Member since May 2026
September Smith is an engineer, AI strategist and educator, and co-founder of Of Course AI. The AI skill people need now, on any platform, is aiming AI at any problem, including ones they've never faced, then figuring it out and getting it done. September shares that skill set on stage, moderating industry leaders, or hands-on with a team.
At the ALTA AGM & Airline Leaders Forum 2026 in Mexico City, she moderated "The AI Question: What Aviation Wants to Know," a fireside conversation on AI between the CEOs of LATAM Airlines and IBS Software, in front of 450+ people, from airline CEOs to aviation ministers.
She brings 6,000+ hours building AI systems, processes and applications for real business use, and 8+ years building the workforce training for government and corporate technology implementations: the same transition organizations now face with AI.
Getting people and teams to real AI proficiency: able to aim AI at any problem, including ones they've never faced, then figure it out and get it done, on any platform.
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. 6,000+ 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:
There's a gap in how most people use AI, and they often won't know it's there until it comes back to bite them. For people and businesses alike, that gap puts money, time, reputation and security at risk. In the worst cases, it ends in lawsuits, breaches that ruin a business, or lives lost. You'll see where that gap is, and what it takes to close it before it costs you.
Best for: industry conferences, professional associations, leadership teams rolling out AI, and business owner communities.
Signature AI Workshop · hands-on
AI can now go into your tools and do the work, and if you pay for ChatGPT or Claude, you already have it.
A working session, not a talk. September shows what AI now does inside people's tools. Then each attendee runs a guided analysis in their own AI to find where it would make the biggest difference in their work, and leaves knowing what it takes to make it happen: the connections to their tools and the business context their AI needs.
60–90 min · virtual or in person. Best for professional associations, business owner communities, entrepreneurship networks and mastermind groups.
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. 6,000+ 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:
There's a gap in how most people use AI, and they often won't know it's there until it comes back to bite them. For people and businesses alike, that gap puts money, time, reputation and security at risk. In the worst cases, it ends in lawsuits, breaches that ruin a business, or lives lost. You'll see where that gap is, and what it takes to close it before it costs you.
Best for: industry conferences, professional associations, leadership teams rolling out AI, and business owner communities.
Signature AI Workshop · hands-on
AI can now go into your tools and do the work, and if you pay for ChatGPT or Claude, you already have it.
A working session, not a talk. September shows what AI now does inside people's tools. Then each attendee runs a guided analysis in their own AI to find where it would make the biggest difference in their work, and leaves knowing what it takes to make it happen: the connections to their tools and the business context their AI needs.
60–90 min · virtual or in person. Best for professional associations, business owner communities, entrepreneurship networks and mastermind groups.
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
___________________________________________