This AI leadership training case study, published in Training Magazine's May 2026 feature on leadership development trends, profiles a European defense company's five-month Executive Leadership Development Program. The Training Magazine piece covers insights from organizations including Verizon, KPMG, Paychex, The Haskell Company, KLA Corporation, Applied Materials, and State Compensation Insurance Fund.
The piece includes a dedicated case study on a European defense company's five-month Executive Leadership Development Program for 18 VPs and senior directors. The program was custom designed and facilitated by UK-based leadership development consultancy CTG Group, with LeaderCoreAI serving as the practice layer alongside facilitated workshops. Participants could privately rehearse high-stakes leadership conversations including conflict resolution, performance management, stakeholder influence, and managing resistance to change.
The case study reports 132 voluntary practice sessions across the cohort, a voluntary return rate of 67 percent, and 75 hours of self-directed practice logged outside required workshop sessions. The average session lasted 34 minutes, with 37 back-and-forth message exchanges with the AI per session.
“What I didn't expect was how much our leaders would use it voluntarily. They kept going back to test different approaches between workshops. At that level, people simply don't do that with tools they don't find valuable.”
“When a VP returns 25 times without being asked, that's practice winning against every other demand on their time. That tells you more than any satisfaction score.”
The defense company is looking to extend the approach to future leadership development programs.