Getting Leaders to Say Yes to AI: Make the ROI Clear

Your AI idea could improve the work, but leadership approval can take months. Why do promising ideas stall? Leaders may need a clearer picture of the expected value, total cost, risks, and how success will be measured before they approve a test.

Drawing on her work with companies across industries, Marina Alex shares a practical, vendor-neutral way to evaluate AI investments, including tools such as Microsoft Copilot, Claude, and ChatGPT. Using a real-world example, she’ll show how to build a business case, address leaders’ concerns, and define a focused pilot with measurable results.

Attendees will leave with a simple AI ROI canvas to help shorten approval conversations and move promising AI initiatives from idea to pilot faster.

AI Adoption Starts with Managers: 5 Mistakes That Keep Teams from Getting Results

AI adoption often stalls before the technology has a chance to deliver value. In her work with dozens of Knoxville-area companies across different industries, Marina Alex has seen the same five mistakes repeat, from starting with AI tools instead of a clear business problem to leaving employees out of the process.

In this practical, example-driven session, Marina will show managers how to spot these mistakes, what to do differently, and how to move AI from experimentation into everyday work. Attendees will use a simple five-point checklist to assess an AI initiative and leave with a clear next step for their team.

Why AI Implementations Fail: A Practical Playbook for Leaders

Marina Alex works directly with businesses putting AI into practice. Across dozens of companies and industries, she sees promising AI initiatives run into familiar challenges: unclear business goals, workflows that haven’t changed, teams left out of the process, and no clear way to measure return.

In this experience-based session, Marina shares real, anonymized business cases from her consulting work. She shows what each company hoped AI would improve, where implementation got stuck, what leaders and teams did next, and how they could measure the business impact.

Attendees will learn to diagnose why an AI initiative is stalled, connect AI to a real work problem, plan a focused pilot, and track costs, benefits, and ROI. They’ll leave with a practical implementation canvas they can use with their own teams.

Audience: Business leaders, managers, and data and AI professionals involved in evaluating or implementing AI. No advanced technical background is required.

Format: Practical, case-based session with anonymized examples from companies across industries and a short AI implementation canvas exercise.

Takeaway: Participants leave with a framework to identify implementation risks, plan a focused pilot, and measure business value and ROI.

Duration: 60 minutes preferred; adaptable to 45 minutes.

Technical needs: Projector and screen, HDMI or USB-C connection, and microphone. Attendees do not need laptops or software accounts.