AI is already in an executive assistant's inbox, calendar and meeting notes. Most EAs we talk to aren't asking whether to use it. They're asking where to start, what's safe to paste into a chatbot, and how to get answers that are actually usable. Nobody had built a place to learn that, made for assistants and free.
So we started one. The EA AI Academy is a free place for executive assistants to learn AI at their own pace, and its first live workshop is on Wednesday, January 20, 2027.
The first workshop: The AI-Powered Executive Assistant
Your Practical Guide to AI is a free, 90-minute live workshop on Zoom, presented by Raj Lal, founder of ANCI AI.
- When: Wednesday, January 20, 2027, 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
- Where: Online, on Zoom. Your personal link comes by email.
- Cost: Free. Limited to 50 seats, so there's time for questions.
- Recording: Everyone who registers gets it, even if you can't make it live.
It's built for assistants at any level of AI comfort. There are no slides full of theory. Instead, we work through real tasks from an EA's week, live, so you can try each one yourself the same afternoon.
What we'll cover, minute by minute
| 5 min | Welcome. Where AI fits in an EA's day, and what you'll be able to do by the end. |
| 15 min | AI in plain English, and how to talk to it. Generative AI vs. AI agents (AI that can plan and take action), chat assistants vs. copilots, and simple prompting: clear instructions, the dos and the don'ts. |
| 35 min | Five live demos. Inbox triage, a meeting prep brief, calendar Tetris, a travel itinerary, and a polished note in your executive's voice. Try each one with us. |
| 10 min | Using AI safely at work. What never goes into a chatbot, which tools to ask IT about, and how to check AI's work. |
| 15 min | An AI agent for scheduling. A look at ANCI, the AI scheduling agent we build for EAs. Clearly marked, and the only product part of the session. |
| 10 min | Your questions. Bring the task you'd most like to hand off. |
Stay on for an optional 15-minute bonus: describe a visual in plain English and watch AI turn it into a diagram, infographic or slide graphic for your executive's deck.
Who it's for
Executive and administrative assistants, chiefs of staff, office managers, and anyone who supports executives and wants AI to make the work easier. You don't need a technical background. Bring your curiosity, and a laptop if you'd like to follow along with any free AI tool, or the one your company has approved.
What you'll leave with
- A clear picture of how modern AI works, in simple terms
- Prompts and habits you can use the same day
- A safe-use checklist to share with IT
- The recording, the demo steps and the free AI Toolkit ebook
Built on our last workshop
On March 20, 2026, Raj ran a 90-minute bootcamp with Igniter Silicon Valley, "Introduction to Agentic AI and LLMs for Executive Assistants." Forty-eight executive assistants joined live. This workshop builds on it, with more live demos from an EA's own week and a new section on using AI safely at work.
More than one workshop: what the EA AI Academy is
January 20 is the start of a series. The EA AI Academy is a community, not a course, and everything in it is free.
A workshop each month
One practical topic at a time, live and recorded. After the first workshop, these are coming next:
- Prompting Like a Pro: AI for Email and Writing. Turn a messy brain dump into a clear email, a briefing or a polite no, in your executive's voice.
- Calendar Tetris with AI. Conflicts, time zones and reschedules: where AI helps with scheduling today, and where you still decide.
- Your Assistant Got an AI Assistant: Meet AI Agents. What an AI agent is, how it differs from a chatbot, and how to stay in charge of one.
- AI for Meetings, Notes and Follow-ups. Prep briefs, clean notes and action items that actually go out the same day.
- Leading AI at Work. Become the person your team asks about AI: safe use, simple wins, and how to show the time you saved.
The free AI Toolkit
A 17-page ebook of 20 practical prompts, grouped by the work EAs do every day: email, calendars, meetings, travel and research. Copy, paste and fill in the brackets. It works with ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini or Claude, and everyone who signs up gets it right away.
Ask the Academy
Stuck on something with AI? Send a question. We answer the best ones live in the workshops and on the Ask the Academy page.
A community of EAs
The EA AI Academy group on LinkedIn is where assistants swap prompts, wins and mistakes. Found a prompt that saves you an hour? Share it, and the best ones go into the toolkit and the workshops, with credit.
Why we're doing this
We build ANCI, an AI scheduling agent, side by side with executive assistants. The more time we spend with EAs, the clearer it is that the assistants who learn to direct AI will set the new standard for the role. AI can draft, sort and coordinate. The judgment about people, priorities and the unwritten rules stays with the assistant. The Academy is our way of helping more EAs get there, whatever tools they end up using. The teaching is tool-neutral, and the one part about ANCI is clearly marked.