AI Academy

Simon Hillier

Simon is Head of AI Learning at Time Under Tension. He has more than two decades’ experience as a digital-and-AI content and training specialist. Since 2022, he has trained nearly 8,000 people in generative AI tools and large language models (LLMs), working with major brands, all levels of government, agencies, industry bodies and education providers. His approach focuses on practical, real-world applications of AI that go beyond the hype to deliver tangible business value for the creative industry.

Cat McGinn

Cat is the founder of Liminal & Co. and the creator of humAIn – Australia’s first community and event dedicated to AI in media and marketing. With 20 years’ experience as a marketer, agency strategist, and industry commentator, including her work at Mumbrella and Unmade, Cat brings deep credibility in the creative industry to the AI conversation. Her work now focuses on helping leaders move beyond the hype to build AI-integrated practices that are coherent, sustainable, and genuinely fit for the way modern agencies work.

The Academy runs over 8 weeks via live, virtual 2-hour sessions. The curriculum is split into two streams: Basic (Sessions 1–4) and Advanced (Sessions 5–8), with attendance required across both.

Certification

This is a participation-based course focused on practical, in-session learning. A Certificate of Attainment will be issued upon completion.

Participants will complete guided exercises and will participate in live Q&A throughout each session to apply learning in real time.

Session 1: Foundations and practical prompting

Benefit and focus
Participants build a shared understanding of generative AI and how it can be used safely, practically and effectively in everyday agency work.

This session sets the tone for the Academy: practical, responsible, agency-specific
and focused on building useful AI habits rather than chasing every new tool.

What’s covered

• The current generative AI landscape and key tools
• How large language models work, and why they can be useful and wrong at the same time
• Responsible use in agency and client contexts
• Prompting basics: context, task, format, role, constraints and refinement
• Everyday use cases for planning, writing, summarising, ideation and client communication
• How to spot weak, generic or risky outputs and improve them
• Simple safety prompts for reducing hallucinations, bias and misinformation

Session 2: Research, insight and strategy acceleration

Benefit and focus
Participants learn how to use AI to ask better research questions, explore information faster, and turn early findings into useful themes, tensions and strategic opportunities.

They also learn how synthetic personas can help pressure-test assumptions, without treating them as real audience evidence.

What’s covered

• Framing sharper audience, market, category and competitor questions
• Using AI to support quick research, source scanning and information gathering
• Summarising, comparing and synthesising findings into themes and tensions
• Using synthetic audience personas to test assumptions, messaging and possible audience reactions
• Turning observations into early strategic implications and opportunity areas
• Knowing what needs verification, evidence or human judgement before it becomes a recommendation

Session 3: Creative and media asset generation

Benefit and focus
Participants explore how AI can support creative exploration, concept development and media asset generation while keeping human taste, originality and judgement at the centre.

What’s covered

• Using AI for creative ideation and concept development
• Generating creative territories, copy options and visual directions
• Image generation for mood, direction and creative exploration
• Prompting for visual quality, consistency, tone and brand relevance
• Understanding the risks of sameness, imitation, bias and over-reliance on generated assets
• Practical limitations, rights considerations and responsible use of generated creative material

Session 4: Voice, video, avatars and presentation workflows

Benefit and focus
Participants learn how AI can support richer communication outputs, including voice, video, avatars and presentation development.

This session focuses on practical workflows for turning ideas, research and campaign thinking into more compelling formats.

What’s covered

• Text-to-speech, synthetic voice and voice cloning considerations
• AI video generation and image-to-video workflows
• Avatar creation and potential use cases for training, internal comms and presentation support
• Turning ideas and research into presentation structures
• Matching format to audience, purpose and risk
• Responsible use of synthetic media, including consent, disclosure and brand safety

Session 5: Advanced research and strategic thinking

Benefit and focus
Participants build on the earlier research session by using AI for deeper synthesis, document analysis, strategic development and sharper thinking.

What’s covered

• Advanced research workflows and deep research techniques
• Working with longer documents, reports, transcripts and data inputs
• Synthesising multiple sources into implications and opportunities
• Separating evidence, interpretation, assumption and speculation
• Using simulated perspectives or digital twins to test thinking
• Applying critique loops to strategy, recommendations and arguments
• Developing strategic territories, opportunity maps or recommendation pathways

Session 6: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and advanced features

Benefit and focus
Participants learn how leading AI platforms differ, where each is useful, and how advanced features can support deeper, more organised agency work.

This session helps participants choose the right tools and structures for different tasks, without creating platform chaos.

What’s covered

• Comparing Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot for agency use cases
• Understanding where each platform is strongest and weakest
• Using Projects, GPTs, Gems and similar workspaces to organise recurring work
• Exploring advanced reasoning, deep research, file analysis and multimodal features
• Understanding Claude Skills, Copilot agents and reusable workflow knowledge
• Designing reusable AI workspaces for briefs, documents, campaigns and business writing
• Choosing the right tool for the job

Session 7: Strategy, governance and responsible adoption

Benefit and focus
Participants identify where AI can create value in their agency and how to adopt it responsibly, safely and sustainably.

This session shifts from individual use to team and agency-level practice.

What’s covered

• Identifying high-impact AI use cases across agency workflows
• Prioritising opportunities by value, feasibility and risk
• Understanding responsible AI adoption in client-facing agency contexts
• Setting practical guardrails for confidentiality, copyright, disclosure and review
• Building team confidence, capability and experimentation habits
• Defining what AI should and should not do in agency work

Session 8: Agents, automations and the next agency operating model

Benefit and focus
Participants explore how AI is moving from one-off prompting into agents, automations and more persistent AI-supported workflows.

This final session looks at the latest agent developments available at the time, then helps participants turn the Academy journey into a practical agency roadmap.

What’s covered

• What agents are, and how they differ from prompts, chatbots, custom assistants and simple automations
• The latest relevant developments across Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and other major platforms
• Practical agency use cases for agents and automations across research, briefing, client service, production, reporting and operations
• The difference between useful delegation and risky over-automation
• Human review points, governance and judgement in agentic workflows
• Creating a practical roadmap for safe, useful implementation after the Academy