# Cloverbase (Full LLM Context)

> Cloverbase is the senior practitioner AI adoption mentorship of Mark Smith and Meg Smith, based at Whangārei Heads in Aotearoa New Zealand and working with organisations around the world. We mentor people inside organisations to build the skills and systems they need to put AI to work in the Intelligence Age. Mark has been a Microsoft MVP since January 2012; both Mark and Meg currently hold MVP awards in AI categories. Together we wrote "Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption" (Microsoft Press, September 2025), have run the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge since 2018 (1,500+ participants across 65 countries), and host The Intelligence Age Podcast (800+ episodes since 2017).

## About the founders

Mark Smith is Co-Founder and Principal. He leads the systems side of Cloverbase: AI strategy, repeatable systems, and low-code applications. He has been a Microsoft MVP since 2012, currently holds an AI-category MVP award, is a Microsoft Certified Trainer, and co-authored "Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption" (Microsoft Press, September 2025). He hosts The Intelligence Age Podcast with over 800 episodes since 2017.

Meg Smith is Co-Founder and Principal. She leads the skills side of Cloverbase: AI literacy, change practice, and learning programmes. She holds an MVP award in an AI category, Microsoft Certified Trainer, and Prosci CCMP. She led B2B technology adoption at Google before Cloverbase and co-authored "Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption" (Microsoft Press, September 2025).

Every Cloverbase engagement is led directly by Mark or Meg.

## Current offerings

### AI Literacy
URL: https://cloverbase.com/ai-literacy

A six-week one-to-one capability programme for owners and operators of small businesses. The programme assumes the participant may have done little or nothing with AI before starting. By the end the participant can choose the right AI tool for the task, ask AI for what they need and get back usable work, build AI into the workflows that fill their week, decide what is safe to put into AI and what is not, spot when AI is wrong and what to do about it, and stay confident as the tools change.

The central deliverable is the participant's AI Operating Playbook: a plain-Markdown document describing the business, the tools chosen, prompt patterns, workflows, data-handling decisions, and the method for keeping all of this current. The Playbook is built by the participant through guided exercises and coaching, then delivered as a Markdown document at the end of the programme.

Programme structure (six stages over six weeks): Stage 1 - Getting to know your business (week one, about three hours self-paced). Stage 2 - Drafting your Playbook (weeks two and three, about five hours). Stage 3 - Coaching session one (thirty minutes, live, Microsoft Teams, with Mark Smith). Stage 4 - Refining and applying (weeks four and five, about four hours plus your real work). Stage 5 - Coaching session two (thirty minutes, live, Microsoft Teams, with Mark Smith). Stage 6 - Your Playbook is yours (week six and beyond).

Total participant time: roughly twelve hours of self-paced building plus one hour of live coaching across two sessions.

Investment: NZ$3,800 plus GST per participant. Full programme. No upsells, no add-ons, no premium tiers, no required follow-on retainer.

On completion the participant earns a Credly-issued credential from Cloverbase listing the AI capabilities they have built. The credential is independently verifiable and recognised across the Credly network.

Designed for: owners and operators of small businesses across most industries, who want to build their own AI capability rather than retain a contractor to do the work for them. The participant is willing to put twelve hours of their own time into the programme across six weeks.

Coach: Mark Smith is the only practitioner the participant works with through this programme.

### Digital Literacy
URL: https://cloverbase.com/digital-literacy

A six-week one-to-one capability programme for owners and operators of small businesses, on operating as a digital business. The programme welcomes three starting points: greenfield (no domain name, no business email, no website), some basics in place but no plan, and established patchwork that has accumulated over years without planning.

By the end the participant can operate as a real digital business (domain, business email, online presence, and the understanding of what each is for), make confident decisions about any digital tool, subscription, or supplier, know what good looks like in cyber security for a small business, brief any supplier in plain language to get what they actually need, decide which parts of the work are worth making digital and which are fine staying manual, and stay confident as the digital world changes.

The central deliverable is the participant's Digital Literacy Uplift Playbook: a designed PDF with checklists, decision records, and a twelve-month priority plan. Built to be printed, pinned to a wall, marked up, and used. The Playbook is built by the participant through guided exercises and coaching, then delivered as a designed PDF at the end of the programme.

Programme structure is the structural twin of the AI Literacy programme: same six stages over six weeks, same coaching cadence (two thirty-minute live sessions with Mark Smith on Microsoft Teams at end of week three and end of week five), same total time investment (roughly twelve hours of self-paced building plus one hour of live coaching).

Investment: NZ$3,800 plus GST per participant. Full programme. No upsells, no add-ons, no premium tiers, no required follow-on retainer.

On completion the participant earns a Credly-issued credential from Cloverbase listing the digital capabilities they have built. Independently verifiable and recognised across the Credly network.

Designed for: owners and operators of small businesses who are not technical and do not want to become technical, who want to make their own digital decisions rather than depend on a vendor or an IT partner to tell them what they need.

Coach: Mark Smith is the only practitioner the participant works with through this programme.

### Copilot Champions and Adoption Mentorship
URL: https://cloverbase.com/copilot-champions-and-adoption-mentorship

Productized adoption mentorship for an internal Copilot Adoption Lead and their adoption squad. Three pricing tiers: 3-Month Foundation, 6-Month Scale, 12-Month Embed. The offering's three-stage promise is: Build the Adoption Team, Deliver the Copilot Uplift, Install the Adoption Operating System.

The methodology is published. Mark Smith and Meg Smith co-authored "Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption" (Microsoft Press). The Adoption Kit operationalises that methodology as a deployable system delivered via ako.cloverbase.com. What Cloverbase mentors is the deployment, not the invention.

