A Free AI Field Guide for Executives
72 concepts. Role-based learning paths. A concept graph. And a prompt for every entry so you can keep going in your LLM of choice.
I built a small site. It’s called AI for Executives, and it lives at aiguide.erikalegara.com.
The idea started the way my side projects usually do: I had just finished a stretch of work, and my brain wanted something different to chew on. “Different,” for me, apparently, means building a web app from scratch. We all have our issues. 🙂
The a-ha moment came from conversations I’ve been having with fellow ICD Fellows in a Viber group on technology governance. We talk about AI, digital systems, risk, governance, and the uncomfortable questions that sit at the intersection. These are smart, experienced people. And at some point, I realized that hearing a word often is not the same as understanding it.
Board directors and executives from non-AI-native organizations are being asked to evaluate AI risk, interrogate strategy, ask management better questions, and weigh in on governance. They do not need to become machine learning engineers. But “I’ve heard of that” is not the same as having enough of a frame to know when to probe.
So I built a field guide.
Seventy-two concepts. Intentionally short. Each entry gives a plain-language explanation of the concept, why it shows up in decisions, what to watch out for, questions worth asking your team, and a prompt you can take to whatever LLM platform you already use.
That last feature is deliberate. The site is not trying to replace ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity. Each concept entry includes a starter prompt you can copy directly into your LLM of choice. The field guide gives you the frame. The LLM helps you go deeper: apply the concept to your organization, pressure-test a plan, generate examples, or sharpen your questions before a meeting.
The concepts are grouped across six areas: foundations, generative AI, data and analytics, operations, business strategy, and governance and risk. You can browse the library, search for a term, save concepts, or follow a learning path.
The part I spent the most time on is the role-based paths. There are sequences for CFO, CMO, CHRO, COO, board members, CISO, and CRO. Each path is an ordered list of concepts for that role. There’s also a self-directed path for people who want to go through everything.
Structure is useful even when you already have experience in a field. Especially then, actually. A structured map is a good way to ask: Did I skip a foundation? Is there a neighboring idea I should understand better?
I also added a concept graph. Some people learn through sequences; some learn through connections. The graph shows how concepts cluster: AI governance, model risk, hallucinations, explainability, monitoring, shadow AI, and data quality. Pull on one, and you’re usually touching three others.
Building it was fun in a very specific nerdy way. Solo developer, many hats: content, product, design, QA, accessibility checker, mobile layout checker, the person who notices when a button is slightly wrong. I had Claude Code and Codex as coding assistants and pulled in Claude and ChatGPT for UI and UX feedback at various points. The design choices were mine, though. What should be short? What should link to what? What does an executive actually need first? Where does structure help, and where does it become clutter? I spent more time on those questions than on the code.
The site is free. The information in it is already findable. You can search for any of these concepts. You can ask an LLM. You can read papers, explainers, vendor pages, and standards documents. The problem for most executives is not access, but knowing where to start and what to look at first.
Cheers!
P.S. Let me know what you think :)