Joel Salinas, AI Strategy Coach

Hi, I'm Joel Salinas.

I help nonprofit and SMB leaders adopt AI without outsourcing their judgment to it.

AI Strategy Coach·Creator of the AI Leadership Triad·Founder of Leadership in Change

Read by 7,000+ leaders | Founder of Cozora | Published weekly in Leadership in Change | Bilingual EN/ES
7,000+
Newsletter subscribers
3
AI-powered businesses founded
10+ yrs
Leading teams through change
MBA
Business strategy & global markets

Who I Am

I was born in Bolivia and grew up thinking I'd be a humanitarian. Instead, I fell in love with building businesses, products, and teams. I'm an MBA-trained business leader and investor who's spent the last decade helping leaders navigate change. First as a coach and consultant, then as an operator building products that solve real problems. Along the way, I developed the AI Leadership Triad, a framework built on the three skills I believe every leader needs in the AI era: Adaptability, Innovation, and Creativity. I speak, I write, and I coach executives 1-on-1.

Professional Background

By day, I serve as a Senior Director of Growth Marketing at a global humanitarian organization, leading teams through organizational change, driving growth strategy, and managing marketing operations across a complex, mission-driven environment. That work shaped how I approach AI adoption: people first, technology second. It's also what makes my coaching different. I don't just understand the technology. I understand the organizational dynamics: the resistance, the politics, the budget constraints, and the human side of adoption that most technologists ignore.

What I've Built

Alongside my own coaching and AI build work, I run three other AI-powered businesses that demonstrate real-world AI implementation:

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Leadership in Change

AI leadership newsletter

A newsletter read by 7,000+ leaders who want to understand AI without the hype. Practical frameworks for AI adoption, the AI Leadership Triad, strategy before tech, culture over code. Published weekly.

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Cozora

AI education platform

A membership community of AI experts who teach through demonstration and implementation, not lectures. Live weekly sessions where practitioners share what's actually working in the field.

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Newsletter Compass

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What I Believe

AI is a tool for amplifying leadership, not replacing it. The best AI strategies come from business leaders, not technologists. Culture and clarity matter more than code.

That's why I built the AI Leadership Triad around the three skills that separate leaders who thrive from leaders who get left behind. The leaders who will win the AI era are the ones who stay grounded in their values while moving fast. That's worth coaching someone through.

The AI Leadership Triad

Three skills every leader needs in the AI era

The framework I built from a decade of leading teams through change and a few years of watching AI rollouts succeed or stall. Want a quick read on where you actually stand on AI today? Take the free AI Leadership Compass, a 5-minute assessment of your AI mindset and how you actually use it.

01

Adaptability

Adjusting strategy and operations as AI capabilities and the competitive landscape evolve. Adaptive leaders keep mission clarity while changing methods. The most critical skill and the one most leaders underestimate.

02

Innovation

Reimagining workflows, products, and services using AI in ways that serve core mission. Real innovation versus innovation theater. The boring, practical process improvements that actually compound.

03

Creativity

The human capacity to connect ideas across domains in ways AI cannot. Creative leaders ask the questions AI cannot ask. The skill that becomes more valuable, not less, as AI handles more execution.

Why I Do This

I got tired of watching smart leaders feel paralyzed by AI. Tired of seeing them hand the keys to technologists. Tired of watching teams adopt tools without strategy. Good leadership is irreplaceable, and AI should buy you time to do more of it, not distract you from it. That's what drives my work.

Credentials & Specializations

MBA-trained business strategist with specializations in business strategy, global market strategy, and SaaS marketing, plus real change management experience from the humanitarian sector. That combination of business training and active practitioner work is what makes the AI advisory here different from someone who mostly advises from the outside.

If you're looking for hands-on help implementing AI in your organization, see how we can work together.

Ready to work together?

Two ways in: the monthly AI Judgment Workshop, or the 90-Day Judgment Engagement.

See how we work together