AI in Action Series: AI Foundations Workshop 1 featuring Helen Lee Kupp MBA ‘15, Co-Founder of Women Defining AI
AI Foundations: Go Beyond “Advanced Google Search”
You've read the headlines. You've tried ChatGPT. Now you're ready to go deeper—to move from experimenting to executing, from curiosity to capability.
This hands-on workshop is designed for leaders who are done with surface-level dabbling and ready to build a strategic AI practice. We'll work through three high-impact use cases together, live, so you walk away with tools you can deploy immediately and a framework to use AI more strategically.
What to expect:
- Practical personal and professional use cases you can copy,
- ex: AI as a soundboard (walking 1:1s with voice mode)
- Meetings notes + AI: how to expand your use case beyond “Just transcription”
- Easy starter prompts to get hands-on in the session
- Clear framework for how to think about the breadth of AI use cases beyond search
What you'll walk away with:
- Strategic use cases that create compounding value in your work
- AI as an executive thinking partner (stress-test strategy, refine messaging, prep for high-stakes moments via voice)
- Transform meeting intelligence into decision assets (beyond transcription—think pattern recognition, strategic synthesis, and institutional memory)
- Reclaim cognitive bandwidth by automating high-frequency, low-creativity work (without sacrificing quality)
- Practical prompts and frameworks you'll use and adapt in real-time during the session
- The discernment of when AI multiplies your impact vs. where it's overrated
Who this is for:
- The strategic experimenter who's moved past "AI is interesting" and is ready to answer "AI is useful where?"
- The operator with agency who wants to lead their organization's AI adoption with conviction, not caution
- The executive who sees AI as a force multiplier for their judgment, not a replacement for it
- The ambitious leader ready to turn AI fluency into a durable competitive advantage—personally and professionally
This isn't theory. It's practice. Come ready to build, test, and leave with tools that work.
This event is a collaboration among the following organizations: Harvard Business School Association of Northern California (HBSANC) and HBS Women's Association (HBSWA).
Date: Friday, January 23, 2026
Time: 10:00 am - 11:00 am PT
Location: Virtual
**Webinar Zoom instructions will be emailed prior to the event start time. The email will contain an additional Zoom registration step that must be completed in advance of the event start time to receive the meeting access link.
**Registration closes on Thursday, January 22 at 12pm PT
Tickets:
HCSF Members: Free
Non Members: $20
Not a member? Register here for membership.
Click here to register
Event registration
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No HarvardKey? Please retrieve your HarvardKey here. If you need help, email ithelp@harvard.edu or call 617-495-7777
**All tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable
**Speaker instructions on recommended platforms/subscription levels, if applicable.
Recommend either a ChatGPT plus license or Claude pro license for the workshop. You can use free versions of either for Workshop 1, but will need a paid license for Workshop 2 when building an assistant.
Questions:
Contact Sasha Grinshpun, event host, at sasha@catapultcircles.com and cc: Sangita Shah, at info@hbsanc.org.
Helen Lee Kupp (MBA ‘15), Speaker/Instructor
Helen Lee Kupp is the co-founder and creator of Women Defining AI, a community of female leaders tackling the biggest topics of understanding today's generative AI widespread adoption through experimentation, support, and community learning. She takes a practical approach towards helping leaders navigate the biggest changes in work — both from AI/technology, and the flexible/hybrid work revolution.
Helen is also an experienced strategy & operations leader who has helped companies across all stages of growth launch new teams, products, and services. In her former role leading Strategy & Analytics at Slack, she shepherded Slack through the company’s growth from a $75M ARR (primarily credit card self-service product across small teams) to over $1B in enterprise ARR through directly managing launches like the enterprise product & entering international markets. As the co-founder of Future Forum, she combined both data and her own operating experience to advise and coach F500 executives on redesigning work.
She is the co-author of WSJ Bestselling book “How The Future Works: Leading Flexible Teams to Do the Best Work of Their Lives”. Helen brings a unique perspective to how we'll operate in the future by bridging the human component of flexible working alongside the technology component of artificial intelligence creating even greater opportunities to "think & work differently" in a way that benefits more people.
She believes in closing the gender technology gap - starting with women at work - to create a future of work that looks and feels fundamentally different for her three kids and the women she mentors. We can and should do better.
Get in touch with Helen:
Sasha Grinshpun (MBA ‘02), Host
Sasha Grinshpun (MBA 02) is a master executive coach and career strategist and facilitator with 15+ years of experience. Her eclectic background spanning IDEO/design thinking, consulting, and entrepreneurial ventures puts her in a unique position to have the conversation around, "What do you really want?!"
Sasha combines her gift for quickly gauging strengths, constraints, and aspirations of clients with her experience in navigating life's inflection points. She helps exceptional people craft their own definition of success and confidently make their next move.
In addition to coaching individuals and teams, Sasha has facilitated interactive talks with diverse audiences thinking strategically about doing good work in the context of an authentic life, as well as design thinking, high-impact communication, getting unstuck, executive presence, diversity/inclusion, the multi-generational workforce, work-life management, and authentic networking.