HVL and BirminghamAI Are Bringing AI Education to Leaders
Something is happening inside Birmingham's business community. Leaders are asking harder questions — not just "should we be doing something with AI," but "what does it actually take to rethink how our organization operates?" Those are two very different questions, and the second one is where the real work begins.
We started Executive AI Breakouts because we kept having versions of the same conversation with executives across the region: the right instincts, the real urgency, and not enough of the right people in the room to think it through together. So we built the room.
Now we're expanding it.
The shift is moving faster than most leadership teams realize. While executives are still deciding how to approach AI, their employees are already tinkering with it — building workarounds, automating their own workflows, moving past the tool phase without waiting for a strategy. The gap between what's happening on the ground and what leadership is actually steering is where the Executive Breakouts will dig in and explore.
Why This Partnership Makes Sense
HVL is an AI-forward venture studio. We identify opportunities, validate them with real customers, and build new companies — inside our studio and alongside corporate partners. What we bring to these sessions is direct: where AI has created new business opportunities inside real organizations, where it has collapsed timelines, where it has let smaller teams move like larger ones never could.
BirminghamAI is the connective tissue of the city's AI ecosystem — the community that's been gathering technologists, researchers, operators, and curious people together since before "AI" became the word on every executive's lips. They bring the network, the credibility, and a ground-level read on where the region's conversations are actually headed.
Together, the combination makes sense: HVL brings the practitioner perspective and venture-building context. BirminghamAI brings the community and the reach. Executives who show up get both.
We launched Executive Breakouts because the challenges faced by leaders navigating how AI applies to their business is unique and goes beyond tool selection or the latest fad. We believe our companies are full of builders, and AI gives our leaders the opportunity to unleash true builders within their organizations and that ultimately impacts our community. However, leaders need practical systems-level strategies to take full advantage of the power that AI brings to their organization. That's why we are partnering with BirminghamAI to provide curated, leadership-focused sessions to help leaders navigate this journey and unleash true builders through our businesses.
— Shegun Otulana, CEO, Harmony Venture Labs
BirminghamAI's mission is to accelerate the adoption of AI in Birmingham for everyone. We're excited to partner with HVL on the Executive AI Breakout series. Together we can better support leaders on their AI journey, and help Birmingham companies compete and win.
— Austin Senseman, Co-Founder, BirminghamAI
What to Expect
Each session runs 60 minutes, in person, at Venture Yards in downtown Birmingham. Capacity is capped at 15 — deliberately small, so the conversation stays substantive and the room stays senior.
Sessions cover the questions executives are actually sitting with: what happens to specialization when every person on your team can do more; how to measure AI's impact without leaving value on the table; what it means to lead through this, not just sponsor it. Topics rotate each month. The format stays the same: focused, peer-level, actionable.
If you're carrying budget, accountability, and a team that's waiting for direction, Request Your Invitation and we'll follow up directly. Birmingham is building — and the leaders shaping what comes next are already in the room.
