Brandon Z. Hoff
Founder of RUDI (Responsible Use of Digital Intelligence)
Helping organizations adopt human-centered AI through the RUDI literacy taxonomy, applied AI, and practical implementation.
What is RUDI?
Three educators and Brandon on responsible AI in practice
"AI is going to impact the way that we live, learn, and work. We wanted to use a larger umbrella to encompass your whole digital footprint — digital literacy, responsible use practices, safety, privacy. We're trying to establish what it means to be human-centered AI, keeping humanity at the center."— Brandon Z. Hoff, Founder
Brandon Z. Hoff is the founder of RUDI (Responsible Use of Digital Intelligence) and the creator of Hoff Digital, a public education channel on responsible AI reaching nearly 100,000 community followers across TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Substack, with millions of views over the past four years.
Trained in finance and a serial social entrepreneur, Brandon began his career building early machine-learning models for predictive lending. He later founded a community cooperative grounded in collective economics, and has championed human-centered AI in theory and in applied practice for the last several years.
At RUDI, Brandon authored a generative AI literacy taxonomy that maps progression along an AI competency ladder: conceptual understanding, operational fluency, and responsible-use governance. He has built tools and led applied AI work across real estate, financial analysis, and workforce productivity, and authored curriculum for The Propel Center, the University of Illinois Springfield, and a range of public, private, and civic institutions.
AI Literacy Taxonomy
A RUDI framework for mapping AI competency: conceptual understanding, operational fluency, and responsible-use governance.
Applied AI
Practical adoption strategy, workflow design, and tooling across real estate, finance, education, and workforce productivity.
Curriculum & Speaking
Custom curriculum for educational organizations, governments, and enterprise, plus keynotes and community programming.
AfroTech 2025
Featured keynote on responsible AI adoption at one of the largest gatherings of Black technologists in the country. Covered by Technical.ly in their conference recap.
Warren County ESC
Nine-month responsible AI curriculum for 23 K-12 educators and administrators. 20 hours focused on educator productivity.
The Mercantile Library
Open community education series on responsible AI use, hosted by The Mercantile Library and led by Brandon. Featured in Soapbox Cincinnati.
The Propel Center
AI literacy curriculum and program development with The Propel Center, the HBCU innovation hub supporting students and educators in responsible AI.
Walker SCM
Corporate-wide AI adoption strategy and rollout for an enterprise of 1,200 employees. Focus: workforce productivity and responsible adoption.
"I can build the project where if I know I'm using it for email, I can put it in there. I'm not having to do a lot of back and forth and it's made everything more efficient."Educator, Warren County ESC
"I'm finding ways to create shortcuts through ChatGPT — basically have ChatGPT do the work and I can do the thinking and provide the right prompts to really get the outcomes that I want."Educator, Warren County ESC
- Educational service centers Across Ohio & the Midwest
- Ohio Head Start Workshop series
- Apple Community Education Initiative Partner network
- Florida A&M University (FAMU) HBCU partner
- University of Illinois Springfield AI curriculum development
- Crowe LLP Keynote & fireside
- Corporate ERG groups Workshops & programming
- Urban Land Institute Cincinnati real estate speaker
- Ohio Governor's Office AI & literacy
- The Port Cincinnati civic engagement
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Technical.ly2025
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Soapbox Cincinnati2025
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Stacker / Creatie.ai2024
MBA Finance & Social Entrepreneurship, EDHEC University · IBM AI Developer · DeepLearning.AI · MIT xPRO
Available for speaking, workshops, partnerships, and advisory conversations.