Why this offering exists: Recon Analytics surveyed 150,000+ workers and found Microsoft Copilot's workplace activation rate sits at 35.8%, meaning roughly two-thirds of paid Copilot seats are dormant. The bottleneck is rarely technology. It is usually no clear adoption lead, no structured playbook, and no regular reinforcement.

Day One: every engagement begins with a 90-minute Baseline Assessment with the Adoption Lead and executive sponsor. We map current state across six dimensions: licensing posture, current usage data, squad readiness, governance maturity, change capacity, and target outcomes. The output is a Baseline Report and a customised 90-day rollout plan. Adoption Kit access on ako.cloverbase.com unlocks progressively over the following four weeks.

Mentoring rhythm: monthly Adoption Lead 1:1 (60 min, live), monthly squad coaching session (60 min, alternating Cloverbase-led live coaching and self-run sessions using the Facilitation Kit), quarterly Executive Review (60 min, live), and continuous async support with 24-hour business-day SLA. The 3-Month Foundation tier also includes weekly 30-minute check-ins for the first month as an onboarding intensive.

Pricing (NZD, plus applicable taxes, billed monthly in advance):
- 3-Month Foundation: 24,000 (8,000/month for 3 months): Build the Adoption Team
- 6-Month Scale: 42,000 (7,000/month for 6 months): Deliver the Copilot Uplift
- 12-Month Embed: 72,000 (6,000/month for 12 months): Install the Adoption Operating System

What this offering is NOT:
- Not training delivery (Cloverbase mentors the Adoption Lead, who delivers training internally).
- Not technical implementation (Cloverbase does not configure tenants, deploy licences, or build agents).
- Not an audit or assessment service (the Baseline is a starting point, not a deliverable in itself).
- Not bespoke development (the productized kit is what's deployed; customisation is by configuration, not rebuild).

Designed for an internal Copilot Adoption Lead (full-time or as a key part of their role; might also be called Copilot Lead, Adoption Manager, Digital Transformation Lead, or Change Manager) and their squad of 2-5 department champions, with leadership buy-in from a CIO or Head of Digital.

## Article categories

- AI Strategy: 3 articles
- AI Leadership: 1 articles
- AI Governance: 1 articles
- Digital Literacy: 1 articles

## All tags

- Digital Literacy (6)
- AI Adoption (5)
- AI Strategy (4)
- AI Governance (4)
- Innovation (4)
- AI (3)
- Governance (2)
- Personal Development (1)
- AI Leadership (1)
- New Zealand (1)
- Microsoft 365 Copilot (1)
- Google Gemini (1)
- Executives (1)
- Board Members (1)

## All posts

### Design principles for choosing and using AI tools
- URL: https://cloverbase.com/articles/design-principles-choosing-using-ai-tools
- Date: 2026-06-10
- Category: AI Strategy
- Tags: AI Strategy, AI Adoption, Digital Literacy, AI Governance, Personal Development
- Reading time: 5 min read
- Summary: A practical framework for developing clear, defensible principles that guide how you choose and use AI tools, built from real experience rather than hype.

### Why AI upskilling is your most important leadership move in 2026
- URL: https://cloverbase.com/articles/ai-upskilling-leadership-2026
- Date: 2026-05-21
- Category: AI Leadership
- Tags: AI Adoption, AI Leadership, Digital Literacy, New Zealand, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Google Gemini, AI Strategy
- Reading time: 4 min read
- Summary: New Zealand business owners who treat AI upskilling as a leadership priority, not a technical project, will make faster decisions and future-proof their growth.

### New Zealand's Path to AI Leadership: Embracing Innovation and Inclusivity
- URL: https://cloverbase.com/articles/new-zealands-path-to-ai-leadership
- Date: 2024-08-01
- Category: AI Governance
- Tags: AI, Digital Literacy, Governance, AI Adoption, AI Strategy, AI Governance, Innovation
- Reading time: 2 min read
- Summary: New Zealand has released a national approach to Artificial Intelligence to accelerate innovation and productivity.

### Four ideas to help your organisation ride the AI wave
- URL: https://cloverbase.com/articles/four-ideas-to-help-your-organisation-ride-the-ai-wave
- Date: 2023-12-18
- Category: AI Strategy
- Tags: AI, Digital Literacy, Governance, Innovation, AI Adoption, AI Governance
- Reading time: 2 min read
- Summary: The AI wave is a big one. Being prepared isn't just about being innovative, it's about making sure you don't fall behind.

### AI won't take your job, but it's likely someone using AI will
- URL: https://cloverbase.com/articles/ai-wont-take-your-job-but-its-likely-someone-using-ai-will
- Date: 2023-12-08
- Category: AI Strategy
- Tags: AI, Digital Literacy, Innovation, AI Governance, AI Strategy, AI Adoption
- Reading time: 2 min read
- Summary: We're in a unique window to embrace AI. Not as a distant future concept, but as a present-day tool that can give you a competitive edge.

### Digital Literacy: An essential skill for Executives in Aotearoa New Zealand
- URL: https://cloverbase.com/articles/digital-literacy-an-essential-skill-for-executives-in-aotearoa-new-zealand
- Date: 2023-06-23
- Category: Digital Literacy
- Tags: Digital Literacy, Executives, Board Members, Innovation
- Reading time: 5 min read
- Summary: Every person in the boardroom needs a shared language and understanding of digital technology so that decisions can be made in the right context.


## Contact

- Website: https://cloverbase.com
- Contact: https://cloverbase.com/contact
- Phone: +64 22 565 7306
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cloverbase/
- Address: PO Box 3061, Onerahi, Whangarei 0142, New Zealand