Annual Awareness and Compliance Training
AI Awareness Training
A live, single-session program that gives any organization's staff one shared standard for using AI responsibly — and a documented record showing they were trained.
Your staff started before your policy did.
― The importance of Annual Awareness and Compliance Training
Employees pick up AI on their own and bring it to work, often on personal accounts and without anyone looking at what comes back before it goes out. That leaves the company exposed on two fronts: information moves into tools nobody chose or vetted, and work leaves the building under the company's name without a second set of eyes.
This happens at good companies with capable people. The tools are useful, and where no standard exists, each person improvises one.
Nationally, about one in five businesses already use AI in some part of their operations, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (May 2026) — and Minnesota's adoption rate matches that trend. The tools are already in use. The only open question is whether anyone is supervising it.
"AI awareness training is critical because the greatest risk (and the greatest opportunity) doesn’t begin with the technology itself, it begins with how people understand and use it. Organizations that educate their teams early create a shared foundation for responsible experimentation, better decision-making, and meaningful innovation instead of unmanaged risk and fragmented adoption."
― Dustin Saunders
Practice Lead - Automation and Data Intelligence
Atomic Data
What the training covers
― Live | Virtual
AI Awareness Training is delivered live to your full team.
The session moves through five parts:
1. The landscape.
What generative AI actually is, the vocabulary your team will hear used correctly or incorrectly (prompt, hallucination, agentic AI), and how the major platforms — ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Claude — work and differ in how they handle your data.
2. The risks.
What goes wrong without a policy, covered across four categories: data exposure, shadow use, accuracy and accountability, and AI-enabled attacks.
3. The standard.
What a responsible AI use policy actually covers — authorized platforms, accountability, data classification, shadow use, review requirements, and review cadence — so your organization has language to work from even if a formal policy isn't written yet.
4. Practical guidance.
What AI is genuinely good at, how to review AI output before it reaches a client or a file, and what to do when something goes wrong.
5. Assessment.
A short knowledge-check quiz and a completion record for each participant, so your organization has documentation showing its people were trained.
Who this is for
The training assumes zero prior AI experience. Your most skeptical veteran and your most enthusiastic new hire leave with the same standard, and your organization gets one answer to a question every employee is currently answering alone.
For firms in regulated industries, the completion record doubles as the kind of documentation reviews and audits ask about.
Meet Sarah & James
Led by Sarah Anderson and James Holmberg, founders of VILAS, who've spent the last several years teaching organizations how to build judgment around AI.
Sarah and James have been featured on Minnesota Public Radio, The Star Tribune, Twin Cities Business, Wisconsin Alumni Association, Minneapolis College of Art and Design Alumni Notes, and CBS News Minnesota. They are guest lecturers at MCAD and advisors to other higher education institutions. Clients include leading non-profits, foundations, government agencies and private sector clients. They lead monthly executive sessions at the Minneapolis Club and are featured speakers on AI in taste, judgment and responsible use.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is AI Awareness Training?
AI Awareness Training is a live, single-session program that teaches an organization's full staff how to use generative AI tools responsibly. It covers what AI is, where it creates risk, what a responsible use policy should include, and how to review AI-generated work before it goes out under the company's name. The session ends with a graded assessment and a documented completion record.
Q: Is this only for regulated industries, like RIAs, law firms, or insurance agencies?
No. The training applies to any organization where employees use AI tools, regardless of industry. Firms in regulated industries do get an added benefit: the completion record can serve as documentation for compliance reviews and audits.
Q: How long is the session, and is it delivered in person or virtually?
The session is one-hour and delivered by live instructors virtually.
Q: What does an organization walk away with?
A documented completion record for every participant, a shared team-wide standard for what may and may not go into an AI tool, and a framework for reviewing AI-assisted work before it reaches a client, a board, or a file.
Q: Do we need an existing AI policy before this training?
No. Most organizations that go through this training don't have a written AI policy yet. The session gives your team a working standard to operate from immediately, and gives leadership the language to formalize a policy afterward if one doesn't exist.
Q: How is this different from a general AI tools tutorial?
General tutorials teach people how to use a tool. AI Awareness Training teaches judgment and shared standards — where AI helps, where it creates exposure, and how output gets reviewed before it matters. It is not platform training and does not require any specific AI subscription to attend.
How to start
We start with a 20-minute phone call to walk through the process. Simply schedule a phone call with us below.