At RUSH, we're all about empowering our people with the latest tools and knowledge. That's why we made a big push to boost our team's AI skills with a 5-week AI Lunch and Learn series, led by our friends at Harnex AI. The series introduced our people to advanced AI techniques, from leveraging generative AI in engineering and product design to building AI-powered assistants. These sessions taught us new tools and how to integrate them into our everyday workflows, allowing our people to work smarter, not harder.

We capped off the series with our RUSH AI Micro-Hackathon. Participants were tasked with harnessing the power of AI to break down silos, foster innovation, and encourage collaboration across all areas of RUSH. Teams formed, each a mix of different disciplines to ensure we had all angles covered.

Each team had 4 minutes to showcase their creations at the end of the session. Our people rose to the challenge, presenting incredibly innovative pitches. We had teams working on AI-powered feedback tools and smart onboarding assistants. Some tackled Slack bots that could summarise threads and prioritise messages, while others dove into automated opportunity context docs and AI-driven resourcing platforms.

The judging panel was a mix of our own RUSH senior leadership team and, in a twist that perfectly captured the spirit of the day, an AI judge. Teams were evaluated on innovation and creativity, cross-disciplinary collaboration, potential impact on RUSH's productivity, functionality, user experience, and scalability.

The winning team presented an AI-Feedback Tool. They devised a solution that not only makes giving and receiving feedback easier but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration. It was a perfect example of how AI can enhance our human interactions.

This AI training and hackathon isn't just a box-ticking exercise. It's a reflection of our commitment to continuous learning. We want our RUSH team to feel confident using AI in their work. Whether it's through automating repetitive tasks, generating creative ideas faster, or making more informed decisions based on AI-driven insights, we believe that by upskilling in AI, we are positioning our people - and RUSH - for long-term success.

While we're excited about the power of AI, it's our people's creativity, curiosity, and expertise that bring the tools to life. It’s the brilliant minds using the tech that’s driving the innovation. As we continue to invest in AI and other emerging technologies, our commitment to nurturing our people remains at the core of what we do.

The AI sessions were designed to inspire our teams to think about how AI can help them collaborate more effectively, deliver better results for our clients, and make a broader impact on the community. After seeing what our teams can do with AI in just three hours, we can't wait to see what ideas they'll come up with next.

Want to read more? Click here to view our chat with David Breßler, RUSH Senior Software Engineer, to get his take on the lunch and learn series.