About VILAS
VILAS was built to answer a need that emerged the moment these tools did.
When ChatGPT, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot became widely available, Sarah Anderson and James Holmberg were already in rooms with people trying to use them — watching what happened when the tool moved faster than the thinking behind it. The demand for real instruction was immediate. Feature walkthroughs and productivity hacks didn’t reveal the full story. A more grounded approach was necessary - a way to work with AI that kept human judgment at the center.
That's what VILAS was built to deliver.
Sarah Anderson Soubra
Co-Founder | VILAS
James Holmberg
Co-Founder | VILAS
⸺Who we are
Sarah Anderson and James Holmberg are AI educators and organizational consultants based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They have been teaching leaders and teams how to work with generative AI tools — including Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, and Claude — since 2023.
Sarah brings a background in design and branding from Parsons School of Design and years working in fashion and creative industries in New York, working for iconic fashion brands and specialty luxury retailers. James studied at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and is a practicing painter and conceptual artist with two solo exhibitions at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Both came to this work through aesthetics — trained to see the problem before solving it, to sit with ambiguity, and to build toward something that can't yet be fully described.
That disposition shapes everything VILAS does.
What we believe
Most AI training stops at the tool. It teaches people what buttons to press and which prompts to use. VILAS starts somewhere different: with the thinking that gives those tools direction.
We don't see AI solely as a productivity solution. We see it as something that can expand how people think — if they bring enough of themselves to the work. The risk isn't that AI replaces thinking but that people stop bringing their own.
What we protect in every engagement is domain knowledge — the expertise, judgment, and organizational context that took years to build. AI should serve that. Not the other way around.
How we work
Every VILAS engagement is instructor-led and grounded in live teaching practice. We work directly with leaders and teams — in sessions that are hands-on, conversational, and built around the actual work people do. We don't hand off materials and call it training. Each engagement is bespoke to your organization. We stay in the room until the thinking shifts.
We remain deeply embedded in our community, acting as trusted sources for publications such as Minnesota Public Radio, The Star Tribune, Twin Cities Business and WCCO CBS Minnesota, among others. As invited speakers in AI panels as well as fostering creativity, learning and discernment with our monthly AI Discussion Group sessions at the Minneapolis Club, the work stays centered on the leaders and practitioners engaging with AI everyday.
⸻
We work with organizations across the Twin Cities and nationwide.
⸺About our name
VILAS comes from a neighborhood in Madison, Wisconsin, the neighborhood that shaped one of our founders.
We chose it because we believe in what a neighborhood means. One of community and connection. A shared investment in something larger than yourself.
A neighborhood is specific. It is lived in and it is cared for by the people inside it. That is how we approach every organization we work with: closely, thoughtfully, and with attention to what will hold over time.
Let’s talk about your organization.
A thirty-minute conversation. We listen. You ask questions. Nothing more than that to begin.