The Problem

You're on the front lines of AI adoption.
The honest conversation is nowhere to be found.

As a senior operator, you're not setting AI strategy from a distance — you're the one it lands on. The legal exposure, the workforce disruption, the governance gaps, the impossible pace. You're absorbing all of it.

And yet the forums that exist for this — industry events, vendor briefings, broad peer groups — tend to reward polished takes over real ones. Nobody talks about what's actually failing, what they don't know, or what's keeping them up at night.

The AI Operators Exchange was built to be that conversation.

Express Interest
Why Now

The gap between AI potential and operational reality is widening.

The pressure to move fast is real. So is the complexity of doing it responsibly. Most organizations are caught between the two — and the people navigating that tension rarely get to talk to each other honestly.

The Format

The AI Operators Exchange is a structured peer conversation — not a conference, not a panel, not a webinar. A small, vetted group of practitioners who meet monthly to share what's actually happening and help each other think it through.

Format
Working Conversation
60–75 minutes, virtual, informal. No slide decks, no presentations. A facilitator keeps things grounded and moving, but the agenda emerges from the group.
Preparation
Pre-Session Input
Before each session, participants privately share their most pressing challenge. That input shapes the conversation — so we spend time on what's live, not what seemed relevant two weeks ago.
Confidentiality
Chatham House Rules
Insights from the conversation are yours to take into the world. Attribution stays in the room. This is the foundation of the candor that makes the group useful.
Membership
Invitation & Application
Membership is intentional and curated. Current members may refer peers. All additions are reviewed by the facilitator to preserve group trust and coherence.
What You Get

Not best practices. Better thinking.

The AI Operators Exchange isn't a library of solutions. It's a peer group that helps you think through problems that don't have clean answers yet — and connect with others navigating the same terrain.

Honest Peer Perspective
What others are actually doing — not the polished version they'd present at a conference, but the real approach, including what isn't working.
Pressure-Tested Thinking
A room of smart practitioners who will push back, offer analogies from other domains, and help you stress-test assumptions before they cost you.
Emerging Frameworks
Governance models, upskilling approaches, and org structures members are building in real time — shared early, while still being refined.
A High-Trust Network
Relationships with peers who understand your context — not just the AI piece, but the organizational, political, and human complexity that surrounds it.
Who It's For

Built for the operators AI actually lands on.

This is not a group for executives who set AI strategy from a distance. It's for the senior practitioners absorbing the complexity — and who want to navigate it with peers doing the same.

A Note About Member Fit

This group works because everyone in it is actively navigating the same terrain and willing to be honest about it. While we may bring in subject matter experts or advisors who can inform our conversation, this group is generally not for AI vendors, consultants, or anyone hoping to observe without contributing.

Facilitator
Jory Des Jardins
Founder & Facilitator Optionality
Candor Partners

Jory Des Jardins has spent her career building communities at the intersection of technology and systems change. She co-founded BlogHer, one of the first large-scale media and community networks for women, establishing best practices and a working model for the creator economy, and has spent the years since working with leaders navigating significant transitions — professional, organizational, and cultural, in cloud computing, blockchain, and AI.

Through Optionality, she works with individuals navigating career inflection points across an increasingly complex Future of Work terrain — helping them adopt new tools and frameworks that enable transformation and human agency. Through Candor Partners, she advises organizations on GTM and narrative strategy and the human dimensions of change at scale.

The AI Operators Exchange came out of a pattern she kept encountering: smart, senior practitioners running hard through genuinely difficult terrain, with nowhere to surface what was actually hard. She started the group to fix that — and to be in the conversation herself.

Interested in participating?

Membership is by invitation and application. Tell us about your role, the challenges you're currently navigating, and why this group feels like the right fit. We'll review submissions and follow up directly.

Apply to Join →

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