Applied AI Bootcamp · November 2026

Applied AI for business owners and founders

An eight-Saturday course in Colombo on working with AI, with enough time set aside to build things for your own business.

  • 8 Saturdays
  • 32 Live hours
  • 7 Capstone builds
Your business. Your rules.
A BuildrLabs Lego professional ready for the working week
Next cohort
November 2026
Saturdays, 2pm to 6pm
Where
Hatch Works, Colombo
In person, Week 7 online
Fee
LKR 65,000
Instalment plan available

Excl. VAT & SSCL

Seats
15 seats
Allocated on a first-paid basis
Sound familiar?

The problems this is meant to help with.

None of this is about interest or ambition. It takes a block of uninterrupted time to learn these tools and set them up, and that is the thing a small business never has spare.

Nobody in the business has been given the job of working out what AI should be used for, so it sits with you along with everything else.

Hiring someone for that work would cost more each month than it would bring in, so you keep doing it yourself.

There are a few AI subscriptions on the company card, and no free week in which to work out what they all do.

Other business owners tell you AI has changed how they work, and the explanations are usually vague.

By the end

What you will be able to do.

Every session produces something you keep. These are the things every participant leaves with.

Practical AI fluency

Text, voice, image and code. In a small business those cover a lot of the work you are currently doing yourself.

A personal AI stack

Claude Code, Obsidian, Wispr Flow and Motion set up around how the business runs, plus a library of more than 1,000 AI tools across 40 categories. Whoever you hire next starts with a setup that already works.

A way of judging new tools

You will keep being sold AI software. You learn how to test one against your own business before paying for it.

Seven things you built

Including a working web application on a public address, an assistant trained on your own documents, running automations and a 60-second video advert.

A day on what needs it most

Week 6 goes deeper on whichever part of the business needs it most, with someone who works in that function.

A 90-day plan

A written plan for the three months after the course, reviewed by the rest of the group. It is a plan for the business rather than for you personally.

Access to HatchX

A private network connecting BuildrLabs graduates with companies, founders and professionals across the Hatch group.

The tool library

1,000+ tools. 40+ categories.

Graduates keep access, maintained and updated continuously.

Explore the library
The eight Saturdays

What each Saturday covers.

Every session produces something you keep. Seven Saturdays run in person at Hatch Works; Week 7 is an online build day.

  1. Week 1

    Foundations, Mindset, and Your Personal AI Stack

    What you build

    Claude Code, Obsidian, Wispr Flow and Motion, set up and working by the end of the day

    What it covers

    Four modules. One is a review of your own working week. Owners usually get the most out of this, because more of the work has nowhere else to go.

  2. Week 2

    Multimodal AI and Custom Assistants

    What you build

    An assistant trained on your company documents, which you can ask questions

    What it covers

    Your product information, pricing, policies and process notes become something staff and customers can ask directly, rather than asking you.

  3. Week 3

    Creativity

    What you build

    A 60-second video advert with script, voiceover, visuals and music

    What it covers

    Image, video, audio and voice generation using Midjourney, Ideogram, Runway, ElevenLabs and Suno.

  4. Week 4

    Automation, Agents, and Apps

    What you build

    A working web application on a public address

    What it covers

    Three modules covering automation in Zapier and Make, agents that run without supervision, and building an application. Email triage, social listening and document routing sit here.

  5. Week 5

    Ethics and Your 90-Day Roadmap

    What you build

    A 90-day plan and a written AI usage policy for your team

    What it covers

    What customer and staff data can go into a tool, how to work securely, and how GDPR, the AI Act and industry rules apply. The usage policy is what you hand to whoever you hire next.

  6. Week 6

    Domain Track Deep-Dive

    What you build

    An assistant that answers a real question from a colleague, and an automation your team would use

    What it covers

    A full day going deeper on whichever part of the business is holding you up. You work out where AI would help most, build an assistant on your own documents, then build an automation and test it against real data.

  7. Week 7

    Hackathon Build (online)

    What you build

    Your assistant, automation and application combined into one thing

    What it covers

    A full day of building with facilitators available, plus a rehearsal of your demo.

  8. Week 8

    Hackathon and Demo Day

    What you build

    Your finished project, presented

    What it covers

    You demonstrate what you built to the rest of the group, get feedback, and receive your certificate.

One cohort. Every function.

You will not be in a room of people just like you.

The November 2026 cohort brings marketers, sales leads, finance teams, HR heads and business owners into the same room at Hatch Works. For five Saturdays you build alongside people who do different jobs to you, so you see how finance automates month end while someone else automates a campaign.

