At GSD&M, AI upskilling isn’t just another item on the to-do list—it’s a leaderboard-worthy competition. The agency took a DIY approach to integrating AI across all departments, driven by a small trio of internal evangelists who audited workflows and mapped AI solutions right into teams’ day-to-day tasks. This wasn’t just a tech initiative from the top down; the agency turned knowledge-sharing into office culture—with prompts, tools, and methodologies paired to specific business functions, and yes, tracked on a public leaderboard like a SoulCycle class for data nerds.
Smartly tapping into agencies’ innate competitive streaks, GSD&M added just enough gamification to get participation humming. Weekly workshops and asynchronous “office hours” gave staff the flexibility to learn on their schedule, while the leaderboard stoked friendly rivalry—especially when junior staff started climbing past their bosses. Execs noted that the visibility alone was enough to spur more adoption, as employees competed for AI bragging rights across content creation, research, and operational processes.
The move’s already paying off beyond the expected. A few finance folks built an internal data extraction tool to streamline manual reports, while recruiters got a homegrown resume-sorting tool that prioritizes candidates based on job fit (still with a human in charge). For an agency shaped by DIY innovation, these practical, staff-driven tools show that blending curiosity with competition doesn’t just teach technology—it builds it.
Read more at Digiday.