We recently celebrated five years of our flagship Sherpa Programme, and we’re excited to build on its success with the launch of the AI Sherpa Programme – a new initiative designed to help our portfolio navigate the opportunities and complexities of artificial intelligence.
Like the Sherpa Programme, the AI Sherpa Programme provides hands-on, trusted support for our leaders – but this time, with specialised expertise in AI. The mission is to help portfolio companies navigate the opportunities and complexities of artificial intelligence.
The AI Sherpa Programme recruits technical talent (engineers, product developers, and problem-solvers) already immersed in AI, and trains them to deliver practical, commercially grounded solutions. Working directly with CEOs and their teams, our AI Sherpas help identify where AI can make the biggest difference, prototype ideas quickly, and scale the ones that create lasting value. As part of a cohort, they share their learnings across the Tenzing portfolio, so every breakthrough in one business can benefit the rest.
The programme has been designed in close partnership with Titus Sharpe, member of our Entrepreneurs Panel and AI expert. Drawing on what we’ve learned from Titus’s experience building AI product teams, we’ve designed an environment that keeps Sherpas at the leading edge of AI tools and thinking, and ensures those insights flow rapidly back into the portfolio.
Each cohort begins with an immersive induction, covering private equity and value creation fundamentals in the mid-market with Pauline Vargas from our Growth Team, followed by an intensive AI Bootcamp with Titus and his team. Once trained and ready to work directly in the portfolio, our AI Sherpas will start each engagement by surfacing and prioritising high-value opportunities in partnership with the management teams. They then move quickly into prototyping – designing, testing, and embedding practical AI capabilities in collaboration with the relevant team members of portfolio company teams.
We’re excited to share the learnings and success stories that emerge as our AI Sherpas begin their work across the portfolio – helping our companies turn AI’s potential into measurable performance.
