Executive AI Residency · Cohort Two · 25 to 28 October 2026

Justin has trained leaders and teams at

The builder’s problem

You started a business to build something.
Then you got stuck managing it.

Founders get into business to make things. Then the business grows, and they spend their days managing the thing they made. The AI tools that let you build again already exist. You have seen them work in flashes: a draft here, a summary there, a result good enough to mention at dinner. That is potential, idling.

The gap between the occasional chat and a system running in your business is not another subscription. It is four uninterrupted days, a project that matters, and a team who translates AI possibility into the language you run a business in. That is what the Executive AI Residency is.

Justin Kabbani at the Executive AI Residency

The tools are not the differentiator. The way you use them is.

A proven program

Cohort One · Mondrian Gold Coast · 31 August to 3 September 2026

Nine leaders. Three days.
Working systems.

Cohort One of the Executive AI Residency at The Mondrian Gold Coast, September 2026

businesses in the room, from a two-person consumer brand selling into the US, to one of Australia’s largest employers.

developers among them. Founders, owners and executives who had never shipped software. By lunch on day one, the room had shipped its first working build.

of us beside them. For the lead-up, the immersion, and beyond. The room left with systems running in their businesses and the skills to keep building.

Lead from the front

AI transformation is
leader-led, or it stalls.

The pattern is unmistakable. Handing your people licences does not change a company. Leaders who can build, and who go first, change a company.

Davos · Jan 2026

40 seconds: why Visa’s CEO wishes he’d trained his top 300 leaders how to use AI effectively sooner.

“We didn’t really see the breakthrough until we got our top 300 people in the room for two days… hands-on keyboard training, build agents, be supervised, be evaluated. Once those top 300 leaders had confidence to build… that was the unlock for us, and I wish I would have known it earlier.”

Ryan McInerney Chief Executive Officer, Visa World Economic Forum, Davos, January 2026.
Scaling AI: Now Comes the Hard Part (Youtube)

“The biggest barrier to scaling
is not employees, who are ready.
It is leaders, who are not
steering fast enough.”

McKinsey & Company, Superagency in the Workplace, January 2025.
Survey of 3,613 employees and 238 C-suite leaders.

“With strong leadership support,
the share of employees positive about AI
jumps from 15% to 55%. Only a quarter say
their leaders give enough guidance.”

Boston Consulting Group, AI at Work, June 2025.
Survey of 10,635 workers across 11 countries.

Your company takes its cue from you.
When the leader is a step ahead, the whole business moves. That is why this room exists.

Platform agnostic. AI fluent.

Justin is a leading expert across every major AI platform

Cohort One built on Claude and Claude Code, with ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and Grok in the stack.

Claude

Copilot

ChatGPT

Gemini

Grok

OpenClaw

The four days

A residency, not a retreat.

You build on your own business, in a room of peers, with everything handled. It’s not Out of Office, it’s working ‘ON’ the business. Here is the shape of it.

P0 Phase zero. Before you arrive

The residency starts weeks early.

A private briefing call to scope one project that matters, a structured interview with Curious George, our AI analyst, on how your business actually runs, and a technical setup session. You land fully configured, not calling IT from the room.

01 Day 01. Arrival

Slowing down to speed up.

Arrive, settle into the Mondrian, and gather at the Beach House for the opening session that resets what you think is possible with AI. Then dinner, where ten business leaders become one cohort.

02 Day 02. Prime

The Stack.

Sunrise walk on the Burleigh headland, then the build begins. By lunchtime your tools are installed and you’ve deployed your first app. Nobody in Cohort One had done this before. Everybody had by lunch. The afternoon is your first real build block, going deeper on your plan. That evening, Founder Night: dinner with a special guest founder. Cohort One heard from the founder of a $50M+ business on how they run it with AI integrated at every stage.

03 Day 03. Prompt

The big build.

Build blocks on your actual business, with the team beside you and your peers building around you. A 1:1 hot seat with Justin at the Beach House to help you push it even further. A flow booster, when your brain needs it. Then the Late Shift: a late hot seat on your build, and the team keeps advancing it while you sleep, so you wake to a system that moved.

