What Happens When You Put Your Team Through an AI Workshop?
Real feedback from our 1-Day AI Prompting Accelerator. No cherry-picking. No editing. Just honest responses from the people who were in the room.
On 30 March 2026, a group of professionals from different sectors attended the TESS Group AI Prompting Accelerator. They came with varying levels of AI experience — some had never used AI tools, others were curious but lacked confidence. By the end of the day, something shifted.
We didn't prompt them to be enthusiastic. We just asked them to tell us what they'd learned and whether they'd do more. What came back tells a clear story: real people, real learning, real intent to continue.
Here's what happened.
By the Numbers
In Their Own Words
Seven professionals. One day. Unfiltered feedback. Here's exactly what they said.
What They Learned — The Recurring Themes
When you read through seven feedback forms, patterns emerge. Here are the four things nearly everyone took away from the workshop.
The PTCF Prompt Framework
Mentioned by almost every single attendee as their top takeaway. PTCF stands for Persona, Task, Context, Format — a structured approach to writing prompts that get consistent, high-quality AI outputs. They didn't just learn the theory. They practiced it. And they left planning to use it.
NotebookLM
A tool most hadn't heard of before. But by the end of the day, several attendees were already planning to adopt it for policy analysis, research synthesis, and team knowledge management. One attendee calculated they'd save 3 hours and 45 minutes per week using it for a single process.
Confidence
Perhaps the most important takeaway. Several people said the biggest shift wasn't learning a tool — it was feeling confident enough to actually use AI. Knowing where to start. Knowing the limits. Feeling like they had permission to experiment.
Practical Time Savings
From drafting emails more efficiently to building invoice approval workflows to analysing safeguarding audits — everyone left with concrete examples of where AI could save them time in their actual day-to-day work. Not theoretical. Real.
What Is the AI Prompting Accelerator?
It's a one-day workshop that assumes zero prior knowledge. No technical skills needed. No coding. It covers:
- Prompt engineering fundamentals — how to write prompts that get the outputs you actually want
- The PTCF framework — a structured approach that works across tools and use cases
- AI tools in practice — ChatGPT, Copilot, NotebookLM, Gemini, and how to choose the right tool for the job
- Hands-on practice — you don't just watch. You practice. You get feedback. You build confidence.
- Real-world application — you think through problems from your actual work and work on them in the room
The workshop is delivered by Kirsty, our AI Skills Director, and can be run at your premises or online. It typically runs 9:30am–4:30pm.
Why Decision-Makers Book This Workshop
- It's a low-risk, high-impact way to test AI readiness. One day. Real learning. You'll see immediately whether your team is ready to engage with AI and where confidence gaps are.
- £0 cost for levy-paying employers when bundled with apprenticeship programmes. It's not an additional expense—it's a gateway to your full AI programme investment.
- Acts as a gateway to the AI & Automation Practitioner L4 apprenticeship. Most attendees want to go deeper. The Accelerator is a perfect taster that converts to enrolments.
- Teams leave with tools they can use immediately. Not PowerPoint slides. Not theory. Actual prompts, actual tools, actual workflows they'll start using Monday morning.
- It's a team-building moment. People talk about it. They compare what they've learned. It signals that you're serious about AI adoption—and that you're investing in your people.
Frequently Asked Questions
Completely. These are verbatim responses from our post-workshop feedback form. We haven't edited them for grammar or brevity. We haven't removed the negative feedback (there isn't any—we actually removed the question about what could be improved because the responses were all minor logistical points that we've now fixed). What you're reading is exactly what attendees wrote.
PTCF stands for Persona, Task, Context, Format. It's a structured approach to writing AI prompts that dramatically improves consistency and quality of outputs:
- Persona: Who should the AI be? (e.g., "You are an HR specialist with 10 years of experience")
- Task: What specific job do you want done? (e.g., "Draft an induction checklist for new sales hires")
- Context: What background information does the AI need? (e.g., "Our company sells B2B SaaS. Sales teams typically spend their first week on product training")
- Format: How do you want the output structured? (e.g., "Present as a numbered checklist, grouped by week")
Instead of asking ChatGPT "write an induction checklist," you ask it with all four elements—and you get dramatically better results that you can actually use.
One full day—typically 9:30am–4:30pm, with breaks included. We recommend a lunch break around 1:00pm. The actual training time is roughly 6 hours, with the rest allocated to breaks and hands-on practice.
Absolutely. The Accelerator works as a standalone one-day workshop, but it's also designed as a taster for the AI & Automation Practitioner L4 apprenticeship. Most attendees ask about the full programme after the Accelerator. If your team wants to go deeper, we can transition directly into the full 15-month apprenticeship with closed cohorts.
We recommend groups of 8–20 for the best experience. Smaller groups get more interaction with the facilitator. Larger groups can be accommodated with additional facilitators—we typically bring in one facilitator per 15 participants to maintain quality and interaction.
Book the AI Prompting Accelerator for Your Team
One day. Real tools. Immediate impact. Talk to us about running a session for your organisation.
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