What is it?

A forward-looking workshop where teams assess how AI might disrupt their industry and their own ways of working, then build a concrete readiness plan. Participants explore common disruption patterns, apply them to their specific context, identify capability gaps, and leave with prioritised actions to prepare for what's coming.

Why is it useful?

Most teams know AI disruption is coming but haven't done the hard work of figuring out what it means for them specifically. This workshop forces that conversation. By examining both external threats (competitors, new entrants, changing markets) and internal shifts (roles, skills, processes), teams can stop reacting and start preparing. The result is a clear-eyed view of the disruption landscape and a practical plan to get ready.

This workshop was created in collaboration with Ruben Hassid, one of the most trusted voices in practical AI education. Ruben has a knack for making the overwhelm of AI disappear, breaking down complex concepts into clear, actionable steps. To stay current with how AI is evolving, subscribe to his free Substack "How to AI".

Target Audience

• Consultants helping clients build AI readiness
• Leadership teams responsible for steering their organisation through change
• Strategy teams assessing industry trends and future positioning
• Department heads who need to prepare their function for AI-driven shifts
• HR and L&D professionals planning workforce development

Workshop Objectives

• Understand common patterns of AI disruption across industries
• Identify specific external and internal disruption risks for your context
• Assess the team's current capability gaps against future needs
• Prioritise preparation actions based on urgency and impact
• Create a concrete readiness plan with clear ownership and timelines

Summary

Duration: 120 mins
Group Size: 8-16 people
Format: In-person, highly interactive

Materials Needed

• Whiteboard or flip chart paper (at least 5 sheets)
• Sticky notes in three colours (e.g. orange, purple, green)
• Markers for each participant
• AI Disruption Patterns Reference Sheet (one per participant)
• Disruption Risk Assessment Template (one per small group)
• Capability Gap Worksheet (one per participant)
• AI Readiness Plan Template (one per participant)
• Timer or phone for keeping time
• Blu-tack or tape for posting work on walls

Process

Step 1: Opening and Setting the Stakes (10 mins)

Goal: Create urgency by helping participants see that disruption is not hypothetical but already underway in many industries.

Activity:

1. Welcome participants and frame the session: "Today we're going to look at disruption honestly. Not the hype, but the real ways AI is already changing industries and what that means for us."
2. Share 2-3 brief examples of AI disruption that have already happened:
   • Legal research that once took junior lawyers days now takes minutes with AI tools
   • Customer service teams that handled hundreds of tickets now handle thousands with AI triage
   • Design agencies competing with clients who generate their own concepts using AI
3. Ask the group: "What's one change you've already noticed in your industry because of AI?" Capture responses on a flip chart.
4. Acknowledge that some of what we discuss today will be uncomfortable. That's the point. It's better to face disruption now than be surprised by it later.
5. Explain that we'll look at both external disruption (what's happening in the market) and internal disruption (how our own work might change).

Debrief Questions:

• How quickly did these changes happen compared to what you expected?
• Are we talking about this enough as a team?

Step 2: Understanding Disruption Patterns (15 mins)

Goal: Give participants a framework for thinking about how AI typically disrupts industries, so they can spot the patterns in their own context.

Activity:

1. Distribute the AI Disruption Patterns Reference Sheet to each participant.
2. Walk through the six common disruption patterns:
   • Automation of expertise: AI performs tasks that previously required years of training or experience
   • Disintermediation: AI removes the need for middlemen by connecting customers directly to solutions
   • Hyper-personalisation: AI enables customisation at scale that was previously impossible
   • Speed compression: AI collapses timelines from weeks to hours or hours to seconds
   • New entrants: AI lowers barriers to entry, allowing new competitors to emerge quickly
   • Business model shifts: AI enables entirely new ways of creating and capturing value
3. For each pattern, give one concrete example from a recognisable industry.
4. Ask participants to spend 2 minutes individually noting which patterns feel most relevant to their industry. They can tick or circle them on their reference sheet.
5. Quick poll: "Raise your hand if automation of expertise feels relevant to you." Repeat for each pattern to get a sense of the room.

Debrief Questions:

• Which patterns are already visible in your industry?
• Which ones feel like they're coming but haven't hit yet?
• Are there any patterns you hadn't considered before?

Step 3: External Disruption Mapping (20 mins)

Goal: Identify specific external threats from AI disruption in the market, competitors, and customer expectations.

Activity:

1. Split into groups of 3-4 people, mixing roles where possible.
2. Give each group a Disruption Risk Assessment Template and a stack of orange sticky notes.
3. Explain the focus: "We're looking outward first. What's happening or could happen in your market because of AI?"
4. Groups brainstorm external disruption risks across three categories:
   • Competitors: How might existing competitors use AI against you? What could they do that they couldn't before?
   • New entrants: Who could enter your market using AI that couldn't before? What barriers has AI lowered?
   • Customer expectations: How might AI change what customers expect from you? What will they demand that they don't today?
5. One risk per sticky note. Groups should aim for at least 3-4 risks per category.
6. Give groups 12 minutes for this brainstorm.
7. Each group plots their risks on the template grid based on likelihood (high/medium/low) and impact (high/medium/low).
8. Brief share: Each group highlights their single highest-likelihood, highest-impact external risk.

Debrief Questions:

• What risks appeared across multiple groups?
• Were there any risks that surprised you when another group mentioned them?
• How confident are you in your likelihood assessments?

Step 4: Internal Disruption Mapping (20 mins)

Goal: Identify how AI might change roles, skills, and ways of working within the team itself.

