To the owners and AI leads of knowledge businesses
New companies are starting out with AI from day one. They do your work for much less money. The work goes to whoever directs AI well. That's already happening.
Most companies then buy a course or outsource it. Or they add an eleventh software subscription. After the course everything is done by hand again on Monday. Whoever outsources it lets someone else build and their team learns nothing. And after a few weeks hardly anyone uses that subscription. Meanwhile your business model and the way you work stay the same. That's where the real work is.
Large companies put an AI engineer on a six-figure salary next to the team. A smaller company can't afford that. It doesn't need to.
Your own people can learn it.
Not the owner but the one bringing AI into the company with a mandate from the board? Then you're the AI lead and this letter is for you too.
At Bemand your team learns to build with AI itself. A mentor sits alongside and if you get stuck an AI expert takes a look. You choose from two trainings: the build day and the team day. You sit at the table yourself at both. Want to keep building after that? Then we come back for half a day after six weeks and talk every month for a year.
Most companies now let AI answer questions and do small tasks. Everyone on their own. A few people get faster and the company runs just like last year. You'll get that far on your own. An AI teammate with its own tasks is something you have to build. That's what Bemand teaches your team. This is what that jump looks like →
Bemand · Delft & Zoetermeer
You learn it from people who do it themselves every day
Tim van den Bosch runs the build day. Next to him are three experts: for the human side of AI, for unrest in your team and for sales.
Tim van den Bosch
Over the past two years I saw my own craft disappear. What I had learned to build by hand over twenty years, AI suddenly did faster. The same is now happening in your field, with the report in your fixed layout or the quote in your house style. That's why I started Bemand. Anyone who sees their craft change should be able to learn the new one.
I was co-founder and CTO of the digital agency a friend of mine, now part of DEPT®. With my agency Sitelane in Delft I build websites and custom software. I work with AI agents every day: on my quotes, my bookkeeping and complete systems for clients.
I taught development teams at KPN, Booking.com and RH Marine to work with agents. I'm a Build ambassador, part of the SpaceXSI Community. The goal was always that the team could do it on its own afterwards. At Unknown University I coach young founders and teach them to build a first version quickly with AI.
On the build day I help your team take the step from AI that answers to an agent that finishes a task by itself. After that your team keeps building on its own.
Josje van Beek
Does AI use in your team drop again after a few weeks? Then Josje looks at what's going on underneath, like unspoken expectations, vague roles or behaviour that keeps repeating. In the studio she is the expert for the human side of AI: who does what when AI joins the work, and what does your team expect from it?
Josje is the founder of The Strategic Flow and wrote the book Samenwerken met je digitale collega (Working with your digital colleague). For more than fifteen years she has helped organisations change how they work with digital tools. She did that as a programme manager, coach and trainer for clients such as Microsoft, ABN AMRO Clearing, RDW and Dura Vermeer. Her foundation is communication psychology, transactional analysis and agile.
At Gearbox Innovations she coached an AI team. Afterwards, hanging roses went almost three times as fast, up to 2,000 per hour.
Gert Hans Berghuis
When AI unsettles your team, Gert Hans brings the owner and the staff back to the same table. In the studio he is the expert for the team day.
Gert Hans was the owner of design agency Fabrique. After that he worked on innovation inside a large company and gained experience with mergers and acquisitions. He completed the three-year programme at the Institute for Integral Psychology and trained as an MfN-registered mediator. He is the founder of Voorwaarts Mediation.
He quickly sees where the problem is and helps people solve it themselves. He doesn't judge and understands everyone's side. He's also optimistic. "Not to be confused with naivety," he adds.
Boris Peters
Sales and commerce have the longest processes, so that's where there is the most to gain. Boris is the studio's expert for it. Over the past year he put agents to work on his own survey reminders, bookkeeping and campaigns.
Boris is the director of The Blue Hour in The Hague. With benchmark research among hundreds of commercial decision makers, he helps sales organisations get meetings at senior level. He is fascinated by the mix of data and the psychology of persuasion.
The new craft is so young that showing is the only school there is.
Do you see yourself here, as a mentor or junior?
The studio starts with a small core and grows with mentors and junior AI experts from the region. Whoever learns the craft here goes on to teach it. These three places are open now. Want to contribute people, cases or research as a school or organisation? Sign up as a partner →
Learn the new craft on real cases
You join the build days and learn in practice how to direct agents and watch the quality. You get paid for it and someone guides you.
I want to learn the craft →
Make sure a team builds the right thing
When a team gets stuck, you take a look and ask the question it hadn't asked itself yet. That keeps it on course, and you get paid for it.
I want to be a mentor →
Your craft is the head start here
Do you come from accountancy, IT, legal work or research? Then a starting team needs your twenty years of experience.
I want to be a mentor →AI does the work and people stay in charge
That's why Bemand exists. Here, teams from knowledge businesses learn to build with AI themselves, mentors pass on their craft and the next generation learns the new one. Below you read what we believe.
The agent works, the human decides
Every system you build here keeps that order. Anything that leaves the building gets a yes from a person first.
Craft knowledge is the head start
Twenty years of experience becomes worth more the moment you learn to direct agents in your own work. That's why the professionals do the building with us.
With AI, being able beats having it done
If you have it done, you learn nothing from it. If your team can do it, it keeps building when we're gone. That's why we teach your team. Our mentors work themselves out of a job.
Someone is always learning alongside
It works like a guild, with someone learning the craft next to every professional. We train junior AI experts and put them on real cases, paid and guided by experienced professionals. They make sure knowledge work is still in the region in ten years.
Honest about what works
About half of the teams make the shift. We say that out loud. With universities of applied sciences we research why it works for one team and not for another. We share what we learn.
On our own feet
Clients pay what it's worth. The studio has to be able to live on that income. Otherwise we ask companies to do something we don't do ourselves.
We teach it to your team, so the work stays with you.
If AI takes over the work, what do people do?
That question makes people scared or angry. They defend the old craft while the work around them changes. Developers, designers and accountants all see it happening.
We believe there is work that only people can do: judging, deciding, having the conversation with the client and directing the agents. You learn that new craft by doing it, with someone alongside.
Bemand keeps going, even if one of us stops
That's why Bemand is becoming steward-owned. In the Netherlands that model is also called the rentmeestermodel.
Control stays inside
Whoever works at Bemand sets the course. Nobody can buy the company to take money out of it.
The profit goes to training
We put what we earn back into training people, for example in paid places for juniors and mentors.
Want to become a mentor and pass on your craft? Sign up as a mentor →
Tell me which task your team still does by hand
Book a call with Tim
Free and online. You bring one task that takes a lot of time, and we look at whether a build day fits. You are not tied to anything afterwards.
Or plan a build day straight away: €1.500 for your team of up to 4 people, money back if the day was not worth it. Plan a build day →
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Then I will get back to you within 24 hours.