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In-Person AI Workshops Boost Confidence and Prompting Skills, Cognizant Study Shows
When a room full of nonprofit leaders, mid‑career professionals and senior executives gathers around a whiteboard, the buzz is not just about AI, but about confidence.
A recent study by Cognizant’s AI for Impact Community Labs program, presented at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions in China, shows that face‑to‑face workshops can significantly raise participants’ confidence and practical prompting abilities.
Launched in early 2026, the program convenes nonprofit staff, mid‑career professionals and senior leaders for structured, in‑person AI skills sessions. Facilitators guide attendees through progressive prompt‑engineering frameworks, while volunteer mentors help them apply new skills to real work challenges. The format is tool‑agnostic; participants use whatever AI products they already have access to.
Across every cohort studied over the past 2½ years, the data reveal a consistent pattern: participants start with low confidence in their ability to prompt effectively. After a single workshop, average prompting ability rises by more than one point on a five‑point scale. In a senior‑leadership cohort at a global pharmaceutical company, scores increased from 2.67 to 4.07, and 100 % of participants rated themselves at 4 or above in prompting skill afterward.
A broader nonprofit cohort of 103 participants reported that 95 % expect to save 30 or more minutes per day using generative AI after training. In a session with 37 nonprofit organizations, groups generated use cases such as donor‑fundraising strategies, multilingual chatbots for seniors, board‑paper preparation, volunteer event management and clinical training materials.
The workshops also attract high‑level participants. One session designed for 73 participants received more than 200 registrations from over 40 organizations before the list was closed. Among 40 senior‑leadership registrations, the most frequently cited barrier to AI adoption was lack of skills and talent, mentioned 28 times, ahead of unclear use cases, data‑security concerns, compliance and cost.
Participants often plan to pass on their new skills to their teams. Senior leaders report that they will organize internal sessions for their functions, while frontline workers say they will share what they learned with colleagues who could not attend.
Volunteer mentors also benefit. Across 43 mentor responses, average AI confidence rose from 3.45 to 4.40 on a five‑point scale, and 91 % said mentoring increased their own understanding of generative AI.
The study highlights that confidence is a key driver of AI adoption. Platforms can provide content, track completion and issue certificates, but they cannot convince users that they already possess the thinking skills needed to apply AI effectively. Human‑led workshops create a peer‑learning environment where participants see others tackling similar problems, which helps build the confidence needed to experiment.
The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions, held in China from 23–25 June 2026, used this research to illustrate how innovation can move from breakthrough to scalable impact. The event emphasized the importance of building human infrastructure—mentors, peer groups and structured learning—to translate AI content into real capabilities.
While the data come from a single provider’s program, the consistent improvements across industries, seniority levels and geographic regions suggest that in‑person, collaborative AI training may be a more effective approach than self‑directed online courses or certification programs alone.
The next steps for Cognizant and similar initiatives will involve scaling the Community Labs model, expanding mentor networks, and integrating workshop outcomes with enterprise AI roadmaps. For organizations still hesitant to adopt AI, the evidence points to a clear path: invest in confidence‑building, hands‑on learning environments rather than relying solely on platform‑based training.
The study underscores that the most significant moment in an AI skills journey is the conversation that makes someone believe they belong in the AI‑enabled future.
A recent study by Cognizant’s AI for Impact Community Labs program, presented at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions in China, shows that face‑to‑face workshops can significantly raise participants’ confidence and practical prompting abilities.
Launched in early 2026, the program convenes nonprofit staff, mid‑career professionals and senior leaders for structured, in‑person AI skills sessions. Facilitators guide attendees through progressive prompt‑engineering frameworks, while volunteer mentors help them apply new skills to real work challenges. The format is tool‑agnostic; participants use whatever AI products they already have access to.
Across every cohort studied over the past 2½ years, the data reveal a consistent pattern: participants start with low confidence in their ability to prompt effectively. After a single workshop, average prompting ability rises by more than one point on a five‑point scale. In a senior‑leadership cohort at a global pharmaceutical company, scores increased from 2.67 to 4.07, and 100 % of participants rated themselves at 4 or above in prompting skill afterward.
A broader nonprofit cohort of 103 participants reported that 95 % expect to save 30 or more minutes per day using generative AI after training. In a session with 37 nonprofit organizations, groups generated use cases such as donor‑fundraising strategies, multilingual chatbots for seniors, board‑paper preparation, volunteer event management and clinical training materials.
The workshops also attract high‑level participants. One session designed for 73 participants received more than 200 registrations from over 40 organizations before the list was closed. Among 40 senior‑leadership registrations, the most frequently cited barrier to AI adoption was lack of skills and talent, mentioned 28 times, ahead of unclear use cases, data‑security concerns, compliance and cost.
Participants often plan to pass on their new skills to their teams. Senior leaders report that they will organize internal sessions for their functions, while frontline workers say they will share what they learned with colleagues who could not attend.
Volunteer mentors also benefit. Across 43 mentor responses, average AI confidence rose from 3.45 to 4.40 on a five‑point scale, and 91 % said mentoring increased their own understanding of generative AI.
The study highlights that confidence is a key driver of AI adoption. Platforms can provide content, track completion and issue certificates, but they cannot convince users that they already possess the thinking skills needed to apply AI effectively. Human‑led workshops create a peer‑learning environment where participants see others tackling similar problems, which helps build the confidence needed to experiment.
The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions, held in China from 23–25 June 2026, used this research to illustrate how innovation can move from breakthrough to scalable impact. The event emphasized the importance of building human infrastructure—mentors, peer groups and structured learning—to translate AI content into real capabilities.
While the data come from a single provider’s program, the consistent improvements across industries, seniority levels and geographic regions suggest that in‑person, collaborative AI training may be a more effective approach than self‑directed online courses or certification programs alone.
The next steps for Cognizant and similar initiatives will involve scaling the Community Labs model, expanding mentor networks, and integrating workshop outcomes with enterprise AI roadmaps. For organizations still hesitant to adopt AI, the evidence points to a clear path: invest in confidence‑building, hands‑on learning environments rather than relying solely on platform‑based training.
The study underscores that the most significant moment in an AI skills journey is the conversation that makes someone believe they belong in the AI‑enabled future.
