Using AI every day isn't the finish line

Hey {{first_name|there}},

Most of us crossed the "use AI every day" line a while ago. That's not the interesting question anymore. Two things separate operators now. When you close your laptop, does anything keep running without you? And when your company is ready to go all in on AI, are you leading that change or just keeping up with it?

Our AI Readiness Diagnostic showed the split clearly. 86% of Chiefs of Staff use AI at the highest frequency, every single day. Only 5.2% have an agent managing any part of their workflow. The network is fluent, and almost entirely hand-operated.

Closing that first gap is the easy half. You pick one recurring task in your remit, write down every step, and wire up the part that doesn't need your judgment. Then you do it again next week. There's incredible leverage here, yet most people still haven't done it.

But the harder half is what actually makes you your company's Chief of AI: leading the change. As Delong Lu, Chief of Staff at Proton, put it, "AI transformation is not about which tools you're adopting or even how you're using those tools. There are much greater foundational elements in an organization." You can buy every tool on the market and change nothing if the people around you don't move.

That job is landing on us. Kanika Choudhary, Chief of Staff at People IX, describes Chiefs of Staff becoming the de facto owners of AI transformation by default, not by design. Her rule for anyone in that seat: map before you buy, because you cannot automate what you cannot see. Alex Craig at PortSwigger adds the discipline that keeps it honest. The hard part isn't the tech, it's knowing where human thinking still has to show up in the work.

That is change management, and it's the real content of the role. Running the audit, building the case, deciding what gets automated and what stays human, bringing the skeptics along. The tools are the easy half. This is the half that earns the seat.

One thing worth flagging: we're rebuilding the COSN AI Fellowship from the ground up, and the new program launches in September. It's built around exactly this, getting real leverage from the tools and leading the transformation at your company in a fast-paced challenge based cohorts. Join the waitlist to see it first and get a special discount at launch.

👉 Join the AI Fellowship waitlist

✳ The Inductive Fellowship: two days in Denver for rising leaders

Juhi Kabra, a longtime Chief of Staff Network collaborator and executive coach, is co-leading a workshop I want on your radar. The Inductive Fellowship is an intimate, immersive, in-person coaching experience for emerging leaders and rising stars: foundational Conscious Leadership frameworks, mental models, and practical tools you can use immediately, at a fraction of the cost of 1:1 executive coaching.

It runs September 15 and 16 in Denver, facilitated by Juhi (former Redesign Health, Palantir, Blackstone) alongside Devon Tivona and Kim Wagner. No slides, no conference rooms, no homework. Just two days of real coaching in a small group.

The CoSN perk: mention Chief of Staff Network as your referral source in the application (there's a question at the end) and they'll honor the group discount, nearly 15% off the program fee. You'll also get one free 50 minute coaching session with any of the three facilitators, which you can schedule anytime before the end of the year.

September 15-16 in Denver. Mention CoSN in your application for the discount.

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Reply and tell me one task you're going to stop doing by hand this week. I read every one.

Scott