Member since May 2026
September Smith is a strategic AI educator, engineer, and builder — founder of Of Course AI. She helps established consultants, coaches, and other solo experts stop being the bottleneck in their own businesses: teaching them to build an AI "engine" of their own that clears the low-value admin and operations work, amplifies their expertise, and puts real growth back within reach. Most "AI experts" teach you which buttons to push in an app; September teaches by building the real thing with you — around your actual business — so you learn AI by using it on what matters most. A professional engineer with a Master's in adult education and 5,000+ hours building inside AI models, she makes her case with current data, not hype: what the top 5% of AI users do differently, and why it's learnable without becoming technical.
Getting real AI capability into the hands of the experts who've earned their success but are now buried in the busywork of running the business. Used the way the top few percent use it, AI can clear the bottleneck, amplify what they're already brilliant at, and get their expertise to the people who need it — faster, without becoming a technical person or hiring a team they have to train.
My best story would have to be one I use with clients when they are having an imposter syndrome melt-down (tech - even when made easy - will do that to people): when I was a kid and I would go to my mother worried and filled with self-doubt about some big new challenge in front of me, she would lift her nose out of her book, listen for a minute and would roll her eyes and say, "For god-sake, September! Think of all the assholes out there who have done it; if they can do it, so can you!". I would walk away reassured, ready to face the challenge, naively missing the subtext of "Go away, kid - I'm reading!"
I didn't switch careers to get to AI - every career I'd had turned out to be training for it. Mechanical engineering, learning-platform development, teaching tech and engineering at universities and colleges, instructional design in IT, and years helping businesses get online: different fields, but all circling one thing - how people and systems actually learn to do hard new work.
A brief pandemic detour into podcasting and earned media aside, AI's arrival in late 2022 pulled all of it back together and lit me up. 5000+ hours of building later - business processes, applications and systems - I could see the gap plainly: people everywhere using AI as a faster Google, no one teaching them otherwise, and no standard for what "good" even looks like.
Closing that gap is becoming ever more critical - and that's what Of Course AI is built around. In 2026 I finally stepped out to teach and speak about it.
Description:
Most consultants and coaches are working harder every year while their growth has flatlined — and a few of their peers are pulling ahead without adding hours.
Some consultants are charging the same and putting in the same hours as everyone else — and taking in as much as 30% more. What are they doing differently? It comes down to firing themselves from one job: being the bottleneck in their own business.
They're not tech wizards. They're simply using AI the way the top 5% do — and with current estimates that only about 5% of AI users are truly proficient, that's the tier where AI actually starts to move the needle.
September shows the room how it works: an AI "engine" of your own that clears the low-value admin and operations, amplifies your expertise instead of replacing it, and gets your brilliance to the people who need it faster. It uses the same tools you already have, it keeps you the domain expert you already are, and it's learnable without becoming technical.
What Participants Take Away:
Audience:
Consultants, coaches, advisors, fractional executives, and other solo experts who sell their expertise. No technical background required.
Format:
A direct, myth-busting keynote — evidence over hype. Attendees see the real competitive picture, how the top few percent actually use AI, and a simple way to gauge where they stand.
Level:
Accessible to non-technical audiences, with strategic depth for experienced professionals, business owners, and executives.
____________________________________________
~ Hands-on and experiential
NOTE: This is a live workshop. Each participant works in their own AI, on their own business, in real time.
Description:
Every expert-led business has a handful of places where time and money quietly leak — the admin, the follow-up, the operational drag that pulls you off the work only you can do. Most owners can feel it, but have never named it precisely.
In this live, highly personalized workshop, September guides each participant to use their own AI to pinpoint exactly where their business is bottlenecked — and where AI would pay back the fastest.
Each participant leaves with:
This isn't a demo to watch or a generic side-hustle brainstorm. It's a live experience of AI as a business-intelligence partner — turning a vague sense of "I'm drowning" into a concrete, prioritized picture they can act on.
Target Audience:
Professional associations, consulting and coaching communities, entrepreneurship networks, alumni and women's networks, and mastermind groups. No technical AI background required.
Level: All levels. Participants need, at minimum, a free AI account and the ability to type, copy, and paste.
Format Options: 60–90 minutes · hands-on / experiential · virtual or in person · best for groups who want to leave with something tangible, not just inspired.
_______________________________________
Description:
This talk takes the most alarming AI headline of 2025 and reveals the true foundational issue that is still plaguing AI implementation in mid-2026
When "95% of AI projects fail" hit the news, it wiped a trillion off the market and convinced a lot of smart people that AI is a bubble. The real story is more useful - and more hopeful. The failures were real, but they were never about the technology.
Dig into the data and the same culprit shows up again and again: the human factor. Most organizations rolled out AI and expected people to just figure it out - and most people are still using the most powerful tool of their lifetime as little more than a faster Google.
September walks the room through what's actually happening: why the vast majority of professionals are barely scratching the surface, what the small minority who are genuinely fluent do differently, and why that gap is about to matter enormously - for careers, for companies, and for who gets left behind.
This isn't doom, and it isn't a demo. It's a clear-eyed, evidence-led map of where AI capability actually comes from and why the answer is people and training, not more software.
