How Huggg put its whole team through a two-day AI agent bootcamp
- 2 days
- whole-team bootcamp, booked six weeks after the CEO finished Cohort 1
- 300%
- productivity gain for some of the team (CEO's estimate)
Paul WickersCEO & Founder, Huggg
About The Agent Accelerator
We teach business teams to build AI agents for their own work, in live cohorts and in-house team training. People leave with agents running in their own business. We're based in the UK and have taught people all over the world, online and in person.
No coding or technical background needed. An AI agent is software that does a job for you using the tools your team already has: chasing unpaid invoices, for example, or briefing you before a client call.
Cohort 5 starts Tue 17 November 2026
Founded and taught by James McAulay:
ex-ElevenLabs, ex-CEO of Encore (acquired), Cambridge Computer Science, UN AI for Good speaker
Platforms: Claude, Claude Code, Cowork, Codex, Hermes, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot
Teams from: Bloom & Wild, Healf, SURI, Monsoon, JustGiving and 62 more, plus civil servants from DSIT
Ways to train: live cohort, workshops and bootcamps, AI hackathons.
James in the press: Forbes, TechCrunch, BBC, The Guardian and more
Teams from these organisations have trained with The Agent Accelerator
500+people trained
200+companies
James and his work have been featured in
Three ways to train with The Agent Accelerator
Most teams use AI every day, but as a search box: someone asks ChatGPT a question, then does the work by hand anyway. An agent does the work itself. One graduate built an agent that chases a charity's unpaid invoices; another built one that briefs account managers before every client call. On The Agent Accelerator, your people build agents like these on their own work, live with James, until each one runs. Graduates report saving about 6 hours a week each.
4 weeks
Live cohort
For individuals and teams of up to 20 people
In four weeks you go from using AI in a chat window to running agents that do real work for you. Seven live workshops with James on Zoom, coaches beside you while you build, a guest speaker every week, and a Demo Day where everyone shows the agents they built.
Apply for Cohort 5Half day to 2 days
Workshops and bootcamps
For larger companies, or a private, more intensive programme (10 to 200 people)
Half a day, a full day or two days, built around your team's own tools and work, so everyone leaves with working agents. We can run them online, but we recommend in person for the biggest impact. Half days are online only.
Learn more1 day
AI hackathons
For a team or a whole company
One day for your whole team. It starts with a kickoff where James teaches his tried-and-tested method for building agents and apps quickly, to a very high standard. Then teams spend the day building, and it ends with a showcase and prizes.
Book a callTeam training starts with an intake and ends with a 30-day plan
- Before: setup intakeA questionnaire and a short call about your tools and where the work piles up.
- The trainingJames leads every session himself, with a second facilitator for groups over 30.
- After: your 30-day planA written plan so adoption sticks: the agents your team should build next, in order, and how to build each one.
Teams of up to 20 join the cohort together; larger companies book a private bootcamp
Up to 20 people
Join the live cohort together
Four weeks of live workshops with James on Zoom, coaching while you build, and a Demo Day, alongside teams from other companies.
Most teams start here
20+ people, or a private programme
Book a workshop or bootcamp
A private, more intensive programme for your company, built around your own tools and work.
Not sure yet? Start with a few people on the cohort, then decide: Huggg's CEO joined Cohort 1, then booked a two-day bootcamp for the whole company.
Every workshop is mostly hands-on building, not AI theory
Your people spend the sessions building their own agents on their own work, with James and the coaches beside them, rather than sitting back and listening.
Case studies
How Connectd’s leadership team went from basic ChatGPT to building custom agents in four weeks
- 8
- leaders trained together on the cohort
- 4.5 hrs
- saved per person per week (self-reported)
Roei SamuelCEO and Founder, Connectd
Trusted by civil servants in the UK government
In the summer of 2026, seven civil servants from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) trained with The Agent Accelerator to improve how they use AI agents in their work.
7civil servants from DSIT trained, summer 2026
Taught on the agent platform your team already uses
Most teams learn on Claude. If yours already works in ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or a coding agent like Codex, the skills carry across and we build the sessions around it.
Claude
Claude Code
Claude Cowork
Codex
Hermes
ChatGPT
Gemini
Copilot
Access to speakers from leading AI-native companies
Every cohort week includes a guest session where someone from an AI-native company shows how their team uses AI day to day, including what didn't work. Speakers have come from:
- and more
Graduates describe how we transformed their work
As a founder, I've always been skeptical about committing time to accelerator programs, but I'm glad I took the leap with James. I feel much more comfortable and way more excited about how we can safely integrate AI agents to help us move even faster.
A brilliant course that takes you from the foundations of AI through to game-changing tools, workflows and agents that genuinely add so much value to the company and team. Thank you, James!
