"The technology we are using today is completely different to what was available three months ago, so it is the principles that matter rather than any particular tool."
See the unit Jack completed →The challenge
what3words is not a company that lacks technology. It gives every three metre square on Earth a three-word address, works in more than 60 languages, and is used by most UK police, fire and ambulance services. It has launched its own AI product. Access to tools was never the problem.
The problem was the one almost every leadership team has in 2026: the tools change every quarter, and nobody has the confidence to get stuck in. People wait for a perfect stack, a policy, an approved licence, and meanwhile the work that could be automated stays manual. For a COO who runs finance, HR, legal and operations across three countries, that manual work has a real cost.
The programme
TESS delivered a closed cohort for what3words built around the AI Delivery & Transformation unit, one of the three Skills England Level 5 units that make up the AI Leadership Pathway. It is short, live online, funded at £750 per learner through the levy, and has no end-point assessment. Learners leave with a 90-day transformation plan, a pilot charter and a workforce impact assessment for their own organisation.
The sessions were deliberately not tool tutorials. The emphasis was on the principles that survive a model update: how to break a process down, how to hook tools together, how to test on something small and real, and how to build your own confidence step by step. Jack did not sponsor the programme and step back. He did it.
What changed
The clearest test of any leadership programme is what the leader does on Monday. Here is what Jack built after the sessions, in his own words and his own time.
| What Jack built | What it does | Time to build |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-country payroll checker | Checks UK, Mongolian and Vietnamese payroll files, compares them against previous months, catches anything carried forward that should not be, double-checks calculations | About an hour |
| Inbox and messages assistant | Keeps an eye on email and messages and reports back twice a day on what is still open | Running daily |
| Dictation workflow | Dictate on the walk to the car: work through emails, save files, tidy up, acknowledge receipt. By the time he is home, it is ready for his part | Part of the day |
None of these is a demo chatbot. Payroll across three countries with different rules is exactly the kind of high-stakes, repetitive checking work that AI is good at and humans find draining. The point is not that the payroll system is clever. It is that a COO with no coding background built it in an hour, because he had the confidence to try.
In Jack's words
The main thing we got out of the sessions was the confidence to try things and experiment. The technology we are using today is completely different to what was available three months ago, so it is the principles that matter rather than any particular tool, getting stuck in, interacting with things, hooking them up and building your own confidence step by step.
I did the course and my confidence has grown since. I have set up an entire payroll system, covering UK, Mongolian and Vietnamese payroll. It is phenomenal at checking files, comparing against previous months, catching anything carried forward that should not be and double checking calculations, and it cannot have taken me more than an hour to build.
It has changed how I work day to day as well. I can dictate on the walk to the car, work through emails, save down files, tidy things up and acknowledge receipt, and by the time I am home it is ready for me to do my part. I now have an assistant keeping an eye on my email and messages that reports back twice a day on what is still open.
That is what I got out of the sessions and it is what other people should get out of them. The confidence to say, we could just replicate that, we could just automate that. What else can we get it to do?
Jack Waley-Cohen, Co-Founder and COO, what3wordsWho is Jack Waley-Cohen?
It matters who says this. Jack is not an L&D buyer reporting what a course said about itself. He is one of the four founders of what3words, incorporated in 2013, and its Chief Operating Officer, responsible for finance, HR, legal and the operations that keep a company running across three countries. Before what3words he led operations at a translation company as it scaled from five people working from home to more than 150 across four continents. He also founded QuizQuizQuiz, a quiz company whose questions have appeared on television. In other words, a rigorous operator who has spent his career building processes and checking detail, which is exactly what he pointed the AI at.
Why this matters if you run a leadership team
- Principles beat tools. Jack's payroll checker will outlive whichever model built it, because the sessions taught the method rather than the menu.
- Leaders as learners. When the COO does the course, the permission to experiment cascades. Nobody at what3words is waiting to be told AI is allowed.
- Short, funded, no exam. A Level 5 unit is 30+ hours, £750 from the levy, and ends with a deliverable the leader needed anyway. It is the fastest route we know from "we should do something about AI" to something built.
- The habit is the outcome. "What else can we get it to do?" is the sentence every employer wants to hear from a leadership team. It is what the unit is designed to produce.
What's next
For teams that want the same result, the AI Leadership Pathway runs all three units as a closed cohort for your own leadership group, or the units can be taken one at a time. For people who will build and run the automations day to day, the fully levy-funded AI & Automation Practitioner Level 4 goes deeper over 12 months, with up to five accredited qualifications and Coachy, our AI tutor, included.
Want a closed cohort for your leadership team?
A 25-minute conversation. We will map the three units to the people who need them and confirm what your levy covers. Or see the AI Leadership Pathway first.
Book a discovery call →Frequently asked questions.
What did what3words do with TESS Group?
what3words ran a closed TESS Group cohort built around the AI Delivery & Transformation unit, a Skills England Level 5 apprenticeship unit with no end-point assessment, alongside hands-on AI training sessions for the team. Co-founder and COO Jack Waley-Cohen completed the programme himself.
What did Jack Waley-Cohen build after the sessions?
A payroll checking system covering UK, Mongolian and Vietnamese payroll that compares files against previous months, catches carry-forwards that should not be there and double-checks calculations, built in about an hour. He also runs a personal assistant that watches his email and messages and reports back twice a day on what is still open, and a dictation workflow that clears email on the walk to the car.
What is the AI Delivery & Transformation unit?
AU0011 AI Delivery & Organisational Transformation is one of three Skills England Level 5 AI apprenticeship units delivered by TESS Group. It is 30+ guided learning hours, funded at £750 per learner through the Growth and Skills Levy, with no end-point assessment. Learners leave with a 90-day transformation plan, a pilot charter and a workforce impact assessment.
Is the AI Delivery & Transformation unit levy funded?
Yes. Each Level 5 AI unit is funded at £750 per learner from an employer's levy account, or through co-investment for non-levy employers. The three units can be taken independently or combined for up to £2,250 per leader.
Can a senior leader realistically complete an AI unit alongside the day job?
Yes. The units are short, live online and built around a deliverable the leader needs anyway. Jack Waley-Cohen runs operations, finance, HR and legal at what3words and completed the unit with his team.