What Are AI Training Workshops? A Step-by-Step Guide for Calgary Businesses

Last updated: March 2026

If you are a business leader in Calgary or Edmonton evaluating AI training for your team, you have probably seen dozens of offers ranging from free webinars to five-figure consulting engagements, and you have no way to tell what any of them actually deliver. The term "AI workshop" covers everything from a generic slide deck to a hands-on working session that leaves your team with tools they use the next morning. This guide removes that ambiguity. Based on Solway's experience delivering AI training to more than 30 organizations, from 11-person professional firms to Global Affairs Canada, here is exactly what happens before, during, and after a structured AI training workshop, what your team walks away with, and how to evaluate whether a provider is offering substance or theatre.

Before the Workshop: The Preparation That Makes It Work

The difference between a good AI workshop and a forgettable one is almost entirely determined by what happens before anyone enters the room. Generic workshops fail because they teach generic skills. Effective workshops succeed because they are built around the specific workflows, tools, and pain points of the team in the room.

The Pre-Workshop Discovery Call (30 Minutes)

Two to three weeks before the workshop, the facilitator conducts a discovery call with the project sponsor (typically the person who initiated the training) and one or two team leads. The purpose is not to sell anything. It is to understand three things: what tools the team currently uses (Microsoft 365, specific CRM systems, industry-specific software), what the most time-consuming repetitive tasks are, and what level of AI familiarity exists across the group.

This call shapes the entire workshop. If the team is a group of salespeople who spend 30 minutes writing follow-up emails after every meeting, the workshop will focus on email drafting, meeting summarization, and CRM integration. If the team is an operations group drowning in Excel reporting, the workshop will emphasize data analysis, formula generation, and pivot table automation. The examples, exercises, and prompt library are all customized based on this conversation.

The Pre-Workshop Survey (10-15 Minutes Per Participant)

A brief questionnaire goes out to all participants before the session. It asks about current AI tool usage (if any), comfort level with AI, the 2-3 most repetitive tasks in their workweek, and any specific concerns about AI (data security, accuracy, job impact). The responses serve two purposes: they establish a baseline that lets the facilitator calibrate the session's pace and depth, and they surface the specific tasks that become live exercises during the workshop.

This step is important because it means the facilitator walks in already knowing the room. There is no wasted time on introductory "what do you want to learn?" discussions. The agenda is already built around what the team actually needs.

During the Workshop: Hour by Hour

A standard Copilot Foundations Workshop runs four hours. Here is what happens in each segment.

Hour 1: The "State of AI" Briefing (60 Minutes)

The session opens with an engaging, demonstration-rich overview of where AI stands in 2026. This is not a lecture about machine learning architecture. It is a practical briefing designed to give every person in the room, from the skeptic to the enthusiast, a shared frame of reference.

The briefing covers what AI can reliably do today (with live demonstrations), where it falls short and why (hallucinations, confidentiality limitations, context window constraints), what the data security considerations are for your specific context, and how other organizations in your sector are using these tools. Live demonstrations are critical. Showing a room of salespeople how AI can draft a follow-up email from meeting notes in real time creates a visceral understanding that slides cannot achieve. Showing the same audience a case where AI confidently generates a wrong answer builds the healthy skepticism that prevents misuse.

For many participants, this is the first time they have seen AI used in the context of their actual work rather than in a tech demo or news article. The shift from "I've heard about this" to "I can see how this applies to my Tuesday morning" typically happens in the first 20 minutes.

Hours 2-3: Hands-On Copilot Training (90 Minutes)

This is the core of the workshop. Participants open their laptops, log into their Microsoft 365 accounts, and work through structured exercises using Copilot in the applications they use every day.

The exercises are not hypothetical. They use real scenarios drawn from the pre-workshop survey and discovery call. A sales team might draft a follow-up email from a (sanitized) meeting transcript, summarize a long email thread into action items, and generate a client-facing proposal outline from bullet points. An operations team might ask Copilot to analyze a real dataset in Excel, generate a report summary from meeting notes, and create a formatted document from an outline.

Each exercise follows a learn-try-refine cycle. The facilitator demonstrates the technique, participants try it with their own content, and then the group discusses what worked, what did not, and how to improve the prompt. This iterative approach builds prompting skill much faster than watching demonstrations alone.

The facilitator circulates during exercises to help participants who get stuck, catch common mistakes (like prompts that are too vague or that include sensitive data inappropriately), and identify "aha moments" that can be shared with the group.

Hour 4: Workflow Discovery and Prompt Library Creation (60 Minutes)

The final hour shifts from structured exercises to collaborative discovery. The facilitator guides the team through a process of identifying their highest-value AI use cases: the tasks that are repetitive, time-consuming, and well-suited to AI assistance.

This is where the real magic happens. When a team maps their workflows together with an AI expert in the room, they consistently surface opportunities that nobody had considered individually. A legal assistant mentions spending 30 minutes populating template letters for every new client file. An engineer mentions manually searching through thousands of historical drawings to find the closest match. A sales manager mentions re-creating the same quarterly report from scratch every three months because nobody saved a template.

Each identified opportunity gets turned into a working prompt, tested live, and added to the team's custom prompt library: a shared document of copy-paste prompts tailored to the specific workflows, templates, and terminology of that organization. This library is the single most valuable tangible output of the workshop. It is the resource that participants reach for on Monday morning.