James WaterfieldAI Champion
If you’re feeling comfortable with AI, but want to level up into a space where you actually know how to meaningfully apply different features that are available to add real value to your life, team or workplace, you won’t be disappointed. The course will get you there and beyond.
Fil BellHead of Customer Care
Incredibly valuable having a guided space to gain confidence, and to take senior leadership in a large organisation on a journey of getting hands on with the tools, understanding their immense value first hand, and advice on how to disseminate this knowledge effectively through an organisation. Thanks James, it's been awesome!
Sam BlackettCommercial Director, UK & IE
James McAulay leads every workshop
A clear goal, a fast pace and everyone building early. James brings ten years of CEO experience to his teaching, and designs every workshop to deliver concrete improvements to your business.
He knows why people stall when they learn a new skill, from feeling they aren't technical enough to not finding the time, and he builds every session to get past it, so everyone leaves with an agent they built themselves.
Every agent has to earn its place in the business, by saving hours, cutting costs or bringing in revenue, instead of being a demo that looks impressive and never gets used.
He draws on his time at ElevenLabs during its hypergrowth, and on his Computer Science degree from Cambridge.
- Now
- Founder, The Agent Accelerator500+ people trained from 200+ companies on the cohort and in team training, and James has delivered workshops across Europe and America.
- 2025
- Creator Growth Lead, ElevenLabsJoined during ElevenLabs' growth from $120M to $210M ARR. Led 13 product launches in 9 months, and product-led growth experiments behind more than 1 million ElevenLabs-branded videos shared each year.
- 2014-2024
- Founder and CEO, Encore Musicians10 years building one of the world's largest marketplaces for booking live musicians and DJs: 50,000+ bookings worth £31m under his leadership. Acquired by Mixcloud in 2024.
- 2015
- Teacher, DecodedA world-class tech training company, where James first learnt how to teach technical concepts to non-technical executives.
- 2014
- Entrepreneur FirstHeadhunted by Matt Clifford into the third EF cohort.
- 2011-2014
- University of CambridgeComputer Science.
A recognised speaker on AI and the future of work
James speaks about how AI agents are changing the way teams work. In July 2025 he spoke at the United Nations' AI for Good Global Summit, which is organised by ITU, the UN agency for digital technologies. His session was "Understanding emergent intelligence in work". The same year he spoke at Tech.eu Summit in London and at London Tech Week, and he has also given a TEDx talk.
- United Nations AI for Good Global Summit2025
- Tech.eu Summit London2025
- London Tech Week2025
Anthropic changed Claude Cowork after James's feedback
Claude Cowork now asks for explicit permission before deleting files, a safeguard Anthropic shipped in January 2026 after James's feedback.
James had published a first-impressions video of Cowork in which it deleted 11GB of files. Anthropic then announced it had "taught Claude to always request explicit permission before deleting anything".
Felix Rieseberg, Anthropic's engineering lead for Claude Cowork, said James's "video and feedback directly contributed to this feature".
The Agent Accelerator is independent of Anthropic.
James is hands-on, developing with agents every day
5,555 GitHub contributions in the past year, most of them in private repos, and his open-source agent repos have earned hundreds of stars. He also publishes hands-on build tutorials on YouTube.
Companies who have trained their teams with us
We train teams of any size, in any industry, and people in almost every role have already trained with us. These 68 organisations have each sent two or more.
| Company | Sector | Company size (employees) |
|---|---|---|
| Bloom & Wild (incl. bloomon) | Consumer brands | 201-1,000 |
 Hexarad | Healthcare | 51-200 |
 Vita Mojo | Hospitality, travel and leisure | 51-200 |
| Huggg | Marketplaces | 11-50 |
 Doctify | Healthcare | 51-200 |
 Flash Pack | Hospitality, travel and leisure | 51-200 |
| Connectd | Marketplaces | 201-1,000 |
 Entrepreneur First | Venture capital | 51-200 |
 Healf | Consumer brands | 51-200 |
 ChangeForce | Consultancies and agencies | 11-50 |
 Aptem | Education and training | 51-200 |
 Anansi | Financial services | 11-50 |
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) | Charities and public sector | 1,000+ |
 Jentic | AI and data tools | 11-50 |
 Loka | Consumer brands | 1-10 |
 Amber Labs | Consultancies and agencies | 51-200 |
 Bezos.ai | Logistics | 11-50 |
 Chalkie | Education and training | 1-10 |
 Cocoon Carbon | Climate and energy | 11-50 |
 Koru Kids | Marketplaces | 201-1,000 |
 Level | Financial services | 11-50 |
 SURI | Consumer brands | 51-200 |
 TouchNote | Consumer brands | 11-50 |
 Azzurri Group | Consumer brands | 1,000+ |
 FANZO | Hospitality, travel and leisure | 11-50 |
 Forliance | Climate and energy | 51-200 |
