One to one with Kevin Williams, five-time CEO
“Our monthly calls are the highest-leverage 90 minutes on my calendar.”
Niall O'Malley
CEO, eTraining
Judgment for the AI era, from someone who has sat in your chair.
Kevin Williams is a five-time CEO who now coaches chief executives through the decisions AI forces at the top. The scope is the whole business: strategy, hiring, pricing, the board, and where the company stands against its competition. He also builds with AI daily, which is what keeps the coaching honest when a conversation turns technical. This is not tool training.
Five minutes, and you leave with practices you can apply the same week.
The evidence
When the CEO owns AI, the results aren't close.
Organizations that give the chief executive clear accountability for AI report stronger results than organizations that do not, on all three measures KPMG compared.
57%
vs 21% without it
realize meaningful business value from AI
60%
vs 22% without it
are confident in their AI strategy
14%
vs 4% without it
report established ROI from AI
Only 24% of leaders say the CEO is accountable for AI-driven business outcomes. Source: KPMG Global AI Pulse, Q2 2026. Survey of 2,145 C-suite and senior business leaders across 20 countries.
In their words
“He can pressure-test a hiring decision or a pricing model, then walk me through agent architectures in the same conversation without missing a beat. He's talked me out of bad ideas, sharpened good ones, and more than once saved me months by steering me away from unnecessary rabbit holes.”
Niall O'Malley
CEO, eTraining · client for years
The coach
Who is the coach?
Kevin Williams is a five-time CEO, an executive coach, and the founder of AscendAI. He was coaching chief executives and senior leaders long before AI dominated the agenda, on the parts of the job that have always been hard: strategy, people, pricing, and the calls nobody else can make for you.
What changed is that he now builds with AI every day. He has shipped four commercial products built on large language models and sold a previous company to private equity, so he can stress-test a hiring decision and then go straight into how an agent architecture should be assembled.
Advises the Utah Governor's Office of AI Policy. Co-chairs the Responsible AI Initiative at the University of Utah. Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and Inc.
5×
CEO tenures
1,000+
Leaders trained
1:1
No cohorts, ever
I can't imagine a better executive coach for a moment like this. Kevin sees where the disruption is heading and constantly challenges me to look farther afield. He cuts through the hype and noise — and, even more remarkable, he understands and cares about people. Leading with a balance of vision and compassion is not easy, and Kevin helps me walk that line.
Steven Low
President, KLAS Research
Working with Kevin over the past three years has been transformative at every level, from high-level strategy down to how our business actually runs. He knows our people, our clients, and our real challenges, and consistently asks the right questions to surface solutions that stick. An exceptional coach and a genuine partner in building a better business.
Patrick Claytor
CEO, Big Sky Fulfillment
The assessment
How do I start?
The Snapshot is a private assessment that takes about five minutes. You finish it with a set of AI practices matched to how you actually run your week, and if the fit looks right, Kevin reaches out himself.