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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEApril 2026Doug Mitchell, Founder — doug@futureworkacademy.com

Future Work Academy Releases Spring 2026 Platform Update: Named AI, Behavioral Analytics, and the Road to Multi-Simulation

Iowa — April 2026

Future Work Academy (FWA) today announced its Spring 2026 platform update, adding a named AI persona, an academic integrity analytics layer, full WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility compliance, and infrastructure groundwork for a multi-simulation marketplace launching later this year.

Meet Akme

The platform's embedded AI assistant now has a name, a voice, and a defined personality. Akme is not a chatbot that apologizes and hedges. Akme challenges students the way a sharp colleague would — with follow-up questions, calibrated skepticism, and a working knowledge of business strategy and workforce dynamics. Akme is powered by Google Gemini and is the shared AI layer across every FWA product surface, from the in-simulation advisor phone to the upcoming Akme Challenge Mode, which requires students to defend their submitted work under live questioning.

Behavioral Analytics: What Students Do Matters as Much as What They Submit

The hardest problem in AI-era assessment is not detecting AI-generated text — it's building a picture of the whole student. FWA's new behavioral analytics suite captures time-on-task, reading patterns, and submission behavior for every student, every week. Instructors see a dashboard that pairs self-reported effort with observed behavior, giving them evidence for conversations rather than accusations. It is not a surveillance tool. It is a diagnostic tool — the same kind of signal coaches have used for decades to separate preparation from performance-day luck.

Accessibility as Standard, Not Afterthought

FWA has completed a full WCAG 2.1 Level AA remediation pass. Every interactive element is keyboard-navigable. All color contrast ratios meet or exceed spec. Instructors at institutions subject to Section 508 or ADA Title II can now procure with confidence. The accessibility audit documentation is available on request.

What's Coming: A Marketplace of Simulations

The current platform runs one simulation — Apex Manufacturing's AI-driven transformation. By fall 2026, FWA will support multiple simulation modules, each configurable by professor accounts through a guided intake wizard. Akme generates the full simulation draft from structured inputs. A validation agent runs a synthetic student through every week before publication, catching scoring imbalances before real students encounter them. The first external professor accounts are now in private onboarding.

About Future Work Academy

Future Work Academy is an AI-native business simulation platform for higher education and professional training. It is built, owned, and operated by The Mitchell Group, LLC in Iowa. The platform offers two simulations: the live flagship, The Future of Work at Apex Manufacturing, an 8-week experiential scenario where students take on executive leadership at a Des Moines automotive supplier navigating AI-driven transformation; and Prairie Precision Manufacturing, available now, an 8-week simulation anchored at an Iowa ag-equipment supplier. For more information: futureworkacademy.com.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEJune 2026Doug Mitchell, Founder — doug@futureworkacademy.com

Future Work Academy Introduces Enterprise Simulation Tier: Fortune 500 Scenarios, Live Data Injection, and White Glove Onboarding for Institutional Partners

Iowa — June 2026

Future Work Academy (FWA) today announced the Enterprise simulation tier, a new capability layer designed for Fortune 500 partnerships, global business schools, and professional training organizations operating at institutional scale. The Enterprise tier brings higher-complexity scenarios, extended simulation arcs, live real-world data injection, and a direct white glove engagement path for organizations that need more than a standard institutional license.

Built for the Complexity Serious Buyers Require

Standard FWA simulations run eight weeks and center on a mid-market company navigating an AI-driven transformation. The Enterprise tier expands the simulation envelope in two directions: scenario complexity and arc length. Enterprise simulations can model global corporations with multi-division structures, cross-border workforce dynamics, board-level governance pressure, and regulatory environments that vary by region. Arc lengths extend beyond the standard eight-week format to accommodate semester-long or multi-term cohort experiences. These are not cosmetic changes — they require students to manage interdependencies that do not resolve neatly, which is the point.

Live Data Injection: The Simulation Reacts to the Real World

The most significant capability in the Enterprise tier is live data injection. Starting this summer, Enterprise simulations can surface real-world events — labor market shifts, regulatory announcements, earnings disclosures, macroeconomic indicators — directly into the simulation environment at scheduled or instructor-triggered intervals. Students must respond to these events within the context of their running simulation, not as an abstract case study exercise. Akme, FWA's embedded AI advisor, contextualizes each injected event within the student's specific company scenario, connecting the external development to their current workforce strategy and decision portfolio.

White Glove Conversion for Enterprise-Scale Interest

Organizations evaluating the Enterprise tier do not move through a standard checkout flow. FWA's white glove conversion path connects institutional buyers — executive education directors, corporate L&D leaders, and academic program chairs — directly with the FWA team for scoping, scenario design, and cohort configuration. This includes a structured intake process, a custom simulation draft generated from institutional inputs, and a validation pass before any cohort goes live. Pricing for Enterprise engagements is negotiated based on cohort size, arc length, and the degree of scenario customization required.

Why Enterprise, Why Now

The demand signal has been clear for several months. Institutions running FWA's standard simulation have asked, consistently, for scenarios their most advanced students cannot finish on autopilot. They want stakes that feel real. Live data injection is FWA's answer to that request — a mechanism that makes the simulation environment genuinely responsive to the world students will enter after graduation. The Enterprise tier formalizes that capability and pairs it with the engagement model that institutional procurement actually requires.

About Future Work Academy

Future Work Academy is an AI-native business simulation platform for higher education and professional training. It is built, owned, and operated by The Mitchell Group, LLC in Iowa. The platform offers two simulations: the live flagship, The Future of Work at Apex Manufacturing, an 8-week experiential scenario where students take on executive leadership at a Des Moines automotive supplier navigating AI-driven transformation; and Prairie Precision Manufacturing, available now, an 8-week simulation anchored at an Iowa ag-equipment supplier. Enterprise tier inquiries: doug@futureworkacademy.com. For more information: futureworkacademy.com.

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