04 Day 04. Produce

Ship and show.

Final build first thing. Demos from mid-morning, where each delegate shows the room what they built. We close over lunch with a 6-week plan, a group photo, and transfers from 2pm. You head home with a system that runs, not a folder of notes.

05 Beyond. The follow-through

The residency follows you home.

Momentum is designed in, not hoped for. Back in the business, it continues:

Three fortnightly catch-ups with the cohort once you are back in the business
A one-to-one implementation session to get your build live in the business and make sure it sticks
An optional lunch and learn with your leadership team, bringing what you built back into the business (additional cost)

Woven throughout

Sunrise walks on the Burleigh headland. Flow boosters when your brain needs one. Every meal with the cohort, and the conversations that run past dinner. The work is intense. The setting is what makes it stick.

Full run of show, tools, and materials are shared with successful applicants.

Who’s in the room

Ten leaders. No passengers.

Every seat is curated, so the level of conversation stays high and every voice in the room runs a significant, established business.

No direct competitors. Chatham House Rule, so people speak plainly.

You see what others are actually building, and hash out your plans with like-minded leaders facing the same pressures and the same opportunities. The network you leave with is one of the best side benefits of the three days.

What leaders say

Equipped, not just inspired.

From the rooms Justin has run for 5,000+ professionals across 50+ industries.

“You all sat down as people that had not coded something before, and by lunchtime you all had built something that took some pretty smart people weeks and weeks to learn.”

Said to the room at the close of day one, Cohort One, 1 September 2026.

He’s incredibly hands-on, practical, and has a knack for embedding AI in a way that’s actually usable.

Jess Vassallo

Founder & CEO, Evocative Media

Absolutely exceeded all our expectations and received unanimous praise from the team.

Michael Levine

Head of Advertising Sales ANZ, Uber

Practical, sharp and immediately impactful. You didn’t just talk AI, you armed us to run with it.

Zoe Hertelendi

Managing Director, Freedom NZ

Expertly tailored sessions blending practical tools with real-world relevance.

Lyndsey Mead

Membership & Communications Coordinator, Pharmacy Guild WA

Cohort One ran at the Mondrian in September 2026. Its results are at the top of this page.

Everything handled

From the moment you land
to the moment you rise up.

Peak mental condition is not a luxury add-on. It’s the reason the work sticks.

A private transfer waiting outside Gold Coast Airport at dusk

Arrival and transfers

Landed, met and moved from Gold Coast airport to the Mondrian, and every detail from then on.

A guest room at Mondrian Gold Coast with ocean light through sheer curtains

Accommodation on site

The entire cohort are in residence, accommodated on site. No commuting, no hunting for a room.

Cohort One at a meal during the Executive AI Residency

Every meal considered

Food designed for focus and steady energy, so the afternoon session is as sharp as the morning.

Daily movement

Training sessions built into the day, at your comfort level. Entirely optional, never awkward.

Founder Night

A special guest appearance from a founder or leader who is embracing the bleeding edge of AI in their business. An open discussion about the impact it’s had, and what we can learn from them.

Built on flow

Deep work in blocks, designed by a certified flow coach, so your best thinking arrives when it counts.

The cognitive load of organising anything is taken off you entirely.
To allow you to maximise your time and your impact.

The setting

Mondrian Gold Coast.
Ocean, restraint, and total focus.

The luxurious Mondrian Gold Coast at Burleigh Heads brings a new energy to this iconic surfing coastline. Experience a richly textured aesthetic that captures Burleigh’s rolling waves, fragrant pines, and white sands of the Pacific coastline. All programming and most meals are on site.

“Every single element, from arrival to the rooms to the event room to the service to the food, has been exceptional and exceeded expectations.”

