CASE STUDY
AI Leadership Summit + 30-Day AI Execution Challenge
Outcomes achieved:
AI Execution
Workflow time reduced from weeks to under 45 minutes
8 AI Workflows
Activated within 30 business days
Leadership Buy-In
AI mission ignited from the top
AI Challenge
30-business-day AI execution challenge completed
THE CHALLENGE:
Expanding AI Adoption Beyond the IT Team
Cater Care is a 100% Australian-owned food services provider operating across more than 200 sites and employing over 3,000 people, across aged care, health, education, remote and mining, and business and industry.
As an organisation in the early stages of their AI journey, experimentation had started within the IT team but had not yet extended to other divisions or the wider leadership group. The goal was to bring AI into the leadership conversation and build the foundations for organisation-wide adoption.
National Food Services
INDUSTRY
200+
SITES
3000+
EMPLOYEES
THE APPROACH:
The AI Ignition Method
Phase 1: Strategic Alignment (Not Just a Briefing Call)
Abbie met with the CEO, HR leadership, and other key members of the leadership team to kick start the discovery phase which is designed to understand where the organisation was with AI, what had held back adoption to date, and what execution barriers would need to be addressed for AI adoption to be successful.
A structured diagnostic was conducted with the leadership group ahead of the summit to understand current AI awareness, appetite, and blockers across the business.
Every element of the session was shaped by what that process uncovered.
Phase 2: The Leadership Summit AI Session
The summit session was practical, with examples and interactive. It started by establishing a shared AI framework and common understanding across the leadership group.
Leaders worked through Abbie's eight-step AI framework immediately in their teams and applying it to their own area of the business.
By the end of the session, each team had identified a workflow to rethink with AI. Leaders all became more curious and asked better questions to identify new Human + AI-powered ways of working.
Phase 3: The 30-Day AI Execution Challenge
A structured 30-business-day challenge converted the momentum from the summit into measurable outcomes.
Teams worked in groups on live use cases specific to their part of the business. The challenge was designed to be manageable: small, bite-sized workflows that teams could progress alongside their day jobs.
Accountability was central. Every team knew they would present their results to Abbie and their leadership peers at the end of the 30 business days, which created the focus and discipline that many AI programmes lack.
The Results
AI moved beyond IT into a leadership responsibility.
Prior to the engagement, the majority of AI experimentation and adoption had been within the IT team.
After the summit, that changed. Leaders left with a shared framework, a clear understanding of their own role in AI adoption, and the accountability to act on it.
8 AI use cases live within 30 business days.
Teams identified, experimented with, and piloted real workflows across their part of the business.
One workflow that had traditionally taken weeks was completed in approximately 45 minutes. These were not "proofs of concept," they were live and running.
Leaders started asking
"how do we work differently?"
The shift wasn't just adoption, it was a fundamental change in how leaders thought.
They began questioning existing processes, redesigning how work got done, and applying AI across areas including design, costing, document creation, and operational problem-solving.
AI stopped being a productivity tool and became a lens for rethinking the business.
Continuing to build on the foundation of AI adoption.
The 30-business-day challenge gave the engagement structure and accountability that most AI initiatives lack.
What started with a leadership summit did not stop there. Cater Care has continued to build on these foundations, with AI adoption growing steadily across the organisation since the engagement.
IN THEIR WORDS:
"Abbie gave our leaders the confidence to experiment within our AI guidelines and challenged them to think differently about the way work gets done."
"Working with Abbie really put AI on the agenda, on the map. People started talking differently and asking better questions.
No one had been asking how we could do things with AI before. After the summit, they were asking how we could approach things differently, how we could be more productive. The conversation changed.
What struck me from the start was how much preparation went into the engagement. Abbie took the time to meet with our CEO, HR, and leadership team to understand our specific context before the summit. Nothing felt generic. Every part of the session was tailored to where we were.
The 30-day AI execution challenge gave us the structure to take this momentum somewhere real. AI adoption across the organisation has grown significantly since. Abbie set up the platform, and we ran with it."
Sue, GM for People and Talent Capability
Cater Care
