Charter
SPO AI Catalysts Group Version 1.0 · May 2026
Purpose
The SPO AI Catalysts Group exists to speed up AI-enabled ways of working across SPO.
Catalysts form a distributed network of AI ambassadors, educators, and change agents embedded within SPO chapters. Their role is to help teams adopt AI effectively, responsibly, and sustainably in everyday work, while building each team’s ability to develop and automate solutions independently over time.
The group supports the broader SPO AI vision of growing organisational capacity, raising quality and speed, and enabling SPO to deliver more without a proportional increase in headcount. The initial ambition is to contribute productivity gains equivalent to roughly 4–8 FTE of additional SPO capacity through widespread AI adoption and AI-enabled ways of working.
How Catalysts and the Incubator Work Together
The Catalysts Group and the AI Incubator are different but complementary:
| Catalysts Group | AI Incubator | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Grassroots adoption, enablement, upskilling, lightweight automation | Larger structural bottlenecks and engineering-intensive initiatives |
| Approach | Embedded in chapters, working alongside teams | Dedicated project teams with structured cohort support |
| Output | Broader capability uplift, reusable patterns, daily habit change | Proof-of-concepts, scalable solutions, engineering outputs |
Together, they create productivity gains that build on each other across SPO.
What the Catalysts Group Does
Catalysts help SPO teams:
- Embrace AI and AI-native approaches to daily work
- Build practical automations and lightweight workflows without heavy engineering effort
- Develop skills in AI, prompting, automation, and low-code/no-code building
- Share reusable solutions and practices across SPO chapters
- Get more self-sufficient in applying AI to their own work
The methods and resources Catalysts use include:
- Training sessions and hands-on workshops
- Office hours and peer coaching
- Google Workspace and lightweight workflow automations
- AI-assisted reporting, analysis, and knowledge workflows
- Curated tools, patterns, and recommended approaches
- Liaison with Roche and pRED AI initiatives
- Identifying and sharing reusable opportunities across chapters
The focus is on practical enablement and capability building, not on building products.
What the Catalysts Group Does Not Do
The Catalysts Group is an enablement network, not a centralised delivery or support function.
The group does not:
- Act as an internal consulting service for routine operational tasks
- Take over or fix local team workflows and spreadsheets
- Become a permanent implementation resource for individual teams
- Own team workflows, data, or operational processes on behalf of others
- Work outside Roche governance or enterprise guardrails
- Take on work that belongs to the AI Incubator (large-scale engineering initiatives)
The core principle is enablement over dependency. Catalysts work alongside teams to help them learn, build, and grow more capable, not to create reliance on the Catalysts themselves.
Operating Principles
Five principles guide how the Catalysts Group works:
- Enablement over dependency — Build teams’ own capability. Avoid creating reliance.
- Shared learning over isolated expertise — What one chapter learns, all chapters benefit from.
- Enterprise-ready and compliant by design — Every solution respects Roche governance from the start.
- Co-create with domain experts — The best solutions combine AI knowledge with deep domain understanding.
- Many small gains add up — Widespread, incremental improvements lead to significant impact across SPO.
The long-term goal is to embed AI as a lasting part of daily work across SPO. Not a project or a programme, but a new way of working.
Version History
| Version | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | May 2026 | Initial charter |
Questions about this charter? Reach out to the Catalysts team.