The IMS Approach to AI
The Institute for Management Studies has spent decades working with some the most respected thinkers in management and leadership. Today, that same expertise sits inside our AI. Not generic models trained on the open internet, but vetted ideas, established frameworks, and proven practices, delivered through tools that your employees can actually use.
AI Is Only as Smart as What You Train It On
Most AI tools draw from the open internet. The good, the bad, and the actively wrong,
all mixed together. For casual questions that may be fine. For decisions about how you
develop your people, it is definitely not.
IMS takes a different approach. For decades we have worked with the most respected names
in leadership and human capability. Their frameworks, models, and practices are the
foundation that our AI is built on. The result is an AI assistant that does not guess. AI that knows what
good looks like, because the people who defined what good looks like trained it.
Expert Knowledge In.
Vetted AI Out.
Vetted AI Out.
Our process turns proven expertise into AI tools your people can rely on.
Four steps from faculty to capability.
Step One
Expert Faculty
200+ thought leaders contribute the frameworks, methodologies, and lessons that have shaped modern leadership and L&D practice.
Step Two
Curation and Validation
IMS structures and vets the content for fidelity to source. The AI learns from established expertise, not internet noise.
Step Three
Purpose-Built AI Tools
Clio's 26 L&D tools and Athena's 35 coaching tools are structured around a proven framework from learning experts, not just a prompt.
Step Four
Human Capability
Your people grow with guidance grounded in proven practice. The point is not the AI. The point is what your people become because of it.
Two AI Solutions - One Foundation
The same expert knowledge powers two AI experiences, one for the L&D function
and one for every employee in your organization.
For L&D and HR Professionals
Clio is an AI partner built specifically for the work of L&D. Twenty-eight
purpose-built tools for needs analysis, program design, measurement,
business case development, and more. Each tool is structured around proven
L&D methodology drawn from the Institute's faculty. Not a generic chatbot.
A strategic colleague who knows the field.
Learn About Clio →
For Every Employee
Athena is an AI coach grounded in microlearning lessons from the same
expert faculty who teach IMS programs. She delivers coaching, reinforcement,
and on-demand expertise the moment your people need it. Thirty-five
purpose-built coaching tools. 3,000+ expert lessons. One conversational
interface, available wherever your team works.
Learn About Athena →
AI That Builds Human Capability
The term 'Human Capability' comes from Dave Ulrich, the University
of Michigan professor who is often called the father of modern HR and a longtime member
of the Intitute's faculty. In Ulrich's framework, human capability is the integration
of four pathways, talent, leadership, organization, and HR practices, that together
determine whether an enterprise creates durable value for its people, its customers,
its investors, and its communities.
“AI doesn’t invent the future. Humans imagine what’s next.”
Dave Ulrich · University of Michigan
Every framework that powers Clio and Athena was built to develop human capability. The AI is the delivery mechanism. The expertise is drawn from leading thinkers from the Institute for Management Studies, and that is what changes people.
Human capability, from the employee's point of view, isn't about doing more. It is
about managing the things that used to drain them. The Monday meeting
they are no longer rehearsing all weekend. The hard conversation they are no longer
losing sleep over. The career question they can ask at 9pm so they can be present at
dinner with their family. That is what the AI is quietly for.
This is what makes membership in the Institute different. You are not just gaining access to
great programs from our IMS thought leaders. You are getting an entire AI infrastructure trained by the experts you
already trust, working alongside your team.
Put Expert-Driven AI to Work
Book a 20-minute conversation to see Clio and Athena in action and learn how
IMS membership puts expert-backed AI to work for your people.
Clio and Athena are available to IMS members as part of your membership benefits.