Hands-on AI summits 2026

Leaders building with Cue, hands on keyboards

In 2026, Fountain hosted small summits for HR and talent leaders in Europe and California. Fountain Labs designed the hands-on sessions and helped run them. Attendees worked in Fountain demo workspaces loaded with sample data and spent real time using Cue themselves, not just watching slides. Over the summer, the session grew from a guided Cue walkthrough into a two-hour workshop where leaders set up agents that keep working after they log off.

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Why we ran them

Hiring leaders hear a lot about AI but rarely get to try it on something that looks like their own operation. Trying it in a live account can feel risky, and an open-ended AI tool with a blank page is hard to start with. A demo on stage can leave people impressed but no closer to using it on Monday.

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What we built

A demo workspace for each attending company, set up with the company's name and filled with realistic sample locations, openings and applicants, so leaders could use Cue without touching live data.
A guided introduction to Cue: what it is, how it works and what a power user's day looks like, shown live.
A hands-on working session, with Fountain staff in the room to help.
The Cue challenge: small teams from different companies tune an account to hit a goal. Fewest manual steps and least time wins.
A short session on how Fountain runs itself as an agentic organization, as a template leaders can borrow.
A two-hour agent building workshop. The goal: leave with something that runs while you sleep, like a Cue briefing on a schedule.
Starter ideas for frontline teams: a Monday hiring pulse by location, applicants nobody has called yet, a compliance countdown, no-shows before day one, and next week's shift gaps.

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How it works

Before the event, we set up a demo workspace for each attending company, loaded with sample data.
On the day, everyone picks one thing they would love to find already done on Monday morning: "Every Monday, tell me ____."
We build one live. Then it's the attendees' turn: build it in Cue as a skill and put it on a schedule.
Attendees share what they built, what broke and what surprised them, and we take their requests back to the product team.

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Where it landed

Senior HR and talent leaders logged in and used Cue themselves at three summits between June and September 2026.
By the end of the latest workshop, attendees were setting up their own agents in their demo workspaces.
The same hands-on format continues at CPUC 2026, a two-day build retreat for Cue power users.

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What we learned

A safe sandbox changes the room. Demo workspaces with sample data let leaders explore without worrying about their real data.
A blank page stalls people, even experienced users. A guided start and one concrete goal help everyone get going.
Real building takes time. Plan for about two hours of hands-on time. In a shorter slot, a live demo works better.
Small rooms of peers work well. Attendees singled out the candid conversations with other leaders.
The hardest part of AI adoption is people, not product. It takes someone who knows the process and the business.
Setup is the heavy lift. Getting a workspace ready for every company takes real effort, so start early.