Graymatter is built on three pillars: Master AI. Master yourself. Build what matters.
Today I’m adding a section for the first one. Hands-on AI Playbook is the Master AI pillar in practice. It is the part of Graymatter where every edition gives you something you can use this week.
TL;DR
A new section inside Graymatter, not a new publication. You can subscribe to it on its own, or opt out and keep the rest.
One play per edition. A platform capability, a workflow taken apart, something I use to run my own business, an installable skill or agent, or an alumni build.
For leaders who own results. Practical and thoughtful. No code required, but you do have to be willing to try things in your own work.
Weekly. One edition, one play, every week.
Course alumni, this is your channel. If you took a program with me at Berkeley Haas or a cohort on Maven, this is where I share what’s working now.
The weekly Playbook posts are free. Alongside them, I’ll post short lessons from my two Maven courses, often with video, for paid subscribers: small enough to learn and apply the same week. Paid also includes a Slack community for collaboration and live sessions as the group grows.
If you already subscribe to Graymatter, you’re in. Playbook editions will arrive alongside the posts you already get, and there’s nothing to do. If you’d rather not receive them, it’s one switch in your account settings.
Why a section, and why now
AI is moving faster than anyone can keep up with. You don’t need to track everything. You need what works.
Most AI newsletters answer “what happened this week.” This section answers a narrower question: what can I put to work this week? That question is what a decade of teaching leaders has taught me to ask first.
The name matches the rest of what I do: the Hands-on AI Playbook website and my two Maven courses, Hands-on Agentic AI for Leaders and Agentic AI for Claude Builders. Same method, three doors, and each one reinforces the others.
What a play is
The unit of this section is the play: one thing you can put to work this week. Every edition delivers exactly one. Here are the shapes it takes.
Workflow Teardown. One real workflow taken through the AI Workflow Framework: the messy before, the design, the build, the working result. This is the anchor format. It’s how I teach in every cohort.
How I Run It. Something I use to run my own business, whether an approach, a technique, or a capability: what it is, how it works, and what it changed. The knowledge graph behind my courses, the pipeline that triages my email, the registry that tracks every workflow I’ve automated.
Skill Drop. A ready-to-install skill or agent with a short walkthrough. Useful the same day, and a preview of what the cohorts build.
Alumni Build. A short spotlight on something a Maven or Berkeley alum built, in their words where possible.
What Shipped. A new capability in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot, and what it changes for your work. Not a news recap. If a release doesn’t change what you can do, it doesn’t get an edition.
Coming Up. Occasional announcements of new cohorts, workshops, and Lightning Lessons.
Every edition ends with one next step. Try this, reply with your build, or go deeper on the website when a page exists.
Maven Course Updates. Once a month, alongside the plays, a rundown of what changed in the material for my two Maven cohort courses: new lessons, updated decks, revised guides. If you’re a Maven alum, you already have access to it all on the shared Drive, so this is how you know what’s new. If you haven’t taken a course, it shows how the material keeps up.
Who it’s for
Business leaders and innovators who want to apply AI practically and thoughtfully.
Practically means workflows that fit real work and produce results this week or this quarter. Not demos, not hype.
Thoughtfully means judgment. When AI should and shouldn’t be used. Keeping people in the loop. Building capability in your team rather than dependence on a tool.
You’re responsible for results, not just experiments. You don’t need to write code. You do need to be willing to try things in your own work. A play you read and never run is just an article.
Who I am
I’m James Gray. I spent thirty years in technology leadership, including a decade at Microsoft building the data and AI platforms the business ran on. I’ve since been a CIO and a CPO. I teach Data and AI Strategy at UC Berkeley Haas Executive Education, reaching thousands of senior leaders each year. And I run two hands-on cohorts on Maven, Hands-on Agentic AI for Leaders and Agentic AI for Claude Builders, where I’ve trained more than 1,000 professionals.
This section shows the work: what I’m running in my own business and what the people I teach are building.
How to subscribe to just this section
Substack lets you choose sections. Want only the Playbook? Subscribe at graymatter.jamesgray.ai/s/hands-on-ai-playbook. Want everything but the Playbook? That’s one switch in your account settings. Everyone stays on one list, one domain, one brand.
If you haven’t taken a course with me, this is the fastest way to see how I teach. Everyone is welcome.
For deeper guides and resources, the full playbook lives at handsonai.info. Details on paid Graymatter are on the About page.
Welcome to the Playbook. Whether you’ve been reading Graymatter for a while or just found it, I’m glad you’re here. The best of what I teach came from people trying things in their own work and telling me what happened, and that’s what I hope this becomes. I look forward to learning together.
Stay curious. Stay hands-on.
James