By CyberAI | News Hotspot Insight | June 13, 2025
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to revolutionize industries, one thing has become clear: adopting AI tools is not enough. To truly harness its potential, businesses need a new kind of expert — the AI Operator.
This emerging role is championed by Rachel Woods, founder of the AI Exchange and DiviUp Agency. With nearly a decade of experience working on AI projects at Facebook and various startups, Woods has seen firsthand how AI can enhance business operations — if guided properly.
“If you can define how you want your business to run, AI can help you do it,” Woods explains.
A Journey into AI Operations
Woods’ journey began with cutting-edge work on language models at Facebook’s AI Research team. Now, she leads two organizations helping businesses navigate AI transformation: the AI Exchange, an online AI community, and DiviUp Agency, which specializes in operationalizing AI in real-world business settings.
Through these ventures, she identified a recurring challenge: while many companies invest in AI tools, few integrate them effectively. That gap, she argues, is where the AI Operator comes in.
What is an AI Operator?
An AI Operator is a process-focused professional who guides the design, implementation, and scaling of AI across business workflows. Unlike technical implementers or strategic visionaries, AI Operators ensure that AI aligns with day-to-day operations.
“These are your ClickUp queens and kings,” Woods says. “They love project management, organization, and turning complex tasks into clear, actionable steps.”
AI Operators don’t need deep technical knowledge. Instead, they excel at mapping workflows, documenting processes, and working alongside subject-matter experts to identify areas ripe for automation.
Three Key Roles for AI Transformation
According to Woods, businesses that successfully adopt AI often rely on a trio of specialized roles:
- AI Visionary – Sets the strategic direction for AI initiatives.
- AI Implementer – Handles the technical execution, from automation to code.
- AI Operator – Bridges the gap between vision and execution by managing workflows and ensuring scalable, sustainable implementation.
Many companies, she warns, mistakenly merge the implementer and operator roles — causing them to lose sight of the broader business context.
The CRAFT Method: A Framework for AI Adoption
To streamline AI integration, Woods and her team developed the CRAFT Method, a five-step framework:
- Clear Picture – Understand the current process thoroughly.
- Realistic Design – Start small with achievable goals.
- AI – Build and integrate AI solutions (e.g., prompts, automations).
- Feedback – Gather feedback to refine AI outputs.
- Team Rollout – Train the team and implement at scale.
The approach is iterative, encouraging continuous refinement and growth.
For example, Woods recommends recording walkthroughs of business processes, transcribing them, and using AI to generate SOPs or checklists — a practical starting point for many companies.
A Role Whose Time Has Come
In an era where disinformation, over-automation, and poorly integrated AI systems threaten to derail progress, the AI Operator plays a stabilizing and strategic role.
For those who thrive on structure, collaboration, and clarity — and have a growing interest in AI — the role offers a timely opportunity to lead in this evolving space.
“If you’re process-oriented and love making things run better, this could be your moment,” says Woods.
Bottom Line:
As AI tools become more powerful and more accessible, the real differentiator won’t be the technology itself — it will be how well businesses integrate it. The AI Operator is quickly becoming the unsung hero of that transformation.
Let me know if you’d like this adapted into a press release, a LinkedIn article, or a podcast intro script!
