Introducing AI Partner For Every Axelerant Team Member To Work Smarter With AI

Introduction

At Axelerant, our people have always been at the center of innovation. As we take purposeful steps toward becoming an AI-First organization, one initiative captures this spirit perfectly — the AI Partner Initiative.

Spearheaded by the People Care team, this program reimagines how team members experience onboarding and daily collaboration by helping every new Axelerant team member create their own personalized AI partner.

This isn’t just an experiment in automation. It’s an investment in confidence, creativity, and empowerment, ensuring that every individual, regardless of function or role, is equipped to think and work alongside AI from day one.

Our goal isn’t to make AI an abstract concept managed by specialists. We want every person at Axelerant to experience AI as a thoughtful companion, one that supports learning, thinking, and working better.

— Sharayu Thakare, Director of People Care, Axelerant

Why We Created The AI Partner Initiative

The idea grew from a simple insight: the best way to learn AI is to build with it.

As AI continues reshaping how we collaborate and create, we wanted to make its benefits accessible and personal. Rather than handing out a standard set of tools, the People Care team decided to make every employee’s journey unique, encouraging them to design, train, and use their own AI collaborator.

By making AI tangible and experiential, Axelerant ensures that adoption is not driven by compliance, but by curiosity.

How It Works

The onboarding journey now includes a guided exercise where each new team member builds an AI partner customized for their role.

Inspired by the Build Your AI Partner framework, the process takes under an hour but leaves a lasting impact:

1. Define the Purpose
   Each team member identifies what their AI partner will support — from managing projects and generating ideas to summarizing discussions or preparing proposals.
2. Create a Role Playbook
   Using a guided template, they write a short “playbook” explaining their goals, tone preferences, workflows, and key challenges. This ensures the AI understands their work context and communication style.
3. Activate and Experiment
   The playbook is used to generate a lightweight custom GPT — their own AI Partner — which they immediately begin experimenting with during onboarding tasks.
4. Reflect and Refine
   Through daily use, employees fine-tune prompts and discover how to collaborate effectively — learning not just how to use AI, but how to think with it.

This exercise builds AI fluency naturally — helping people experience the technology as an ally that enhances clarity, reduces repetition, and amplifies creativity.

The Human + AI Design

While AI assists with repetitive tasks, decisions remain human-led.
The framework ensures that:

• The AI partner operates transparently, with ethical and privacy boundaries defined upfront.
• Human judgment, empathy, and context remain at the core of every decision.
• Team members can choose what to automate and what to keep personal.

The outcome isn’t an AI assistant, it’s a co-pilot built on trust, empathy, and purpose.

How It Ties To Axelerant’s Vision

The AI Partner Initiative is a microcosm of Axelerant’s larger shift toward being AI-First — a vision rooted not in technology for technology’s sake, but in enabling people.

By embedding AI at the entry point of the employee journey, we:

• Equip every team member with tools that simplify work and spark innovation.
• Introduce processes that make learning AI hands-on and practical.
• Foster openness and kindness — ensuring AI complements, not replaces, human connection.

This initiative reflects how we see AI at Axelerant, not as automation, but as augmentation. Every team member deserves the opportunity to explore what AI can do for them.

— Sharayu Thakare, Director of People Care, Axelerant

What’s Next

Building on the success of the AI Partner onboarding, People Care is exploring:

• Role-specific AI templates for functions like Delivery, Design, and Marketing.
• AI-aided feedback systems for more balanced performance conversations.
• AI-driven learning paths that adapt to each employee’s career goals.

Each step strengthens our vision of an organization where people and AI learn, grow, and create together — with empathy at the core.

In Essence

The AI Partner Initiative is more than a tech experiment.

It’s a people-first leap into a future where every Axelerant team member is AI-literate, empowered, and confident.

Because at Axelerant, becoming AI-First doesn’t mean being less human. It means building a workplace where innovation and empathy evolve, together.