A four-part live online series
AI-Enabled Leadership Studios
Lead, communicate, and influence with clarity in an AI-accelerated world. For executives, managers, and individual contributors in any industry.
November 2026
10:00 am to 12:00 pm PST
Live online via Zoom
Early bird: 20% off through October 23. $280 per session or $760 for the full series.
Register $350 per session or $950 for the full series
About the series
Designed for executives, managers, and individual contributors across any industry, this four-part series equips professionals to lead, communicate, and influence with clarity in an AI-accelerated world. While AI can rapidly generate content, layouts, and answers, true organizational impact depends on human intent, critical judgment, and trust.
This series is designed for maximum flexibility: it can be experienced as a progressive, sequential journey—where each session builds upon the strategic foundation of the last—or as targeted standalone workshops. Woven throughout all four sessions are the core pillars of Authenticity, Trust, and Critical Thinking. Participants learn to harness AI as an expansive thought partner and creative multiplier to boost productivity and innovation, while keeping human leadership, presence, authenticity, and critical reasoning firmly at the center.
Four sessions
- Nov 10Tuesday
Communicating with Intention in the Age of AI
AI can draft content. Only humans can define intent.
- Nov 13Friday
Designing Better Presentations in an AI-Enabled World
AI can make slides. Only you can drive action.
- Nov 17Tuesday
Critical Thinking and Navigating Tough Conversations in the Age of AI
Generative AI delivers instant answers. High-stakes leadership requires better questions.
- Nov 20Friday
Embodied Executive Presence in the AI Era
AI can write it. Only you can mean it.
Session 1 (November 10)
Communicating with Intention in the Age of AI
AI Can Draft Content. Only Humans Can Define Intent.
As AI takes on more of the drafting, summarizing, and content creation that once consumed our time, the human challenge shifts upstream: deciding what we are trying to say, to whom, and why it matters. This workshop focuses on the communication choices that need to happen before AI gets involved—clarifying intent, understanding the audience, identifying the core message, and supplying the context that technology cannot infer on its own.
Participants will practice using AI as a thought partner without outsourcing judgment. The emphasis is not on prompt tricks, but on building stronger communication practices that lead to more focused, relevant, and credible messages—whether the end product is a presentation, an email, a recommendation, or a difficult leadership conversation.
Session 2 (November 13)
Designing Better Presentations in an AI-Enabled World
AI Can Make Slides. Only You Can Drive Action.
AI can now generate slides, layouts, visuals, and entire decks in minutes. The harder question is whether those presentations are actually clear, persuasive, driving action, and influencing decision-makers. This workshop focuses on the communication decisions that make presentations effective: shaping a storyline, deciding what belongs on the slide, choosing the right level of detail, designing for the audience, and turning information into a message that moves people to action.
Participants will use AI-enabled tools to accelerate ideation, slide development, and critique, while keeping the presenter firmly responsible for meaning, emphasis, and judgment. The goal is not simply to produce slides faster, but rather to create presentations that feel thoughtful, distinctive, and human.
Session 3 (November 17)
Critical Thinking & Navigating Tough Conversations in the Age of AI
Generative AI delivers instant answers, yet high-stakes leadership requires extraordinary questions.
What remains uniquely human is the ability to read the room, sense context, and adapt with real-time spontaneity during high-stakes and tough conversations—qualities no AI model can replicate.
This session focuses on sharpening human judgment and situational awareness when the pressure is on. Using AI as a stress-testing sparring partner alongside BECI's Art of Inquiry framework, leaders will pressure-test assumptions and refine generic outputs into strategic clarity. Through live human coaching, participants practice navigating real-time friction to leave with a repeatable practice for framing high-stakes discussions that sharpens judgment, elevates decision-making, and unlocks deep clarity in an AI-driven environment.
Session 4 (November 20)
Embodied Executive Presence in the AI Era
AI Can Write It. Only You Can Mean It.
AI can draft your message, create immaculate scripts, or format text, but only you can mean it or walk into the room. As generated language becomes abundant and nearly free, the differentiator moves to what only a human transmits: voice, body, and the quality of attention you give another person. AI cannot inspire trust, command a room, or forge authentic human connection.
This immersive session positions embodied presence as an irreplaceable executive capability that does not automate and is your most powerful tool to establish or rebuild trust. This live two-hour session puts leaders in front of each other rather than in front of slides. You will work on words, voice, and physical presence, use AI to see what your words carry without you in the room, and practice the listening that makes people feel met. Participants gain practical micro-practices to project authentic confidence, build rapid trust, and maintain a powerful digital presence across Zoom and hybrid workplace environments as well as a sharper read on where your presence holds and where it falters.
Meet the Faculty Team
Reserve your place
Join one session or all four. Register below.
Early bird: 20% off through October 23$280 per session or $760 for the full series
November 10, 13, 17, and 20, 2026 | 10:00 am to 12:00 pm PST
Live online via Zoom
Frequently Asked Questions
Will the sessions be recorded?
The sessions are designed to be live, synchronous and interactive, and will not be recorded. If there’s interest, we’ll consider offering this program in the future at different times to allow for participation from other time zones.
COO
Faculty & Executive Coach
Susan Houlihan is a communications consultant, executive coach, and electrical engineer who leverages her 15+ years working in engineering and operations in the high-tech sector in Silicon Valley to bring a perspective firmly rooted in business applications to her consulting and coaching work.
Susan teaches at business schools including: Lecturer for leadership, coaching and communications in the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business EWMBA/EMBA programs, Instructor at the UC Berkeley School of Data Science, UC Berkeley Coleman Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership, UC Berkeley Center for Executive Education and serves on the Faculty of the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute.
She has been a Guest Lecturer at the School of Creative Leadership in Berlin, and Guest Faculty at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. She also heads up the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute strategic operations.
Susan holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from University College of Cork in Ireland, an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, and is a certified Executive Coach from the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute, and holds the PCC credential from the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
In addition to one-on-one executive coaching, Susan facilitates leadership, communications and coaching workshops as well as communications coaching of presentation skills, working with clients on the material (e.g. Powerpoint) and the delivery (content, verbal and non-verbal).
A native of Ireland now based in the US, Susan is an experienced cross-cultural communicator, who has worked extensively with individuals and Fortune 500 companies in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Clients include Salesforce.com, Adobe, Facebook, Biorad, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital of Oakland, Cisco Systems, Qualcomm, Peterson CAT, Financial Women of San Francisco, IEEE, UCSF, UC Hastings, Genentech, Novartis, Cypress Semiconductor, McKinsey (Dubai), Fattals (Lebanon), Odgers Bernstein (Russia), Siam Cement (Thailand), and The Berlin School (Germany).
Susan is excited to work with people to uncover their passions, explore their values, move past their obstacles, and build a fulfilling personal and professional life.