On September 23, the AI Studio hosted an OpenAI Champions Build Day with Enterprise Technology at the UT Administration Building, bringing together more than 50 UT.AI Champions across two in-person sessions.
The event was led by Hasun Khan and Sam Combs from the OpenAI Education team and organized by Curtis Maughan, Mario Guerra, Laura Attal, and Andrew Chang. AI Studio team members Derek Ratcliff, Cody Antunez, and Betsy Greene were also on site to support participants throughout the day.
The UT.AI Champions Network brings together faculty, staff, and students who are shaping how AI is adopted within their colleges, departments, and units. Members gain access to a community of peers who share an interest in AI, a platform for showcasing their work, and early access to tools and exclusive training opportunities, like Build Day with OpenAI.
Event
Participants arrived with a recurring task from their own work, with the goal of leaving the session with a tested first version of a reusable ChatGPT skill. The AI Studio opened each session by strengthening connections across the UT.AI Champions network and encouraging participants to think about how they could bring new ideas and capabilities back to their home units.
Hasun then led a guided build-along that explored the differences between prompts, skills, plugins, and sites. From there, participants mapped their workflows on whiteboards before spending an hour building, testing, and refining their solutions. They concluded the exercise by sharing what they had built using OpenAI's FLOW framework: Focus, Lay Out the work, Outputs, and What success looks like. Each session ended with an invitation for participants to showcase their work at AI in a Day on December 8, either through a lightning talk or as part of the gallery showcase.
The AI Champions Build Day was a great opportunity to get direct support from the OpenAI and UT AI Studio teams while learning from other Champions. Seeing how others use AI in their work was inspiring, and a huge help in thinking about how we can better incorporate it into ours.
-Matthew Timme, Customer Success Lead, Engagement and Experience
Breakout Rooms
Some of the day’s most exciting work happened when participants broke into small groups to refine their workflows before building. Members of the OpenAI and AI Studio teams moved between rooms to provide guidance and support. Participants tackled a range of practical use cases, including transforming updates into a leadership brief, answering questions using approved policies, editing articles according to a style guide, and reviewing design documents against established guidelines.
Jeff E. Stover, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer at Texas Global, used the session to begin building an email editor skill. Reflecting on the experience, he shared:
"I found the session very informative and came away with a much better understanding of how to use AI effectively in my day-to-day work."
The event was a great opportunity to connect with peers, exchange ideas, and see how AI can drive meaningful improvements across our work.
-Howard Hall, Web Design and Development Manager, University Housing and Dining
The Champions Network is planning to coordinate another in-person event in the spring 2027.
The AI Studio thanks every Champion who attended.