In some workshops, Solway also configures simple declarative Copilot agents live during the session based on the workflows identified. These are basic agents that automate a specific task (like generating a document from a template or summarizing a SharePoint library) so the team leaves not just with knowledge but with working tools.

After the Workshop: What Happens Next

The Deliverables Your Team Takes Away

Every participant leaves with the presentation slides for reference, the custom prompt library co-created during the session, a quick-reference guide for Copilot across M365 applications, and clear guidelines on what is safe to input into AI tools and what is not.

For workshops that include the expanded package, additional deliverables may include a post-workshop resource guide with curated tools and articles, and 30 days of email support or two hours of virtual office hours for follow-up questions and troubleshooting.

The First 30 Days: Where Adoption Sticks or Stalls

The workshop creates the spark. The follow-up determines whether it becomes a sustained practice. The most effective post-workshop approach includes office hours (scheduled time where participants can bring real problems and get help crafting prompts), internal champions (one or two enthusiastic early adopters who become go-to resources for their colleagues), and visible leadership use (when the CEO or managing partner visibly uses AI tools, the rest of the team follows).

Solway's workshops include follow-up support precisely because this transition period is where value is either captured or lost.

How to Evaluate an AI Training Provider

Not all AI workshops deliver equal value. Here are the specific questions to ask any provider before committing.

Do they conduct a pre-workshop discovery call and survey? If the answer is no, the workshop will be generic. Do they customize examples and exercises to your industry and workflows? If they are teaching the same content to a law firm and a construction company, the content is not customized. Is the session hands-on or lecture-based? Participants should have their laptops open and be working in their actual tools for at least 50% of the session. Do they deliver a custom prompt library? This is the tangible asset that translates training into daily practice. If it is not included, the workshop value evaporates within a week. Do they include follow-up support? Even two hours of office hours in the 30 days following the workshop dramatically improves sustained adoption. Is the training CAPG-eligible? For Alberta businesses, this can significantly reduce the net cost. Confirm that the provider meets CAPG requirements.

The Investment: What Structured AI Training Costs in Calgary

AI training pricing in Calgary and across Alberta varies widely depending on scope, customization, and provider.

A focused two-hour session covering Copilot essentials for a team of 12 typically costs $4,500. A half-day (four-hour) Copilot Foundations Workshop with full customization, pre-workshop discovery, survey, custom prompt library, and follow-up office hours typically costs $7,500-$10,000. Executive briefings focused on strategic AI understanding for leadership teams run $5,500-$8,500 depending on depth.

For Alberta employers, the CAPG grant reimburses a significant portion of eligible external training costs with no minimum hour requirement. Even a half-day workshop qualifies. When CAPG reimbursement is factored in, the net investment for a fully customized workshop can drop substantially.

For organizations that want ongoing support beyond a single workshop, Solway offers retainer-based partnerships that include regular training sessions, AI policy development, workflow automation, and custom agent builds.

What Solway Offers

Solway is a Calgary-based AI strategy and engineering lab. We deliver AI training workshops and Copilot Foundations programs for mid-size companies across Alberta. Every engagement follows the structure described in this guide: pre-workshop discovery, pre-workshop survey, customized hands-on training, collaborative workflow discovery, and a tangible prompt library.

We have delivered this format to organizations spanning professional services, manufacturing, oilfield services, national trade associations, government agencies, hospitality operators, and climate action organizations. Our workshops are CAPG-eligible and are co-designed with a Microsoft Copilot delivery specialist.

We answer four questions for every organization we work with: What should your AI policy be? Where do AI opportunities exist in your operations? How do you train your team to use AI effectively and safely? And how do you implement AI technology, including agents, into your workflows?

Frequently Asked Questions

How many people can attend a single workshop?

The ideal group size is 8-15 participants. This is large enough for diverse workflow discovery and small enough for individual support during hands-on exercises. For larger teams, we recommend splitting into multiple cohorts (for example, one session for the sales team and a separate session for operations).

Can the workshop be delivered in person and virtually at the same time?

Yes. Hybrid delivery works well when some participants are in a boardroom and others join via Teams or Zoom. The hands-on exercises and prompt library creation work equally well in both formats. We use screen sharing and breakout rooms to ensure virtual participants get the same level of interaction.

What if some team members are AI beginners and others are more advanced?

The pre-workshop survey identifies this spread, and the session is calibrated accordingly. The State of AI briefing brings everyone to a shared baseline. During hands-on exercises, more advanced participants often tackle harder use cases while beginners work through foundational skills. Solway's facilitators are experienced at managing mixed-skill groups.

Do we need Copilot licenses before the workshop?

Copilot licenses are recommended for the hands-on portion but not strictly required. The prompting skills and AI literacy taught in the workshop apply equally to ChatGPT, Claude, and other tools. However, the most immediate ROI comes when participants can practice with the specific tool they will use at work.

How is this different from watching YouTube tutorials?

YouTube tutorials teach generic skills to a general audience. A structured workshop teaches specific skills applied to your specific workflows, with an expert in the room who can troubleshoot your specific problems. The prompt library is built from your tasks, not someone else's. The workflow discovery surfaces opportunities unique to your organization. And the group dynamic, where colleagues discover AI applications together, creates social momentum that solo learning cannot replicate.

Can we use the CAPG grant to fund this?

Yes. Solway's AI training workshops are CAPG-eligible. The Canada-Alberta Productivity Grant reimburses Alberta employers for eligible external training costs with no minimum hour requirement. Contact alberta.ca/CAPG for current eligibility details and application procedures.