The LiTO pre-function space at Mondrian Gold Coast

Bar seating at Haven, Mondrian Gold Coast

The LiTO restaurant set for a private dinner

Your host

Justin Kabbani

Justin spent 17 years building and running the agency Hardhat before exiting in 2022. He has sat where you sit: the P&L, the payroll, the pressure to call the next move before it is obvious. When he talks about AI in your business, it is as an operator, not a theorist.

Since the exit he has gone all in on one question: what does this technology actually change for a business like yours? The answer became AI Mastery, and a reputation as Australia’s leading AI strategist, keynote speaker and implementation coach, built on live builds in front of live audiences, never slideware. His rooms leave equipped, not just inspired.

He is also a certified flow coach, which is why these three days are engineered around your mental state as carefully as your build plan. Expect momentum: he builds beside you, pushes past the comfortable version of your plan, and stays on you through the follow-through until the systems stick.

5,000+: professionals trained
250+: events delivered
150+: AI Mastery workshops
50+: industries served

After the residency

What happened
after Cohort One.

Not a certificate. A different operating rhythm, and the evidence is already in.

The owner

Built a custom platform solving real business challenges. Started two more builds that weekend.

“I haven’t stopped buzzing and am totally lifted up by all the people I just spent 4 days with. Big celebration of a friend’s business last night.”

The executive

Built a decision and prioritisation engine, using their own data. Left with a list of what to build next.

“That was 4 of the best days of my career. I was so impressed by the calibre of people in the room but more so by how inclusive and supportive everyone was.”

The founder

Built a brand engagement app, for their community. Was busy building phase two the next night.

“I’ve had the best four days and I was on my computer working till 10:45 last night. I got the bug.”

You return to your business as the leader who builds. Equipped with the tools, a working system, and the skill to make the next one yourself.

A packed auditorium at one of Justin's keynotes

Justin presenting to a leadership audience

In the room with you: Justin Kabbani, your host. Jodee Bibaeff, AI Mastery Coach, who runs your briefing call and the build room. Erik Bibaeff, facilitator, on the tools beside you.

Three nights

From 25 to 28 October 2026

Ten leaders

Carefully curated from applications

All-inclusive

$14,997 plus GST (flights excluded)

Gold Coast

Mondrian, Burleigh Heads

What you'll build

Come with something
you want to build.

The best projects hide in plain sight. The report you wait days for. The integration nobody has built. The tool you wish existed. The licence you resent paying. The manual job that eats your team’s week.

Before

We define the right project

On a call before you arrive, we help you pick a project that is realistic, valuable and will show a clear return. Then we get your environment and your data set up, so day one starts at full speed.

In the room

You build it, and finish it

Over three days you build it on your actual business, with Justin, Jodee and Erik beside you and the Late Shift advancing it while you sleep. We get you to the finish line.

After

We support you past the finish

Three fortnightly catch-ups and a one-to-one implementation session get it live in the business, so it lands, and you keep building the next thing yourself.

Apply for Cohort Two

Ten seats. One cohort.
This October.

Tell us about you and your business.
Justin reads every application personally.

Already paying to have software built, or licensing it for around $15k a year? This is the same money, spent once, to build it yourself.

You leave with it built, not with notes, and the skill to build the next thing yourself.

The investment: $14,997 plus GST

All-inclusive from arrival to departure.
Four-day program, phase zero, the follow-through sessions,
transfers, accommodation, meals and activities. Flights excluded.

Three short steps. About a minute. Then we book a call.

Or email Justin to book a 15-minute call first

Questions

A few things, answered.

Who is in the room?+

Ten founders, CEOs and senior executives, deliberately blended across industries so the thinking cross-pollinates. No direct competitors are seated together, so you can speak openly about how your business actually runs. The room is small on purpose: everyone builds, everyone presents, and nobody hides up the back. Cohort One ranged from a two-person business to an executive at one of the nation’s largest employers, and half the value of the four days was the peer group they left with.

What did Cohort One build?+

Working systems on their own businesses. An HR and operations platform, a financial decision dashboard, a management platform, a lead-conversion agent, an intake and scheduling engine, an online product with subscription, and a client planning tool. None of them arrived as developers. They all left as builders.

