Kyle Branchesi · AI Enablement & Learning Strategy Leader

I lead AI adoption and the learning behind it.

Most recently, I set learning and AI enablement strategy at United Way Worldwide, reporting to the executive office and supporting a network of 1,100+ independent organizations in 36 countries. I led the launch of its learning platform, onboarding for new CEOs and the use of AI agents in course production, which cut average build time per course by 67%. I also design and build AI products, including Alf Studio.

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AI course production

United Way Worldwide

I introduced AI agents into course production and wrote the procedure they work under: what they draft from, who reviews their work and who can reject a draft. Every review was folded into the agent’s guidance, so drafts came to sound like the expert. Experts were skeptical at first and came to trust the first drafts.

67%: less time to build each course
78%: less subject-expert review time per course

Averaged across 11 courses built in 2026.

An AI agent that keeps what the expert changes

Every review goes into the agent’s guidance and examples, so each draft starts closer while the expert keeps the final say. Used on 11 courses in 2026.

A feedback loop. Frameworks and a procedure Kyle set feed an agent that updates the draft from the expert’s meeting notes. AI reviewers modeled on that expert check it first. The subject expert reviews every draft and can reject it. Each review is folded into the agent’s guidance and examples, not the AI model, so each round starts closer to the expert and the loop gets smaller. Once the expert approves, the learning team checks quality before the course is published. Expert review time per course fell 78%.

1Frameworks and procedureI set the sources, limits and reviewers
2Agent updates the draftFrom the expert’s meeting notes
3AI reviewers check firstModeled on that expert
4Subject expert reviewsCan reject any draft
5The agent’s guidance and examples updatedFrom every review. The AI model itself doesn’t change.
6Learning team checks qualityNothing ships without it
7Course published78% less expert review time

One agent per program, including the AI enablement courses.

View the course-production process

Network learning platform

United Way Worldwide

I led the launch of a learning platform and wrote the design standards for a catalog of 30 courses across six programs, in English and Spanish. I set the direction for three contract learning experts and wrote the procedure their work followed. More than 800 of the network’s 1,100+ organizations chose to use it, with over 6,000 active users and 30,800 course enrollments.

Headquarters cannot require organizations to take part, and 800+ of 1,100+ use it. The catalog is 30 courses in six programs, in English and Spanish.

AI curriculum and use guide

United Way Worldwide

I designed a learning path from AI basics through to how AI agents work. It is designed so learners practice on tasks from their own jobs, using a Green, Yellow, Red guide to assess what information they can share and the consequences of an incorrect result. The guide also counts over-caution as a failure: no more than 10% of safe tasks should be blocked.

The use guide, with an example task in each tier. The blue line is where formal approval begins. The red example uses only public information and still stops there, because of the decision it feeds.

Green

Summarize a published public report

Use it, and check the result.

Yellow

Draft an update from an internal plan

Approved tool, and a named person owns the draft.

Red

Rank partners for investment from their public websites

Stop for formal approval. It feeds a decision about organizations.

The use guide, with an example task at each level. The blue line is where formal approval begins. The red example uses only public information and still stops there, because of the decision it feeds.

View the curriculum and guide

Leadership development

United Way Worldwide and NuVuX

I led onboarding for 216 new CEOs of local United Ways, coordinating teams across departments. The program reached an NPS of 78, and 95% of participants who completed it finished a first-60-day action plan.

At NuVuX, I led the development of an executive program in which leaders from companies including Rolls‑Royce and Balfour Beatty worked through a problem in their own organization and developed a prototype.

Onboarding for new CEOs. Each CEO writes their own plan, in blue, with peers who run organizations of a similar size.

View the leadership programs

Alf Studio

Independent product

I designed and built AI planning software for teachers, drawing on my experience running design programs in schools. Teachers enter a grade, subject and idea, then review and edit a draft teaching unit. They decide which suggested changes to keep.

Alf Studio was a finalist in MIT Solve’s Accelerate STEAM Education: The 2025 GM Challenge. In October 2026, I presented the pattern behind it to DC government leaders in the AI track of GW’s executive leadership program.

Alf StudioUnitsHelpDW

Done · 23 secondsGrade 6 · Science · 3 weeks

MS-PS3-3WHST.6-8.7

By mid-afternoon our blacktop is the hottest place on the block, hotter than the park across the street. Why, and what could we plant or build to cool the schoolyard before next summer?

