Community
We don't just sell AI services — we've built Wisconsin's AI leadership ecosystem. Two groups. Different formats. One goal: practical progress on real work.
AI Agent Innovation Group
The longest-running AI executive group in Wisconsin.
60+ members. Every Tuesday, 12-1pm. StartingBlock Madison. AAIG isn't a meetup — it's a build session. Members bring real work, build together, and share what works.
Less talking about AI in the abstract. More using it on real work.
- Open to all levels — advanced users sharpen workflow, beginners find permission to start simply
- Every session: expert framing + hands-on building + peer sharing
- No vendor pitches. No hype. Just useful progress.
Details
- When
- Every Tuesday, 12:00 - 1:00 PM
- Where
- StartingBlock Madison, 821 E Washington Ave, 3rd Floor
- Members
- 60+
- Format
- Build & Learn Sessions
- Cost
- Free
- Founded by
- Mike Zhang, WiscAI
Details
- When
- Monthly, 8:30 - 10:00 AM
- Where
- American Family Insurance Spark Building, Madison, WI
- Format
- Closed-door peer conversation
- Who
- VP / CIO / C-suite
- Co-hosts
- Mike Zhang (WiscAI) + Steve Cretney (EVP, Colony Brands)
AI Leadership Breakfast Forum
Invitation-only. Closed-door. Peer-level.
A monthly breakfast forum for senior leaders — VP, CIO, C-suite — navigating AI adoption. Co-hosted by Mike Zhang (WiscAI) and Steve Cretney (EVP, Colony Brands). No slides. No vendor pitches. Just frank conversation among leaders accountable for execution.
AI changes the cost of thinking, not just tools.
- Uneven adoption across teams — and what to do about it
- Cost lever vs. capacity expansion — the real strategic question
- Where human judgment still matters
- Real examples from other sectors and organizations
Senior leaders at $1B+ Wisconsin organizations
Members include CIOs, CFOs, and VPs of IT, Operations, Marketing, and Strategic Sourcing across life sciences, financial services, manufacturing, insurance, retail and e-commerce, education foundations, and specialty retail. Cross-functional by design — execution-accountable, not theory-curious. Steve Cretney (EVP, Colony Brands) co-sponsors; the rest of the room is named only with permission.
A few of the conversations that have happened in the room
Quotes are anonymized to preserve the closed-door framing. The substance is real and verbatim from session notes.
A 50-year-old, FDA-regulated 2,000-person manufacturer running 1,800 of 2,000 employees on daily AI usage. 25% of every workday mandated for AI work. Hiring frozen — not for cuts, but because AI is absorbing the capacity.
“We have no choice.”
A VP of IT at a regional insurance carrier ran a customer segmentation analysis with anonymized policy data and AI tooling. When a top actuarial firm independently delivered their version:
“The readout was exactly the same as what I had just gotten done — and I'm not an actuary.”
An LLM-built tool that compares invoices to contracts at one carrier. Vendors know it runs on every invoice they send.
“Our expenses have dropped 30% on our largest vendors — because they know we do it.”
A CIO described scrapping annual MBOs for 90-day plans — because annual planning cycles can't keep up with how fast AI is changing what's possible. The forum returns to this theme repeatedly: cadence is the new constraint.
Why this matters for prospects: WiscAI's perspective on AI in regulated industries, mid-market manufacturing, and operational AI doesn't come from a deck. It comes from a room of senior leaders working through it in real time, every month. That's the lens we bring into client engagements.
Applied AI Leadership Cohort
A small, hands-on, three-month cohort for leaders who want to use AI tools to solve real problems in their current roles. Not theory — practice.
Small group
8-12 leaders per cohort. Real conversation, not lectures.
Hands-on
You'll build things during the program. Real tools, real workflows.
Role-specific
Applied to your actual job. Not generic AI awareness training.
Find your entry point.
Whether you're a practitioner who builds, an executive who decides, or a leader who's learning — there's a seat for you.
I build things
Join 60+ practitioners every Tuesday for hands-on build sessions at StartingBlock Madison.
Join Tuesday SessionsI make decisions
A closed-door monthly forum for senior leaders navigating AI adoption at the organizational level.
Request an InvitationI'm learning
A three-month, hands-on program for leaders who want to use AI tools to solve real problems in their roles.
Explore the Cohort