Should I send my team instead?+

Send them later. The evidence is consistent: adoption follows the leader. Visa preached AI from the top for 18 months and saw the breakthrough only when its top 300 leaders trained hands-on. McKinsey and BCG both land on the same point, that the constraint is leaders, not employees. Justin has seen consistently that the single most impactful differentiator between businesses who succeed with AI and those that linger is the understanding of AI from the top. You go first, then the follow-through is built in: fortnightly catch-ups, a one-to-one implementation session, and an optional lunch and learn to cascade what you built through your leadership team.

What is included?+

Everything from landing to departure. Airport transfers, three nights on site at Mondrian Gold Coast, every meal, movement and wellness sessions, and every working session with Justin, Jodee and Erik. Phase zero starts weeks before you arrive, and the follow-through continues after you leave: three fortnightly catch-ups and a one-to-one implementation session. There is nothing to organise and nothing to expense separately, apart from your flights.

What is the investment?+

$14,997 plus GST per seat, all inclusive from arrival to departure: the four-day program, phase zero, the follow-through sessions, transfers, accommodation, meals and activities. Flights are excluded.

Are places still available?+

Cohort Two has ten seats. They fill by application and conversation, in the order people commit, and when the room is full a waitlist opens for the next cohort. The team reserves the right to postpone an application to a future session if there is a perceived or actual conflict between businesses.

Which tools do we build on?+

The frontier stack that fits your business, not a one-size-fits-all licence. Justin is platform agnostic and independent, with deep expertise across Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini, Grok and OpenClaw, and he has no reseller arrangement with any of them. Cohort One built on Claude and Claude Code, with ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and Grok in the stack. In phase zero we look at what your business already runs and choose deliberately. The point is not the licence. It is the way it is set up and used.

What about governance and risk?+

Doing it properly is the governance. Accounts, data boundaries, access and security are set up correctly in phase zero and day one, before anything is built on top. You leave knowing what data goes where, what stays inside your walls, and how to answer the risk question when your board or your customers ask it. That is a stronger position than a policy document nobody has tested.

I have never written code. Is that a problem?+

No. Nobody in Cohort One arrived as a developer, and by lunch on day two the whole room had installed the tools, and deployed their first app. If you can describe how your business actually runs, you can build this. The sessions are hands-on but guided: Justin, Jodee and Erik do the technical lifting beside you, and the Late Shift advances your build while you sleep. What you bring is judgement about your business. That is the part nobody can do for you.

Is this for beginners?+

No. It is for leaders who have been using the tools and know there is another level. If you have Copilot, Claude or ChatGPT open most days, get decent results, and still sense the gap between that and a system running in your business, you are exactly who this is for. If you are after a first introduction to AI, a keynote or a one-day workshop is a better and far cheaper place to start.

When and where?+

Mondrian Gold Coast at Burleigh Heads, 25-28 October 2026. The shape is three nights: arrive on the afternoon of the first day for the opening session and dinner, and we close over lunch on the final day, so most of the cohort flies home that afternoon. Gold Coast Airport is 15 minutes away, and transfers are handled.

What happens after the four days?+

The follow-through is built in. Three fortnightly catch-ups with the cohort, a one-to-one implementation session to get your build live in the business, and an optional lunch and learn for your leadership team. Cohort One continues together as The Residents, by invitation.

Who else is in Cohort Two?+

Seats fill by application and conversation, so the room is not known until it is. The value of the network is incredibly important, as is the balance of energy in the room, and so the attendees of each cohort are carefully curated from the list of applications to maximise the experience and impact.

How are people selected?+

Three short steps, then a call with Justin. He reads every application personally and curates the room for seniority, mix and intent, the same way he seats a board dinner. Selection is not about how advanced you are with AI. It is about whether you are ready to build, and whether the room works better with you in it.

Slow down. To speed up, with AI.

You started a business to build something. Then you got stuck managing it.

Nine leaders. Three days. Working systems.

AI transformation is leader-led, or it stalls.