AI training for executives and leadership teams in Austin
Jonathan Malkin of Open Door Learning teaches AI leadership sessions in Austin, Texas, for owners, executives and the people who run the business. In ninety minutes, with no laptops needed, the team works out where AI fits, what it may and may not do, and what to start first, and leaves with decisions written down.
I’m Jonathan Malkin, an AI educator and builder in Austin. I work with owners and executives who are using AI and want to make it more useful in their business.
Who is AI leadership training for?
An owner and the leadership team: the people who decide where the business spends its time and money. First-timers are welcome.
The usual starting point: a few people use ChatGPT or a tool like it, maybe the business pays for some seats, and nobody can say what it changed. A leadership session turns that into decisions the team owns.
What happens in an AI leadership session?
No laptops needed. The owner and the people who run the business work through where AI fits, what it may and may not do, and what to start first. You leave with decisions written down. Ninety minutes. Leaders should use AI hands-on too: decide the direction here first, then build on your own laptops in a hands-on workshop.
Before the session I ask about the business and what the team has tried, so the discussion starts from your own week rather than a generic example. People stay in control: AI drafts and prepares, and a person reviews, decides and owns the result.
Which leadership sessions are there?
Two: See Where AI Could Help Your Business and Set Your Team’s AI Direction. Both run ninety minutes.
See Where AI Could Help Your Business
Look at everyday business tasks and discuss where a different approach could help. Explore practical AI examples and what they could mean for your own work, with room for questions. You leave with a short list of places to start, drawn from your own week.
Set Your Team’s AI Direction
Where AI is already in use in your business, where it should be, what it may and may not do, and who owns what. Write it on one page: the rules, the first three projects with an owner each, and how you will know in ninety days whether they worked. You leave with a one-page AI direction for the team: the rules, three first projects with a person responsible for each, and what to check in ninety days.
What comes after a leadership session?
Usually a hands-on build workshop, where the team works on the first projects on their own laptops and leaves with something that works. When something needs building, I build it.
Why learn AI from Jonathan Malkin?
I spent more than twenty years in enterprise technology, eight of them at Automation Anywhere, getting large companies to actually use what they bought. The hard part was never the software. It was the people, and the handoffs between them.
In January 2026 I founded Open Door Learning. Now I teach owners, executives and their teams in Austin, because the same gap exists in a small company as in a large one.
UT Austin McCombs AI program or a private session for our leadership team?
They fit different needs. McCombs’ Texas Executive Education runs a five-day AI Masterclass on the UT campus for executives and senior leaders, plus an online ten-week Post Graduate Program in AI and Agentic AI for Leaders with a certificate of completion; that suits a leader who wants a university credential, faculty-led frameworks and a room of leaders from other organizations. A private ninety-minute session suits one leadership team that needs to decide together, on its own business, and leave with the rules, the first projects and who owns each one written down.
McCombs also builds custom programs for organizations. The two can work together: one person takes the longer program, and the whole team uses a session to agree on what happens on Monday.
Is executive AI training in person or online?
In person in Austin, and online for teams elsewhere. Online sessions are shaped for a call rather than a room, so the format and content differ from the in-person sessions.
How do I book an AI session for my leadership team?
Send a message about who would be in the room and what you have tried so far. I ask a few questions first, then suggest the session that fits.
More on AI training in Austin
Hands-on AI workshops in Austin
What the workshops are, who they are for, and how to bring one to your team.
In-person ChatGPT and Claude training
Hands-on time with the AI tool you already use, on your own work.
Common questions
Group size, what a host provides, which tools, and how long a workshop runs.
Bring a session to your leadership team
Tell me who would be in the room and what you have tried so far. I will suggest where to start.
I reply by email, usually within two business days.