Activity:

1. Stay in the same groups. Give each group a stack of purple sticky notes.
2. Explain the shift: "Now we're looking inward. How might AI change the way we work, the roles we have, and the skills we need?"
3. Groups brainstorm internal disruption risks across three categories:
   • Roles and tasks: Which roles or tasks might AI automate, augment, or eliminate? What new roles might emerge?
   • Skills and expertise: Which skills might become less valuable? Which might become more valuable?
   • Processes and workflows: Which processes might AI transform? Where might we need to work completely differently?
4. One risk or change per sticky note. Groups should aim for at least 3-4 per category.
5. Give groups 12 minutes for this brainstorm.
6. Groups add their purple sticky notes to the same Disruption Risk Assessment Template, using the same likelihood and impact grid.
7. Brief share: Each group highlights their single most significant internal disruption risk.

Debrief Questions:

• Was it harder to think about internal disruption than external?
• Did any internal risks feel personal or uncomfortable to discuss?
• What's the relationship between the external and internal risks you identified?

Step 5: Capability Gap Assessment (20 mins)

Goal: Assess what skills and capabilities the team would need to thrive in an AI-disrupted future and identify the gaps.

Activity:

1. Distribute the Capability Gap Worksheet to each participant.
2. Explain the exercise: "Based on what we've discussed, let's get specific about what capabilities we'd need to be ready for this future."
3. Present five capability areas to assess:
   • AI literacy: Understanding what AI can and can't do, and how to work with it effectively
   • Data readiness: Having access to quality data and knowing how to use it
   • Adaptability: Ability to learn new tools, change processes, and embrace new ways of working
   • Strategic thinking: Ability to see how AI changes the competitive landscape and respond
   • Human skills: Capabilities AI can't replicate — creativity, judgement, relationship-building, leadership
4. Individual work (8 minutes): Each person rates their team's current capability in each area (1-5 scale) and notes specific gaps they observe.
5. Return to small groups. Groups discuss their individual assessments and identify the 2-3 most critical capability gaps that the team needs to address.
6. Each group shares their top capability gaps with the room.

Debrief Questions:

• Where did your group agree? Where did you disagree?
• Which gaps would be hardest to close? Which could you address quickly?
• Are these gaps being addressed anywhere else in the organisation?

Step 6: Building the Readiness Plan (25 mins)

Goal: Convert the disruption risks and capability gaps into a prioritised action plan with clear ownership.

Activity:

1. Distribute the AI Readiness Plan Template to each participant.
2. Explain the structure: "We're going to build a personal readiness plan that you can take back and act on. This isn't a team strategy document — it's your commitment to specific actions."
3. Walk through the template sections:
   • Top external risk: The most important external disruption to prepare for
   • Top internal risk: The most important internal change to get ready for
   • Critical capability gap: The most urgent skill or capability to develop
   • Preparation actions: Specific things you will do to address each of these
   • Timeline and ownership: When you'll do it and who else needs to be involved
4. Individual work (12 minutes): Participants complete their readiness plans, drawing on the group discussions and their own reflections.
5. Pair up participants. Each person has 4 minutes to share their plan and get feedback. Partners should ask: "Is this specific enough? What's the first step? What might get in the way?"
6. Bring the room back together. Ask for 3-4 volunteers to share one action from their plan.

Debrief Questions:

• What patterns do you see in the actions people are planning?
• What would need to change in the organisation to support these actions?
• What happens if we don't do this?

Step 7: Close and Commit (10 mins)

Goal: Lock in accountability and create urgency for follow-through.

Activity:

1. Ask everyone to identify the single most important action from their readiness plan — the one that would make the biggest difference.
2. Go around the room. Each person states their priority action in one sentence, starting with "To prepare for AI disruption, I will..."
3. Each person finds a check-in partner and agrees to check in within 3 weeks to share progress. Partners exchange contact details or set a calendar reminder.
4. Close with a direct message: "Disruption doesn't wait for us to be ready. The organisations that thrive will be the ones that start preparing now, even when it's uncomfortable. You've done the hard thinking today. Now the question is whether you'll act on it."
5. Let participants know they can take all their worksheets and templates with them.

Debrief Questions:

• None needed. End with the weight of the commitment, not more discussion.

Secret Sauce

• Don't soften the disruption examples: The opening examples should feel real and slightly uncomfortable. If participants think "that couldn't happen to us," push back gently with "Why not?"
• External before internal is deliberate: Starting with external disruption (competitors, market) feels safer and builds momentum before the more personal internal discussion.
• Watch for denial in internal mapping: Some teams will resist the idea that their roles or skills might be disrupted. Ask: "If you had to argue the opposite — that this role will change significantly — what would you say?"
• The capability gap assessment gets personal: Expect some discomfort when people rate their own team's capabilities. Normalise this by saying "If we were already great at all of this, we wouldn't need this workshop."
• Likelihood is harder than impact: Teams often know a risk would be high-impact but struggle to assess likelihood. Encourage them to think about "what would have to be true" for the risk to materialise.
• Three weeks for the check-in, not two: Disruption readiness actions often require more setup than decision-improvement actions. The longer window gives people time to make meaningful progress.
• Connect external and internal risks: The best insights come when teams see how an external risk creates an internal one. For example, "If competitors use AI for faster customer service, we'll need to reskill our support team."
• Challenge vague actions: "Learn more about AI" is not an action. Push for specifics: "Complete an AI fundamentals course by [date]" or "Run a pilot with [specific tool] on [specific task]."
• Name what's at stake: If energy drops, bring it back to consequences. "What happens to this team in 3 years if we don't address this gap?"
• Photograph everything: Take photos of all the disruption maps and risk assessments. These are valuable inputs for strategy discussions and leadership briefings.
• The closing matters: End with weight, not lightness. This topic deserves seriousness. Resist the urge to wrap up with something reassuring.