Certified AI Operating Partner
Self-paced certification · VCI Institute
A self-paced certification for the person whose name sits next to the AI line in a value creation plan. You follow one fictional company from the close to the exit, pricing every AI claim and naming the person accountable for each automated decision, then build a plan for a company you have not seen that holds up when people paid to doubt it take it apart.
Eleven AI proposals go up on the whiteboard in the second week after the close. By the sale, three claims survive a buyer's diligence. We teach you to tell which three, early enough to matter, and to prove it.
What you will be able to do
| Price every AI claim | On five tests: impact, landing, time, cost and proof |
| Cost a tool properly | All eight lines of cost, including the cost of getting out |
| Name who answers for it | A named person in each of seven seats for every automated decision |
| Sequence the hold | The first hundred days, one thing shipped inside ninety, and the kill list |
| Prove it at exit | The AI bridge a buyer will credit, with a counterfactual, a dated document and a named person behind each claim |
What is included
- Ten modules, seven bonuses and ten readings, with The Doctrine, The Operating Partner Primer and the Entry Diagnostic to start
- Ten drills with worked answers, five practice assessments, and the course instruments
- Both gates: two examination attempts, and the capstone with one resubmission, marked by two assessors against a published rubric with written feedback each time
- The certificate once both gates are recorded, with a credential number the Institute confirms to anybody who asks
- Access to all of it for 365 days from enrolment
Two gates, and you need both
The capstone: you build an AI value plan for a company you have not seen, write a two-page investment committee paper and a one-page note of the tools you used, and two assessors mark all three against a published rubric. The Institute may ask you about your submission before it confirms the result, and does not ask every candidate.
The examination: fifty questions in ninety minutes, closed book, with no AI tools of any kind. The pass mark is 40 of 50.
Neither gate makes up for the other, and neither can be granted, waived or shortened. That is the point: the certificate says you did the work in front of people paid to doubt it.
| Written for | Operating partners, value creation leads, portfolio CFOs and senior executives in sponsor-backed businesses |
| Format | Self-paced, about 170 hours. No live sessions. |
| Access | 365 days from enrolment. Both gates are recorded inside it. |
| Certificate | Carries a credential number. Does not expire. |
| Payment | 349 USD, one payment. Nothing renews, and there is nothing further to buy on the way to the certificate. |
Terms of enrolment
The fee is 349 USD, in one payment. Access runs for 365 days from enrolment, and both gates must be recorded inside it. You may ask for a refund within seven days of purchase; starting the examination or submitting the capstone ends that window, while the diagnostic, drills and practice assessments do not. The certificate states that the holder met the Institute's standard on a fictional case; it is not a licence, an accreditation or a regulatory qualification, and it promises no outcome. By enrolling you confirm that you have read the eligibility guidance and are enrolling on your own judgement, and that the certification cannot be granted, waived or shortened.
Payment is taken once and nothing renews. For any question before or after you enrol, write to [email protected] and a person at the Institute will reply. VCI Institute is a nonprofit professional education institution.
