AI Strategy · Mission-Driven Organizations

AI strategy for organizations with a mission.

I'm Jennifer Ku, former Chief Product Officer of Finetune by Prometric, the leading AI product in the learning and assessment industry. I work with a small number of mission-driven organizations across education/ed-tech, the nonprofit sector, and aging. I focus on the strategic and operational questions that come with doing your work well when AI is rewriting how it gets done.

Get in touch See how I work →

Why Now

The world is shifting. Your mission shouldn't have to.

You built your organization to make a difference in the world. AI is quickly changing how organizations operate. Used well, it doesn't pull you away from your mission. It lets you reach further.

Stay faithful to your mission

The reason your organization exists doesn't change. New technology should sharpen that purpose, not blur it.

Keep your work true to what you believe

Rigor, integrity, and quality are not things to trade away for speed. The right approach protects them while you move.

Reach more people

Done thoughtfully, these new tools and ways of working extend your impact, serving more people, more fully, than before.

The goal was never to adopt AI for its own sake. It's to let new technology serve the mission you already have, so you can do more of what you set out to do.

How I Work

Three to nine month fractional engagements, working directly with leadership.

Engagement length
3 to 9 months, fractional
Scope
Outcomes, not decks
Working with
Leadership, product, content & engineering

What I Do

I don't just give advice, I build the systems that handle the work.

01

AI Product Strategy

For leadership teams deciding what to build, what to buy, and what to retire.

A clear AI roadmap grounded in pedagogical and psychometric reality, regulatory constraints, and what will actually ship.

  • Prioritized AI roadmap
  • Build-vs-buy decision framework
  • Cross-functional alignment to execute
  • Operational scaffolding to start
02

AI Production

For companies taking AI from prototype to production.

Most teams can ship an AI demo in a weekend. The harder work is making it real: validating against actual data, hardening for stability and scale, meeting enterprise security requirements, and integrating with the engineers, ML scientists, and SMEs who will operate the system.

  • Validate. Test against real data and real user feedback, not a demo dataset.
  • Stabilize. Build evaluation, monitoring, and human-in-the-loop with your engineering and ML teams.
  • Scale. Engineer for production load, latency, and cost.
  • Secure. Meet your data, privacy, and enterprise security requirements.
03

AI Operations

For companies that have direction and need to build.

Increase your output without changing your headcount using the best tools that fit your organization today.

  • AI growth strategy acceleration. Use AI to optimize your go-to-market and grow revenue with the team you have today.
  • AI workflow optimization. I'll audit your systems and build AI agents and workflow automations that increase capacity without adding headcount.
  • AI training. I'll train your team through hands-on workshops and on-the-job enablement to use AI tools effectively and safely in their day-to-day work.
04

AI Governance and Policy

For companies that need rules, controls, and accountability around AI use.

Create the rules, processes, controls, and accountability systems for how your organization builds, buys, deploys, and monitors AI responsibly in educational settings.

  • What AI are we allowed to use?
  • How do we protect student and school data?
  • How do we make AI fair and safe?
Also · Selectively

For founders and CEOs preparing for acquisition or strategic investment: positioning, growth narrative, and operational readiness in the 12 to 24 months before a transaction. I co-led the sale of Finetune to Prometric, including pitch development, growth plan, and financial model.

Who I Work With

Mission-driven organizations across education, the social sector, and aging.

I work with a small number of organizations whose work is grounded in a mission. Engagements range from focused 60-day sprints to ongoing fractional roles. Confidential, with an NDA in place before our first substantive conversation.

Education/Ed-tech

Schools, ed-tech companies, and the people who serve learners

Institutions, district partners, publishers, and direct-to-learner and B2B ed-tech companies working out how AI fits into curriculum, products, and student outcomes, often while the competitive ground shifts in real time.

What I do

AI product strategy, build-vs-buy decisions, content modernization, and redesigning core learning experiences for an AI-first learner.

Nonprofits & Social Sector

Nonprofits and mission-driven organizations

Foundations, advocacy groups, and service organizations that want to do more with limited resources, without losing the trust and values their work depends on.

What I do

AI strategy for program delivery and operations, workflow automation that expands capacity without adding headcount, and hands-on team training to use AI safely and well.

Gerontology & Aging

Organizations serving older adults

Providers, researchers, and companies in the aging and gerontology space exploring how AI can improve care, access, and quality of life for older adults and those who support them.

What I do

AI opportunity assessment, responsible deployment in sensitive care settings, and product and operational strategy grounded in real-world constraints.

Work I've Done

Selected work.

Before Forward Works, I spent over a decade leading product teams, most recently as Chief Product Officer of Finetune, an ed-tech company I grew from pre-revenue to acquisition by Prometric. I've learned how to build strong teams, set strategy people can execute, and lead organizations through change. That's what I bring to mission-driven organizations navigating AI today.

Learning & Assessment · AI Product

Building and selling the leading AI product in learning and assessment

Chief Product Officer · five years · joined pre-revenue, through acquisition

I joined Finetune pre-revenue and built the product organization that made it the leading AI solution for the learning and assessment industry. I led two AI products: Generate, the flagship authoring tool, and Catalog, an AI content classification system, plus the model-validation process that gave customers confidence the output met psychometric standards. The team was small and entirely senior, spanning AI research, ML engineering and MLOps, psychometricians, and educators. In December 2024, I co-led the company's acquisition by Prometric, owning the pitch, growth plan, and financial model through close.

$9MRevenue, from pre-revenue
20Customers across edu & assessment
2Patents to completion
2024Acquired by Prometric
Nonprofit · Security Governance & AI Operations

Enterprise-grade security and AI efficiency, right-sized for nonprofits

In partnership with a leading Atlanta MSP serving the nonprofit sector

Nonprofits hold sensitive donor, client, and program data, but rarely have enterprise budgets or in-house security teams. Partnering with one of Atlanta's leading managed service providers for nonprofits, I translated enterprise security practice into something mission-driven organizations could actually adopt: tailored cybersecurity governance and AI-use policies for their nonprofit clients, with clear, right-sized rules for how data is protected and how AI tools can be used safely. I then built automation services that let a lean MSP team deliver and monitor those controls across many clients without adding headcount.

  • Cybersecurity governance and AI-use policies tailored to nonprofit realities
  • Automation services that scaled delivery across a multi-client base
  • More capacity for the MSP team without new headcount
  • A repeatable model that extends to new nonprofit clients

Contact

Get in touch.

I take on a small number of new engagements each quarter. If you're leading a mission-driven organization in education/ed-tech, the nonprofit sector, or aging, and want to think through what AI means for your work, I'd be glad to talk.

jen@forwardworks.co