"47% of C-suite leaders believe their organisations are implementing generative AI too slowly, with the skills gap emerging as the biggest roadblock." - McKinsey, 2025
The AI Advantage, presented by Greater Manchester Chamber and Diagonal Thinking.
Practical AI training for businesses that want confident, safe adoption.
Most organisations know AI is going to change how work gets done, but many teams are still stuck at the starting line: unsure what’s possible, uncertain about risk, and lacking the confidence to put it into day-to-day use.
The AI Advantage is designed to close that gap, helping businesses move from curiosity to capability with practical training that focuses on real workflows, sensible guardrails, and immediate application.
It’s delivered by Diagonal Thinking’s Phil Birchenall: a highly-regarded, practical AI trainer who ensures the tech feel usable, safe, and immediately relevant to real business work.
‘Probably the best workshop I've ever been on’ - Recent Participant
The Course
The AI Advantage is a practical, one-day course designed to build real confidence with generative AI. Arrival at 9am, for a 9:30am start, it’s built for anyone working in a business who wants to understand what’s possible, use tools like ChatGPT effectively, and adopt AI safely and responsibly.
The day blends demonstrations, guided exercises, group discussion and hands-on practice. Attendees will leave with practical takeaways they can apply immediately in their organisation.
1. Shifting our Perceptions of Generative AI: We’ll start with a short session designed to completely challenge your team’s perception of what’s possible with generative AI; from the AI Maths Tutor to an interactive version of a popular daytime TV property format…
2. Building Effective Prompting Techniques: Participants will learn strategies to craft precise, goal-oriented prompts to maximise the quality and relevance of AI-generated outputs. We’ll also build a deeper understanding of the challenges of generative AI, including the risk of hallucination.
3. Rethinking AI’s Potential: Moving beyond obvious tasks like summarising documents or writing generic blog posts, we'll show how AI tools can be used as a collaborative partner in more substantial tasks.
4. Exploring ChatGPT’s Productivity Tools: Participants will get a walkthrough of ChatGPT’s enhanced features, including Deep Research, Agent, Canvas, Projects, and Tasks functionality.
5. Using AI Tools Safely: We’ll also cover essential tips on using AI tools securely and responsibly, with a focus on protecting sensitive company data.
6. Exploring CustomGPTs: We’ll look at how organisations such as Estée Lauder and Morgan Stanley Bank are deploying AI at scale using CustomGPTs, and create our own ‘Virtual Phil’ CustomGPT to help guide your team with questions after the workshop
7. Look Ahead: We’ll close the session by looking forward to some of the key advances that will shape the coming year in AI.
Pre-requisite: Delegates on the workshop will need to bring a laptop or suitable device, and will require a paid subscription to ChatGPT. Information on pricing can be found here: https://openai.com/chatgpt/pricing