From AI-Curious to AI-Capable: What Business Leaders Actually Need in 2026

Most business leaders know AI matters. What they do not know is where to start.
Not because the information is not out there. There is plenty of it. The problem is that almost all of it is built for someone else. Free sessions at local chambers and community events give you a surface-level overview but stop well short of anything you can act on. Enterprise programs cost anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000 and are built for organizations that already have a Chief AI Officer, a dedicated data team, and a budget to match.
If you are a founder, executive, or business leader who needs to make real AI decisions in a real business right now, neither of those options works. You are caught in the middle. AI-aware but not yet AI-capable.
That gap is exactly what the AI Learning Path from McLean Forrester was built to close.
What the AI Learning Path Is
The AI Learning Path is a three-tier program designed to take business principals from basic AI literacy to a fully executable, AI-enabled strategy. Each tier builds on the last, but they can also stand alone depending on where you are in your journey.
What makes it different from most AI training is the format. Every session is delivered live, in small cohorts capped at 20 seats, and facilitated by Larry McLean, Chief Growth Officer at McLean Forrester and a professor at Washington University in St. Louis. You are not watching pre-recorded videos. You are in a room with peers, getting real answers to real questions about your actual business situation.
Here is what each tier covers.
Tier 1: Foundations
This is the starting point for leaders who want to move past surface-level awareness and build genuine confidence with AI.
The four-hour session covers the core concepts you need to speak the language, including types of AI, agentic AI, and the AI value curve. More importantly, it gets you hands-on. Using the CRAFT prompt engineering framework, you practice working with Claude directly during the session so the learning is practical, not theoretical.
By the end, you leave with an actual AI-enabled strategy tailored to your business, not a generic template. You also leave with a framework for thinking about where AI creates real ROI across customer experience, decision-making, and marketing and sales.
Early bird pricing for Cohort 1 is $99, with standard pricing at $149. The first cohort launches June 10, 2026.
Tier 2: Application
Once you have the foundations, the next step is putting AI to work inside your organization.
Tier 2 is a three-hour session built for people ready to move from literacy to action. You will learn how to build AI Projects, which are structured, collaborative spaces where AI tools are grounded in your specific business context, data, and goals. You will also build at least one working AI-powered workflow during the session itself, built around a real process in your own organization.
This is where most training programs fall short. They teach you what AI can do but never help you actually do it. Tier 2 is designed specifically to close that gap. You leave with something working, not just a plan to build something eventually.
Early bird pricing is $299, with standard pricing at $399.
Tier 3: Strategy
The final tier is for principals who are ready to commit. Not just to learning about AI, but to building a defensible organizational strategy with real projects, real budgets, and real accountability.
Delivered across two three-hour sessions on consecutive days, Tier 3 walks you through a modern strategy framework that includes technology catalysts alongside traditional drivers. You will identify and qualify both pain points and opportunities across your organization, build a portfolio of ranked AI projects with value propositions and ROI analysis, and develop a clear-eyed view of what execution actually requires, including the change management piece that most strategies ignore.
You leave with a draft AI project portfolio for your organization, rank-ordered and ready to present.
Early bird pricing is $649, with standard pricing at $749.
Bundle Options for Serious Commitment
For leaders who want to build full capability rather than dip a toe in, McLean Forrester offers three bundle options.
The Practitioner Bundle combines Tiers 1 and 2 for $499 early bird. The Strategist Bundle combines Tiers 1 and 3 for $799 early bird. The Full Stack bundle, which covers all three tiers, is $999 early bird and represents the best value for anyone committed to going all the way.
All early bird pricing is in effect through May 31, 2026.
Private Engagements
Each tier is also available as a private engagement for leadership teams or full organizations. These sessions are pre-tailored to your industry, data environment, and strategic priorities. Private engagements start at $4,500 for a single-tier team session and go up to $25,000 or more for full-stack executive engagements.
If you are looking to align your entire leadership team around a shared AI strategy, this is the most efficient path to get there.
Who This Is For
The AI Learning Path is built for the business leader who is serious about AI but does not want to wait for perfect conditions. You do not need a data team. You do not need an existing AI infrastructure. You just need the willingness to learn and the commitment to act on what you learn.
Larry McLean brings over 40 years of experience leading digital transformation across commercial and government sectors. He has held senior federal roles, led enterprise data initiatives, and spent years helping organizations build and deploy AI-enabled solutions that produce measurable results. He also teaches graduate-level courses in IT strategy and data governance at Washington University in St. Louis. When he talks about what actually works in AI adoption, it is grounded in real-world experience, not theory.
The businesses winning with AI in 2026 are not necessarily the biggest ones. They are the ones led by people who decided to get capable instead of staying curious.
If that is you, the AI Learning Path is where to start. Cohort 1 opens June 10. Seats are capped at 20.