| Heights | Consumer brands | 51-200 |
 Hip Pop | Consumer brands | 51-200 |
 Let's Do This | Marketplaces | 51-200 |
 XAIS-PTS | Engineering and construction | 51-200 |
 Beam | Charities and public sector | 201-1,000 |
 Cambridge Nutraceuticals | Consumer brands | 11-50 |
 Debate Mate | Education and training | 201-1,000 |
 Forward Institute | Charities and public sector | 11-50 |
 Hire Space | Marketplaces | 11-50 |
 Homesearch | Property | 51-200 |
 JustGiving | Charities and public sector | 51-200 |
 madeWORKSHOP | Engineering and construction | 11-50 |
 Patch | Property | 11-50 |
 Tumelo | Financial services | 51-200 |
 Up World | Education and training | 51-200 |
 Beco | Consumer brands | 11-50 |
 ManiLife | Consumer brands | 11-50 |
 More Happi | Education and training | 11-50 |
 Space Solar | Climate and energy | 11-50 |
 YLD | Consultancies and agencies | 51-200 |
 Ada Ventures | Venture capital | 51-200 |
 Beeline | Consumer brands | 11-50 |
 Better Nature | Consumer brands | 11-50 |
 Bloomsbury Football | Charities and public sector | 51-200 |
 ClickMechanic | Marketplaces | 11-50 |
 Foundrs | Venture capital | 11-50 |
 Generational | Climate and energy | 1-10 |
 Gigaton | Climate and energy | 11-50 |
 Lifted | Healthcare | 11-50 |
 Monsoon | Consumer brands | 1,000+ |
 MyoMaster | Consumer brands | 11-50 |
 NickAI | Financial services | 1-10 |
 Odin | Financial services | 51-200 |
 Omnea | Procurement software | 51-200 |
 Prompt Shields | AI and data tools | 1-10 |
 School Space | Education and training | 11-50 |
 Shuffle Finance | Financial services | 11-50 |
 The Electric Car Scheme | Financial services | 51-200 |
 The Qube | Hospitality, travel and leisure | 51-200 |
 UniAdmissions | Education and training | 51-200 |
 VenueScanner | Marketplaces | 11-50 |
 Zencargo | Logistics | 201-1,000 |
Updated October 2026
Questions buyers ask before booking
Yes. James leads every live workshop himself, on the cohort and in team training. While he teaches, his coaches answer questions in the chat as they come up, and in the build part of each workshop they move between people for one-to-one debugging and feedback. For workshops and bootcamps with more than 30 people, a second facilitator joins him. Between sessions, cohort members can post in the group chat or email, and there are drop-in Q&A sessions and office hours through the week.
No. Every workshop assumes no technical knowledge, and agents are built by describing what you want, in plain English, in the AI tools your team already uses. In Cohort 2, about 20% of people were developers or product managers. The rest came from leadership, operations, marketing, growth, sales, finance and customer success. Each workshop also has advanced exercises for anyone with a technical background, so mixed teams work well together.
Agents for their actual jobs. Recent builds include an invoice-chasing agent that keeps a charity's cash flow moving, a sponsorship prospecting agent that feeds a CRM pipeline, an agent that triages data pipeline failures, an agent that briefs account managers before client calls, and a supplier cost analysis dashboard for a tour operator. Graduates finish having built agents from scratch, or having significantly improved the ones they already had.
Whichever platform your team already uses. Most teams learn on Claude, including Claude Code and Claude Cowork, because we think it is the strongest toolkit for building agents right now. The frameworks carry across platforms, so sessions can be built around ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, or coding agents such as Codex and Hermes.
On the live cohort, about 6 hours a week gets the most out of it, including all the live workshops and sessions. Attending the core sessions and completing the assignments takes 3 to 4 hours a week. Every session is recorded with step-by-step guides, so a missed session is easy to catch up on. Team training is scheduled around you: a workshop or bootcamp runs for half a day, a full day or two days.
The 127 graduates who answered the end-of-cohort survey between March and October 2026 reported saving 710+ hours of manual work a week between them, about 6 hours each. Kept up over a year, 6 hours a week is roughly 312 hours per person. Some people report saving more than 10 hours a week. These figures are self-reported, and the individual reviews are on the reviews page.
Cohort members keep the recordings, step-by-step guides, prompts and frameworks on the learning platform. After a workshop or bootcamp, your team gets a written next-steps roadmap: what to build next and how. Teams can add access to the learning platform so people keep going after the day, and private consulting and coaching calls with James and his coaches are available if you want more hands-on help with your agents or your AI rollout.
Yes. On the live cohort, complete the programme, attend every session (or watch the recording before the final session) and complete the weekly checkpoints, and if you are still not satisfied you get a full refund, as long as you ask within 14 days of the final session. Full details are in the terms.