TEACHING PRACTICE
From one trainer to a network: what Adaptig's trainers delivered in 2026
Published:
For years, my reach was a simple sum. I have trained 11,000+ people, in person and online, in 13 countries.
Then the maths changed. One trainer can only be in one room at a time. The demand for practical AI training exceeded my schedule.
I began designing programmes for other trainers to teach. Those programmes have now reached 2,000+ people in 20+ countries in rooms I did not enter.
I co-founded Adaptig and serve as Director of Academy to address this. It is a network of AI trainers across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The numbers below belong to Adaptig and were earned by the company and its trainers. They are not my personal figures, and I keep the two separate. I am writing about them because this network is the work I am most proud of.
How participants rate Adaptig's trainers
Every Adaptig workshop ends with an anonymous evaluation on Adaptig's own platform. On 15 October 2026, the platform held more than 2,600 completed evaluations from participants. These figures exclude Adaptig staff entries.
Across those evaluations, Adaptig's trainers average 4.8 out of 5 for the instructor. The net promoter score (NPS) is 74.
The pace has not slowed. In the 30 days to 13 October, participants completed more than 200 evaluations on Adaptig's core workshop surveys. The average instructor rating was 4.75 out of 5.
What it changes for clients
NewMark Merrill: 53 solutions built by employees
NewMark Merrill Companies, a US shopping-centre owner and developer, ran Adaptig's SHIFT AI Pioneer Program. My co-founder Mateo Romano led the programme. It consisted of six structured sessions over twelve weeks, and 13 employees were trained as AI champions.
The company published the results on PR Newswire on 31 August 2026:
- 53 AI solutions built by the employees themselves
- 3,783 hours of capacity recovered per year
- underwriting document review cut from eight hours to under one hour
- self-assessed output quality up from 3.2 to 4.3 out of 5
- a participant net promoter score of +70

Sandy Sigal, NewMark Merrill's President and CEO, said: "What impressed me most was not the technology — it was our people."
Kellett School: Adaptig's first international school
In October 2026, Kellett School in Hong Kong became the first international school to work with Adaptig. On 14 October, the school shared on LinkedIn that its first group of professional support staff and senior leaders participated in AI training with Kevin Farley, Karena Belin, and me from Adaptig.

A participant's own words
On 18 July 2026, after a Spark workshop, participant Alex Wild posted an unprompted recommendation of Adaptig on LinkedIn. He wrote that the training carried a lot of content for people at a starting-to-middle level, and closed with: "Gold in, Diamonds out." The post received 231 reactions.

What we are building now
The Productivity workshop now asks about time
Adaptig's Productivity workshop added a question to its evaluation this autumn. Each participant names one task they practised, how long it takes today without AI, and how long they expect it to take with AI.
The first 32 participants to answer gave a median of 60 minutes today and 12.5 minutes expected with AI. 31 of the 32 expect to be faster. These are participants' own estimates at the end of a session, not measured time. They tell us where people see the gain, and they give us a baseline to check later.
Four new modules for the Creativity workshop
On 13 October, I took Adaptig's trainers through four new modules for the Creativity workshop in our weekly Trainer Academy. One product photo becomes campaign images, then a 3D model you can turn, then a short video ad, and finally a brand check.
Each module comes at two levels: a prompt for a chat tool such as Copilot, ChatGPT or Gemini, and a prompt for an AI agent that works in a folder. The brand check also flags realistic AI-made people, places or events that need an "AI-generated" label under Article 50 of the EU AI Act.
The first Shift + Shape trainer cohort
On 14 October, the first cohort of Adaptig trainers started the Shift + Shape train-the-trainer programme. It runs on Adaptig's own Shift platform, and the cohort is scheduled to graduate in December. Shift is the twelve-week champions programme behind results like NewMark Merrill's. Now more trainers in the network will be able to run it.
Two numbers, kept apart
My number represents what I can do in a room. Adaptig's numbers show what happens when our teaching methods no longer require my presence in the room. I am most proud of the second number.
You can see the engagements I have led on my track record page. If you are a trainer, here is how we train AI trainers. For your own team, see corporate AI training.
FAQ
Are these Sam Wong's personal training figures?
No. The evaluation counts, ratings, and client results in this article belong to Adaptig and its trainer network. Sam Wong is a co-founder and Director of Academy at Adaptig. His personal record is listed separately on his track record page.
Where do the Adaptig evaluation figures come from?
They come from anonymous evaluations conducted at the end of every Adaptig workshop on Adaptig's platform. The figures were pulled on 15 October 2026, excluding entries from Adaptig staff.
Is the 60 to 12.5 minutes figure measured time saved?
No. It is the median of the first 32 participants' own estimates provided at the end of a Productivity workshop. These estimates compare how long their chosen task takes today versus how long they expect it to take with AI.
Sources
- NewMark Merrill Companies, "NewMark Merrill Companies Completes AI Pioneer Program, Deploying 53 Employee-Built AI Solutions Across the Enterprise", PR Newswire, 31 August 2026: prnewswire.com
- NewMark Merrill, "Retail developers put AI to work on project decisions", 1 October 2026: newmarkmerrill.com
- NewMark Merrill, "How NewMark Merrill turned employees into AI problem-solvers", 8 October 2026: newmarkmerrill.com
- Kellett School AI training post by Paul Tough, LinkedIn, 14 October 2026: linkedin.com
- Alex Wild, recommendation of Adaptig's Spark training, LinkedIn, 18 July 2026: linkedin.com
- Adaptig platform evaluations: anonymous post-workshop surveys, pulled 15 October 2026 (internal data, aggregates only).
- Adaptig Trainer Academy, Week 09 one-page guide "Creativity 2026: four modules to add", 13 October 2026 (internal).
- European Union AI Act, Article 50 (transparency obligations): artificialintelligenceact.eu
Sam Wong (黃力桐) is a co-founder and Director of Academy at Adaptig. He designs AI training for teams and trains the trainers who deliver it.