SAICI launches The Vanguard 7 with first two members

The Society for AI in Competitive Intelligence has launched The Vanguard 7, a standing advisory council meant to shape AI-native competitive intelligence standards, training, and professional development. Jem Cuffee and Rose Beverly are the first inaugural members, with five more appointments expected in the coming months.

Why it matters: - The Society for AI in Competitive Intelligence is trying to define how competitive intelligence works as AI-native tools, agents, and workflows become standard. - The new council will help shape standards, credentialing, and professional development for the field. - SAICI is also using the council to influence the future direction of the organization itself.

What happened: - SAICI announced The Vanguard 7 on July 22, 2026. - The council is a hand-selected advisory body of practitioners, researchers, and operators. - Jem Cuffee and Rose Beverly are the first two inaugural members. - SAICI is a microsociety of the American Institute of Artificial Intelligence.

The details: - The Vanguard 7 will advise SAICI on how AI is changing competitive intelligence production. - The council will also weigh in on how practitioners should be trained and credentialed for an AI-native era. - SAICI says the profession is changing as agentic systems, generative tools, and AI-augmented workflows become the operating reality of modern CI. - Members are selected for working at the leading edge of the discipline, not for commenting on it from the sidelines. - Cuffee is a founding member of SAICI and Senior Principal Engineer at Dell Technologies. - Cuffee works across AI/ML, cloud, and infrastructure, and partners with product, marketing, and sales on competitive strategy. - Cuffee previously held roles at JPMorgan Chase in disruptive technology, software development, and economics. - SAICI says Cuffee represents the engineering perspective needed for AI-native CI. - Beverly is a Senior Competitive Intelligence Analyst at CrowdStrike. - Beverly focuses on AI for cybersecurity, competitive strategy, and emerging technologies affecting security markets. - Beverly studied anthropology, psychology, and philosophy at UC Berkeley. - Beverly spent nearly a decade in user experience research, innovation, and strategy at PayPal, MasterClass, and Silicon Valley Bank. - Beverly developed M.A.S.T.E.R., a cross-functional AI adoption framework now used across more than 30 organizations. - SAICI says Beverly brings the human-AI fluency needed to make intelligence usable inside organizations. - The two inaugural members represent engineering depth and human-AI fluency. - SAICI plans to name five additional Vanguard 7 members in the coming months. - SAICI also pointed professionals to saici.ai for more information on The Vanguard 7, SAICI, and the CGENAI® in Competitive Intelligence certification. - SAICI describes itself as a professional society focused on standards, certification, professional development, and community for competitive intelligence. - SAICI says its work is aimed at strengthening intelligence capability in an environment shaped by artificial intelligence and rising strategic demands.

Between the lines: - SAICI is signaling that AI-native competitive intelligence needs both technical engineering depth and organizational judgment. - The choice of one engineer and one practitioner focused on applied AI suggests the council is meant to be operational, not academic. - The emphasis on standards and certification points to an effort to formalize a field that is still being reshaped by AI.

What's next: - SAICI will add five more members to The Vanguard 7 over the next few months. - The full founding cohort is expected to help set professional standards and define credible AI-native CI practice. - Interest in the council and certification is being directed to saici.ai. - SAICI's LinkedIn page is available at American Institute of AI on LinkedIn.