  • Weeks 1 to 5 Everyone together, on the same tools
  • Week 6 Split into your own function’s track
  • Week 8 Back together for Demo Day, every function presenting
12 of 15 seats left 15 seats shared across every function, given to whoever pays first.
What you do not need
  • A technical or engineering background
  • An in-house tech team, or a developer
  • Any AI tools already running in the business
  • Any previous automation or programming experience

If you use a laptop for work, you are qualified.

November 2026 cohort
LKR 65,000

Excl. VAT & SSCL

Eight Saturdays at Hatch Works, Colombo, every session, materials, tool access and your certificate. An instalment plan is available: ask us and we confirm it in writing before you pay.

Who teaches it

People who do the work for a living.

Everyone teaching on this course does the work for a living. The group includes founders and heads of AI, along with brand, digital and transformation leads from Dialog Axiata, MAS KREEDA, John Keells Group and Wavenet. In Week 6 you go deeper on the part of the business you choose, with someone who works in that function.

Ammar Ahamed

Ammar Ahamed

Head of Growth
BuildrLabs and Vector Agents
Isuru Alagiyawanna

Isuru Alagiyawanna

Head of Curriculum, BuildrLabs
Head of AI Engineering, Veracity
Dr Sithira Ambepitiya

Dr Sithira Ambepitiya

Head of AI, AIGP
MBBS turned AI Lead
Lishan Peiris

Lishan Peiris

Assistant Manager, Brand · Wavenet
Lecturer, AMDT
Mevan Liyanage

Mevan Liyanage

Senior Technology Consultant, Evensys
Power Platform, RPA & Copilot Studio AI agents
Abubakker Bakthathi

Abubakker Bakthathi

Founder & CEO, Paralox Media
AI solutions, consulting & training for brands
Dilusha Perera

Dilusha Perera

Lead Digital Evangelist
MAS KREEDA
Hasara Munasinghe

Hasara Munasinghe

Lead Project Manager
Octave, John Keells Group
Sudeshi Jayasuriya

Sudeshi Jayasuriya

Founder, Mira AI
Former Director of HR, Boardpac
Kavindu Eshara

Kavindu Eshara

CEO & Founder
ABSOLX CORE AI
Naseef Athaur Rahman

Naseef Athaur Rahman

Founder, Cravix
Exited
Faahika Fakir

Faahika Fakir

Head of Operations
Oceans

More trainers join each cohort as new domain tracks open.

Learn from them. Enrol now
Common questions

What people ask us first.

How can AI help a small business?

By taking on work you would otherwise have to hire for. AI for business owners usually pays off first in admin: sorting email, routing documents, producing reports, and answering the same customer questions repeatedly. After that it covers creative production and small internal tools, which normally go to an agency or a developer.

Can AI do the work of someone I cannot afford to hire?

Partly, and only for certain work. Repetitive tasks that follow rules automate well: routing, sorting, reporting and first drafts. Judgement, relationships and responsibility do not. By the end of the course you have real capacity that did not exist before, but it is not a person.

What can a small business automate with AI?

Work that is repetitive and follows clear rules. In Week 4 you build automations for email triage, social listening and document routing, plus an application of your own. In Week 6 you build one for whichever part of the business is holding you up, and test it against real data.

Is AI training worth it for a small business?

That depends on whether you are currently paying someone else to do work you could bring in house. The course produces a working web application, an assistant trained on your documents, running automations and a finished video advert, all built against your own business rather than an example.

Which Week 6 track should I take?

Whichever part of the business is costing you the most time or money. You do not have to decide when you apply, and the team will help you scope it beforehand.

I cannot give up eight Saturdays.

The course is 32 hours of teaching plus work between sessions, and it will take your Saturday afternoons. Seven of the eight sessions run in person at Hatch Works and Week 7 is online.

Should I send someone from my team instead?

The projects get built against decisions only an owner can make, so most of the value sits with whoever sets direction. Once you have been through it, the 90-day plan and the usage policy are what you hand over.

Our customer data is confidential. Can I use these tools at all?

Week 5 covers what should and should not go into a tool, how to work securely, and which compliance rules apply. The session ends with a written usage policy for your business.

Applications for the November 2026 course are open.

The course runs for eight Saturdays at Hatch Works, Colombo, starting in November 2026. It costs LKR 65,000 (excl. VAT and SSCL), and there is an instalment plan. There are 15 places, given to whoever pays first.