks rather than a year.

The quickest route is a private session for your team, built around your organisation's real work, followed by a short programme so it sticks. Leaders who've been through it first make the best sponsors, because they know what good looks like. Tell us about your team at ewan@beacon58.com or on WhatsApp and we'll suggest a format.

Participants' agents run in private environments kept separate from your corporate systems, and nothing is used to train AI models. We agree up front what stays off the agents, and design the exercises so people learn on realistic work without putting sensitive information at risk.

Yes. Our background is banking and financial services, including Islamic banking, and we've run sessions for banks, a building society and finance academies across the UK, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The exercises are built around your organisation's real work.

The programme was built from direct experience in banking and financial services, and is particularly strong in regulated industries. New Era Digital Partners works with banks and financial institutions across the UK and Gulf region, including the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait.

The programme structure adapts to any sector where senior leaders need firsthand AI experience to make better decisions - but financial services is where the deepest expertise lies.

Both are excellent; the bigger difference is how you use them, not which one you pick. We teach on Claude because it's strong at long documents, careful writing and taking action through tools like Cowork and Claude Code, and because it fits naturally into agent workflows. If your organisation has standardised on ChatGPT, most of what we teach carries straight over.

In practice: prepare briefings before meetings, summarise long reports and email threads, draft first versions of documents, track follow-ups, research competitors and build simple dashboards. It's most useful on the work that piles up between meetings. It isn't a replacement for judgement - it gets you to a good first draft fast so your time goes on the decision.

Yes, if you separate what's safe to share from what isn't. The practical rule: keep customer data, confidential deals and anything regulated off personal AI tools unless your organisation has approved them for it. Our programmes run agents in private environments separate from work systems, and teach exactly where that line sits.

The programme is delivered by Ewan MacLeod, who has spent 25 years running technology and digital at banks from Nordea to Sohar International, most recently as interim CIO at a UK regulated bank. He builds AI agents himself every day, including the ones participants use - this is not advisory from a distance. He runs the programme alongside Holly Joint, a board adviser and former C-suite executive - COO at ADSS and digital transformation lead at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank - who co-leads the masterclasses and cohorts.

He also advises banks across the Gulf region on AI strategy and publishes across specialist media properties covering fintech, AI, and banking. The programme is delivered through New Era Digital Partners.

The AI Fluency programme is backed by New Era Digital Partners, a digital transformation and AI strategy firm that works with banks and financial institutions across the UK and Gulf region. New Era Digital Partners isn't a training company - it's a team of practitioners who build and deploy technology inside regulated organisations.

That matters because the programme content, the AI agent configuration, and the coaching all draw on real delivery experience. The team behind it includes people who have led core banking migrations, built digital banking platforms, designed AI strategy for regulated firms, and shipped real products in financial services. When a participant asks "would this work in my organisation?", the answer comes from people who've done it.

New Era Digital Partners also runs assessment platforms, AI-powered tools for financial institutions, and advises on technology strategy across the Middle East and UK markets. The AI Fluency programme is one part of a broader practice built around making technology work inside complex organisations.

In person in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, with regular public dates, and on request in London and across Europe. The weekly coaching calls and the Executive Programme are online, so they work from anywhere.

Your AI agent runs in a private, separate environment - completely outside your corporate systems. No data flows back to your employer's infrastructure and nothing is used to train AI models. You control what you share with the agent, and we'll guide you on how to get value from AI without putting sensitive information at risk. The programme is designed by people who have led technology and transformation inside regulated banks for over 25 years - we understand the boundaries.

The process starts with an initial discussion - usually with the learning team or the executive themselves. Once a participant is selected, there's a briefing conversation to understand their role, goals, and current AI experience.

From there, a personalised guide is prepared, a personal AI agent is configured, and the six-week programme begins.

Contact ewan@beacon58.com or message via WhatsApp to start a conversation.