Science · Grade 6 · 3 weeks · Drafted Oct 21

Cooling Our Schoolyard

How can we redesign our schoolyard to cool down our hottest outdoor spaces before next summer?

Edit unit

Saved. 1 change kept.

Week 1Ready

Map surface temperatures across the schoolyard and track how different materials absorb thermal energy.

Conduct the schoolyard surface temperature walk, log readings on varied surfaces, and build the initial class need-to-know board.
· 1 lesson
Run a controlled bench lab measuring how dark asphalt fragments, light concrete, sand, and shaded soil heat under heat lamps over time.
· 2 lessons
Analyze lab data in teams, graph temperature curves, and draw energy transfer diagrams showing solar radiation and surface conduction.
· 2 lessons

Deliverable

A completed thermal data sheet with a labeled energy transfer diagram of the schoolyard blacktop.

Supports

Provide bilingual graphic organizers for lab data tables; offer sentence frames for thermal energy explanations to students with writing accommodations; challenge fast finishers to calculate rate of temperature rise per minute for each material. Give every pair a sentence-starter card: “The hottest spot was ___ because ___.”

Added a scaffold · just now

Week 2Ready

Research cooling strategies and build a scaled prototype shade or greening design to test heat reduction.

Gather facts from local desert plant guides and shade cloth spec sheets to answer self-generated questions about cooling structures.
· 2 lessons
Sketch scaled design options for a chosen hot zone in the schoolyard using selected shade materials and native trees.
· 1 lesson
Build a tabletop scale model of the cooling design and test its interior temperature under a heat lamp against an unshaded control surface.
· 2 lessons

Deliverable

A scaled prototype model with heat-lamp test data showing thermal energy reduction.

Supports

Use visual vocabulary cards for plant types and shade structures; provide partially pre-scaled grid paper for drafting; invite extending students to test two competing shade materials simultaneously and compare cost estimates.

Week 3Ready

Refine the cooling proposal based on peer critique and present the final plan to school leaders.

Run a gallery walk critique where teams review draft cooling models and leave sticky notes on durability, shade coverage, and cost.
· 1 lesson
Revise the physical model or site layout using peer feedback and write a one-page summary explaining how the design stops heat transfer.
· 2 lessons
Present cooling proposals to the school facilities leader and principal, then write an individual reflection on the design process.
· 2 lessons

Deliverable

The finalized cooling proposal poster, scale model, and written design rationale.

Supports

Offer sentence starters for peer critique; allow oral explanation paired with bulleted visual summaries for students with modified output needs; encourage advanced groups to calculate square footage of total shade created at noon.

Critique and revisionReady

Final productReady

Rubric · 3 rows · 4 levelsReady

MaterialsReady

This is one recorded run: a three-week Grade 6 science unit, drafted in 23 seconds and sped up here. See the real run

View the project Try Alf Studio

Leadership experience

United Way Worldwide

Director, Learning & AI Strategy

I reported to the executive office and the Chief Transformation Officer, coordinated project teams of 4 to 20+ people, and held spending authority within my VP’s budget. I set standards for work delivered by staff, contract designers and vendors, and helped hire a Senior Director and a Director of learning systems. I persuaded the organization to invest in its first learning platform and in AI, and to treat over-caution as a risk of its own.

NuVuX

Senior Director, Global Education Programs, Europe

Reporting to the CEO and Chief of Staff, I hired and led a team of five across Glasgow and Boston, managed the Scotland program budget and led international client engagements. NuVuX revenue grew 173% as we expanded into Europe, MENA and Australia. In 2023, I built early AI co-design tools for educators, the start of what became Alf.

Expanding a school partnership in Glasgow

At Kelvinside Academy, our initial program met resistance from teachers who hadn’t been involved in planning it. The school’s board and leadership also expected changes faster than the timetable and examination system allowed.

I trained teachers to deliver the program themselves, held open houses for parents and agreed on a revised plan with school leadership. We moved to a two-year program completed before national exams. I also worked with Scotland’s Minister for Education and local community programs to build wider support.

The program grew from fewer than 60 students to 615. I negotiated the pilot into a multi-year contract, and teacher training became a separate offering. Three council schools adopted the program.

MIT and SCI-Arc

MS in Design and Technology, MIT, on a full merit scholarship. Bachelor of Architecture, SCI-Arc.

Choose an example or describe a task. See the information I’d need, the risks I’d consider and where I’d require review. Your entries are not stored.

Contact

kyle@kylebranchesi.com