What Participants Take Away:
Audience:
Relevant to professionals, business leaders, teams, investors,educators and the tech community navigating AI adoption.
Format:
An evidence-led, myth-busting keynote that reframes the AI "failure" story around the human factor. Combines current research, the real-world causes, and a clear view of what separates the proficient few — delivered with authority and zero hype.
Level:
Accessible to non-technical audiences, with strategic depth for senior professionals, executives, and organizational leaders.
Session: https://youtu.be/yJkJUAajyMY
___________________________________________
My best story would have to be one I use with clients when they are having an imposter syndrome melt-down (tech - even when made easy - will do that to people): when I was a kid and I would go to my mother worried and filled with self-doubt about some big new challenge in front of me, she would lift her nose out of her book, listen for a minute and would roll her eyes and say, "For god-sake, September! Think of all the assholes out there who have done it; if they can do it, so can you!". I would walk away reassured, ready to face the challenge, naively missing the subtext of "Go away, kid - I'm reading!"
I didn't switch careers to get to AI - every career I'd had turned out to be training for it. Mechanical engineering, learning-platform development, teaching tech and engineering at universities and colleges, instructional design in IT, and years helping businesses get online: different fields, but all circling one thing - how people and systems actually learn to do hard new work.
A brief pandemic detour into podcasting and earned media aside, AI's arrival in late 2022 pulled all of it back together and lit me up. 5000+ hours of building later - business processes, applications and systems - I could see the gap plainly: people everywhere using AI as a faster Google, no one teaching them otherwise, and no standard for what "good" even looks like.
Closing that gap is becoming ever more critical - and that's what Of Course AI is built around. In 2026 I finally stepped out to teach and speak about it.
Description:
Most consultants and coaches are working harder every year while their growth has flatlined — and a few of their peers are pulling ahead without adding hours.
Some consultants are charging the same and putting in the same hours as everyone else — and taking in as much as 30% more. What are they doing differently? It comes down to firing themselves from one job: being the bottleneck in their own business.
They're not tech wizards. They're simply using AI the way the top 5% do — and with current estimates that only about 5% of AI users are truly proficient, that's the tier where AI actually starts to move the needle.
September shows the room how it works: an AI "engine" of your own that clears the low-value admin and operations, amplifies your expertise instead of replacing it, and gets your brilliance to the people who need it faster. It uses the same tools you already have, it keeps you the domain expert you already are, and it's learnable without becoming technical.
What Participants Take Away:
Audience:
Consultants, coaches, advisors, fractional executives, and other solo experts who sell their expertise. No technical background required.
Format:
A direct, myth-busting keynote — evidence over hype. Attendees see the real competitive picture, how the top few percent actually use AI, and a simple way to gauge where they stand.
Level:
Accessible to non-technical audiences, with strategic depth for experienced professionals, business owners, and executives.
____________________________________________
~ Hands-on and experiential
NOTE: This is a live workshop. Each participant works in their own AI, on their own business, in real time.
Description:
Every expert-led business has a handful of places where time and money quietly leak — the admin, the follow-up, the operational drag that pulls you off the work only you can do. Most owners can feel it, but have never named it precisely.
In this live, highly personalized workshop, September guides each participant to use their own AI to pinpoint exactly where their business is bottlenecked — and where AI would pay back the fastest.
Each participant leaves with:
This isn't a demo to watch or a generic side-hustle brainstorm. It's a live experience of AI as a business-intelligence partner — turning a vague sense of "I'm drowning" into a concrete, prioritized picture they can act on.
Target Audience:
Professional associations, consulting and coaching communities, entrepreneurship networks, alumni and women's networks, and mastermind groups. No technical AI background required.
Level: All levels. Participants need, at minimum, a free AI account and the ability to type, copy, and paste.
Format Options: 60–90 minutes · hands-on / experiential · virtual or in person · best for groups who want to leave with something tangible, not just inspired.
_______________________________________
Description:
This talk takes the most alarming AI headline of 2025 and reveals the true foundational issue that is still plaguing AI implementation in mid-2026
When "95% of AI projects fail" hit the news, it wiped a trillion off the market and convinced a lot of smart people that AI is a bubble. The real story is more useful - and more hopeful. The failures were real, but they were never about the technology.
Dig into the data and the same culprit shows up again and again: the human factor. Most organizations rolled out AI and expected people to just figure it out - and most people are still using the most powerful tool of their lifetime as little more than a faster Google.
September walks the room through what's actually happening: why the vast majority of professionals are barely scratching the surface, what the small minority who are genuinely fluent do differently, and why that gap is about to matter enormously - for careers, for companies, and for who gets left behind.
This isn't doom, and it isn't a demo. It's a clear-eyed, evidence-led map of where AI capability actually comes from and why the answer is people and training, not more software.
What Participants Take Away:
Audience:
Relevant to professionals, business leaders, teams, investors,educators and the tech community navigating AI adoption.
Format:
An evidence-led, myth-busting keynote that reframes the AI "failure" story around the human factor. Combines current research, the real-world causes, and a clear view of what separates the proficient few — delivered with authority and zero hype.
Level:
Accessible to non-technical audiences, with strategic depth for senior professionals, executives, and organizational leaders.
Session: https://youtu.be/yJkJUAajyMY
___________________________________________