AI is evolving not just day by day, but almost hour by hour. At this point, no one is debating whether to use AI anymore—only how to use it—and that goes for us at AEB as well. So what happens when a group of people takes a day to not just react to these changes, but to actively shape them?
“The future doesn’t just happen. We create it,” writes Prof. Hannah Fry in her book “Hello World: Being Human in the Age of AI”. The AEB Customer Solutions division has taken up this idea and made it the theme of its first AI hackathon. The goal: to promote the use of AI at AEB while steering it toward responsible and value-adding applications.
“Just give it a try” is considered a given in the software industry, but according to hackathon co-organizer Hannes Eckelt, it’s more important than ever: “Even in the past, before AI, you always had to be ready to set aside what you knew and embrace new technologies. The same applies to AI now, only to an even greater extent, because it’s completely transforming the way we work.”
AI is changing—and AEB is changing with it. That’s why the hackathon focused on the question of how and where we can best apply AI, from the initial idea through to the implementation of our projects.
– Tobias Weiß, co-organizer and software developer
At the hackathon, therefore, a general openness was more important than technical expertise in a specific field: on an individual level, openness to new knowledge, and on a collective level, openness to new approaches — whether by bringing your own idea or joining an existing team. This resulted in a total of 15 teams for the day, covering a wide range of topics: from the further development of an AI process for summarizing sales calls and follow-up processes to the improvement of existing AI assistants.
– Franz Gaber, co-organizer and project manager
Between project work and deadlines, there’s often little time to optimize processes. In the long run, however, automation can save a lot of time. That’s why the Customer Solutions division consciously invested a full day in its own development.
Marco de Jesus António, participant and software developer
The teams' presentation showed just how much can be accomplished in a single day when given the space to do so. In the long term, the event laid the groundwork for a better flow of information throughout the entire process — from customer requirements to implementation—and, in a relatively short time, empowered many people to use AI more confidently in their day-to-day work.
