AI TRAINING
AI for COOs: Driving Operational Excellence
Equip operations leaders to deploy AI that measurably reduces costs, eliminates bottlenecks, and lifts throughput.
What it covers
This programme gives COOs and Heads of Operations a structured framework for identifying, prioritising, and governing AI initiatives across the operational value chain. Participants explore process mining, intelligent automation, AI-powered quality systems, and workforce planning tools through real-world case studies and hands-on exercises. By the end, they leave with a prioritised AI roadmap tied directly to ops KPIs and an evaluation toolkit for selecting vendors and measuring ROI. The format combines short expert-led sessions with peer working groups and a capstone roadmap presentation.
What you'll be able to do
- Map your operational value chain and pinpoint the three highest-ROI AI intervention points using a structured prioritisation matrix
- Evaluate process mining tools (e.g. Celonis, UiPath Process Mining) against your own operational data to surface hidden inefficiencies
- Design an intelligent automation blueprint that covers RPA scope, exception-handling logic, and human-in-the-loop checkpoints
- Build a 90-day AI roadmap linked to measurable ops KPIs such as cycle time, defect rate, and workforce utilisation
- Apply a vendor scorecard to assess and compare operational AI solutions across cost, integration complexity, and scalability
Topics covered
- Process mining: discovering and analysing operational bottlenecks with AI
- Intelligent automation: RPA, agentic workflows, and exception handling
- AI-powered quality management and predictive maintenance
- Workforce planning and scheduling optimisation with AI
- Building an ops-KPI-driven AI investment framework
- Vendor evaluation and build-vs-buy decisions for ops AI tools
- Change management and workforce adoption for automation
- Governance, risk, and compliance for operational AI
Delivery
Typically delivered as a blended programme over three to four days (in-person or virtual instructor-led), split into half-day modules with peer working groups between sessions. Participants receive a digital workbook, process mining sandbox access, and AI investment scorecard templates. Hands-on exercises account for roughly 50% of contact time. In-person cohort format is strongly recommended for the capstone roadmap session; remote delivery is viable for earlier modules.
What makes it work
- Anchor every AI initiative to a named KPI owner and a measurable baseline before kick-off
- Run a small process mining pilot on one process end-to-end before committing to enterprise-wide tooling
- Embed a change management workstream alongside the technical deployment from day one
- Establish a cross-functional AI ops steering group that meets monthly to review KPI progress and course-correct
Common mistakes
- Investing in automation tools before completing a process mining diagnostic, automating broken processes at scale
- Framing AI projects around technology capabilities rather than specific ops KPIs, making ROI invisible to the board
- Underestimating workforce change management, leading to low adoption and shadow workarounds
- Treating vendor selection as an IT decision, missing the operational integration and exception-handling requirements
When NOT to take this
This programme is not the right fit for an organisation that has not yet stabilised its core operational processes or data infrastructure — if process documentation is absent and ERP data is unreliable, process mining exercises will produce misleading outputs and the roadmap built during the programme will be invalidated within weeks.
Providers to consider
- Desired Path (process mining & ops AI for executives)www.desiredpath.com →
- MIT Sloan Executive Education — AI for Leadersexecutive.mit.edu/course/artificial-intelligence-implications-for-business-strategy →
- Celonis Academy (process mining practitioner tracks)academy.celonis.com →
- DataScientest — IA pour Managers et Décideursdatascientest.com/formation-ia-managers →
Sources
This training is part of a Data & AI catalog built for leaders serious about execution. Take the free diagnostic to see which trainings your team needs.