Champion network charter template

A champion network charter is a one-page agreement that says what internal champions do during an AI agent rollout, how much working time they get for it, what support they receive, and what they may not do. Copy the template below, fill in each clause with your sponsor, and have every champion and their line manager sign it.

Why does a champion network need a charter?

Champions are part of the wider effort described in the guide to training teams for AI agents: the colleagues on each team who learn the agent early, answer questions, and carry problems back to the people who can fix them. Without a charter, the role erodes in three ways. Line managers reclaim the time. Champions become an informal help desk for everything. And, most dangerous with agents, colleagues start treating a champion's say-so as approval.

A charter prevents all three. It protects the time in writing, narrows the role, and states plainly that being a champion grants no approval rights over the agent's held actions. Those come only from a current certificate, as with anyone else. The idea is introduced in what a champion network is; the steps for building one are in how to build an internal champion network for AI agents.

How do you fill it in?

Agree the charter with an executive sponsor before recruiting anyone. Fill in clauses 1 to 4 from the rollout plan: which agents, which teams, how long. Clauses 5 to 8 are negotiated with line managers, because they give up the time. Clauses 9 to 12 are fixed: the limits, the escalation route and how the network will be judged.

The charter borrows its shape from the agent role charter, which defines what an agent may do. Here the same discipline is applied to people: scope, bounds, who they answer to, and what is recorded.

The charter template

1. Purpose. Why the network exists, in one sentence.
2. Scope. Which agents and teams it covers.
3. Sponsor. The executive who owns the network and removes blockers.
4. Coordinator. The person who runs meetings, keeps the champion list and reports progress.
5. Champions. One per team or site, named, with their team.
6. Protected time. Hours per week, agreed with each line manager, and for how long.
7. Training champions receive. The shared foundation as a minimum; the certified reviewer track for any champion who also sits on the held rota.
8. Support. Access to a test workspace, a direct line to the agent owner, a monthly network meeting.
9. What champions do. Answer colleagues' questions on depth, verdicts and the record; collect feedback; log refusals and confusing held actions; help run calibration; spot training gaps.
10. What champions do not do. Approve held actions unless separately certified; change the agent's brief, sources or bounds; promise colleagues the agent will gain depth; override a refusal.
11. Escalation route. Where champions send issues: agent owner for agent behaviour, team lead for people issues, risk for anything that looks like a missed red line.
12. Measures and term. How the network is judged, and when the charter is reviewed or closed.

Worked example

The sample below is for an illustrative mid-sized lender putting an onboarding agent live.

1. Purpose: help the onboarding and operations teams work confidently with the new agent through its first six months.
2. Scope: the onboarding agent; the onboarding, operations and customer support teams.
3. Sponsor: chief operating officer.
4. Coordinator: learning and development lead.
5. Champions: one from each of five teams, named.
6. Protected time: two hours a week for six months, signed by each line manager.
7. Training: all five take the foundation; three on the held rota are also certified reviewers.
8. Support: a test workspace; a fortnightly call with the agent owner; a monthly network meeting.
9. Duties as in the template, plus one written note per month on the most common question.
10. Limits as in the template; champions are reminded that a colleague asking them to approve a held action must be redirected to a certified approver.
11. Escalation: agent behaviour to the agent owner within one working day; a suspected missed red line to risk the same day.
12. Measures: fewer repeat questions by month three, refusal log reviewed monthly, every team represented at calibration. Review at month six.

Whether champions meet in person or online depends on how spread out the teams are; the trade-offs are in whether AI agent training should be online or in person.

Where the Academy fits

Pryme Intelligence Academy gives champions their grounding. Foundations is free, takes about four hours and earns a badge stamped with the product version, which helps champions know when their knowledge is out of date. Champions who also review held actions take Operator. Labs run in a free Build workspace, which can serve as the test workspace in clause 8.