Flavien Besset founded NextStart in 2016, after sixteen years leading teams and projects in digital services and completing an MBA at HEC Paris. He now advises management and teams in large organizations on the adoption of generative AI, AI agents, and... Cowork, as a consultant, trainer and speaker, in French and English.
Flavien Besset, in brief
- Role
- Founder and president of NextStart Consulting: NextStart.FR since 2016 (transformation and facilitation), NextStart.AI since 2023 (AI consulting and training).
- What he does
- Consulting for management, conferences and seminars, executive committee and management committee days, executive coaching, facilitation of Prompt Party®, Agent Party® and Cowork Party®.
- Training
- MBA Innovation and Entrepreneurship, HEC Paris (2014-2016).
- Certifications
- Claude Partner Badge: Claude Code and Teaching the AI Fluency Framework, issued by Anthropic. See details
- Before NextStart
- Sixteen years in digital services companies (Teamlog then Groupe Open), including nine as unit director, with up to 90 employees under his supervision.
- Favorite topics
- Adoption of AI in organizations, AI agents and complete task delegation, management of mixed human and AI teams, effects of AI on judgment and decision-making.
- Results
- With the NextStart.AI team: around thirty organizations supported, more than 4,850 professionals trained, average rating of 9,4 out of 10.
- Follow him
- LinkedInwhere more than 8,000 subscribers read his analyses of AI research.
A career path as a manager before that of a trainer
Before training in AI, Flavien Besset spent sixteen years at the intersection of technology and organizations: in a digital services company, winning projects, delivering them, and developing teams. This experience forms the basis of NextStart.AI's approach: a technology only generates value when real teams adopt it in their actual work.
| Period | Role | What he did there |
|---|---|---|
| Since 2023 | Founder and President, NextStart.AI | Consulting and training in generative and agentic AI: from strategic planning to business workshops, to agent deployment and Cowork. |
| Since 2016 | Founder and President, NextStart.FR | Collaborative innovation, workshop facilitation, design thinking, consulting on collaborative approaches for large groups and public institutions. |
| 2014-2016 | MBA, HEC Paris | Specialization in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. |
| 2011-2016 | Unit Director, Energy and Utilities, Open Group | A unit of approximately 90 employees serving major energy accounts. Launch of pioneering offerings: transition to the cloud, dissemination of Agile and Scrum methods. |
| 2007-2011 | Unit Director, Telecoms and Media, Open Group | A unit of approximately 50 employees serving major telecom operators. Launch of the Parisian center for mobile application development and testing. |
| 2000-2006 | Account manager, then head of the Industry and Defense agency, Teamlog | Business development and agency management in a digital services company of 1,800 people, acquired by Open in 2006. |
From facilitation to AI: two chapters, one conviction
NextStart was founded in 2016 to help organizations transform through collective intelligence: co-creating a shared ambition, facilitating collaborative workshops, and training managers and facilitators. This activity, which has served industrial groups, banks, and government agencies, continues to thrive. NextStart.FR.
In 2023, the arrival of generative AI opened a second chapter. Facilitation expertise evolved into a pedagogy: short workshops in small groups, where everyone practices on their real-world cases using their company's tool. This is the NextStart.AI method, and that's what gave rise to the Prompt Party®, then to theAgent Party® and Cowork Party®.
Certifications and badges
Flavien Besset follows the training programs of the software publishers whose tools he teaches. Each diploma listed below can be verified online with the issuing organization.
His interventions
- Conferences and seminars Keynote speeches and interactive formats for conventions, management seminars, or team-building days. See the AI Seminar and the AI Masterclass.
- General directions : Executive Committee and Management Committee days et AI coaching for executives.
- Consulting Program framework, usage guidelines, redesign of offers and processes, transformation management. See the consulting missions.
- Workshops and programs : Facilitation of Party, Challenge, Hackathon and Studio formats, and network buildingAI ambassadors.
What he publishes
Each week, Flavien Besset reads AI research papers (Stanford, Inria, publishers' labs) and draws conclusions published on LinkedInSources are provided. Its recurring themes include: how AI affects our judgment and decisions, model complacency, agent autonomy and governance, the psychological cost of adoption, and choosing the right model for the right task. In-depth analyses appear on the... NextStart.AI blog and the signals of the week in the weekly AI watch.
The organizations that trust him
Airbus, CNES, CEA, Engie, Bristol Myers Squibb, Ceva Animal Health, Boston Scientific, Alptis, Aésio, Agirc-Arrco, City of Paris, Cerema, Réseau SATT, Auchan, Rémy Cointreau: around thirty organizations have used NextStart.AI since 2023. Eight of them are the subject of nine detailed customer case studies.
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