Building AI Champions in 2026

Name: Building AI Champions in 2026
Start: 2026-01-15

The AI: ROI Conference

Getting widespread buy-in for your AI deployment is faster, easier, and more effective with an engine of internal evangelists pushing it forward. So let’s talk about how to build one – from the top down and bottom up.

This event has passed. Enjoy the recording!

Olya Taran

Assistant Vice President of AI Adoption, Manulife

Lauren Kaufman Witten

Chief AI Enablement Officer, Section

Turning power users into enterprise change agents

We’re being joined again by Manulife’s AVP of AI adoption, Olya Taran, who is giving you the tablestakes tactics for activating your AI champions, through questions like:

What is the role of an AI champion and how do you separate them from the strong prompters?
What signals should leaders look for to identify AI champions early?
If you were designing an internal “AI champion pipeline” today, what would it need to include to keep momentum through 2026?
How should incentives and performance metrics evolve if companies want AI champions to drive real business outcomes in 2026?
If organizations get AI champions right over this year, what does success look like in Q4?

It’s free to join, so start your year off with the strategy your deployment needs to reach critical mass.

Meet your speakers

Olya Taran

Assistant Vice President of AI Adoption, Manulife

Olya Taran is an Assistant Vice President of AI Adoption at Manulife, focused on driving enterprise-wide adoption of artificial intelligence across talent, culture, and business operations. She leads programs that help employees and leaders embed AI into everyday decision-making, combining her PhD-level expertise with practical change management to accelerate responsible, human-centric AI innovation at scale.

Lauren Kaufman Witten

Chief AI Enablement Officer, Section

Lauren Kaufman Witten is the Chief AI Enablement Officer at Section, where she helps companies build AI-powered workforces by connecting cutting-edge AI solutions with practical, business outcomes. With more than 20 years of experience in sales, account management, and strategic advisory roles across leading B2B research and advisory firms, she specializes in turning customer insights into scalable growth programs and trusted executive partnerships.