TL;DR – Key takeaways for L&D
• Traditional AI training often fails because it’s passive, theoretical, and disconnected from real work.
• Intentional gamification in learning boosts motivation, engagement, and behavior change - especially when tied to real tasks.
• L&D’s role is to design psychologically safe, impact-focused AI learning experiences that lead to measurable workplace change.
What you will learn today:
→ 🔥 The Challenge
→ 💪 How We Helped
→ 🙌 Before and After: What Actually Changed
→ 🎯 The Results
→ 🔢 Beyond the Numbers
Turns out, when people learn how to automate the boring stuff, magic happens. KWS did it and unlocked 4000 hours. Here’s the playbook.
🔥The Challenge
KWS is one of the biggest seed producers on the planet. They operate in 70 countries and have more than 5000 employees. Big company. Big processes. Big amounts of repetitive work clogging everyone’s day.
A small Process Team handled all automation requests, but demand exploded. The backlog grew. Simple requests waited weeks. And most teams had zero automation skills, so even tiny improvements depended on central IT.
They needed a way to help people across the organization automate their own work without adding more complexity.
💪 How We Helped
Instead of scaling the central team, KWS partnered with Bots & People to build internal automation muscle. Real skills. Real solutions. Real results.
Step 1: Automation Agent Training
We trained 20 business users over 4 weeks in spotting automation opportunities and working with low code tools. No technical background needed. Just curiosity and their day to day tasks.
After the training, participants submitted their own automation ideas.
Result: 14 use cases submitted. 5 moved into feasibility review.
Step 2: Automation Promptathon
Next, we brought everyone together for a 2 day Automation Promptathon. Think hands on. Think focused. Think “let’s build something useful by Friday”.
Business users and IT teamed up to create real automations for real KWS processes. No simulations. No sandbox fluff.
15 participants. 4 use cases built.
Step 3: Showcase and Scale
Teams showed their results to the organization and suddenly everyone wanted in.
Momentum went up. Barriers went down.
KWS quickly launched a second cohort with 18 more learners.
🙌 Before and After: What Actually Changed
Before
- Payroll emails from outside Germany all landed in one inbox
- Someone manually opened each one, checked country, created a ticket, attached files
- Took 5 minutes per email… multiplied by thousands
- Processing times stretched for a week or more
After
- Emails turn into fully labeled tickets automatically
- Attachments included instantly
- No manual work required
- Bottleneck gone. Response times way faster
This was just one automation from the Promptathon. Multiply small tasks by large volumes and suddenly you’ve got thousands of hours saved.
🎯 The Results
Here’s what automation upskilling unlocked at KWS.
From the Promptathon:
- 15 participants
- 4 use cases built
- 3 fully implemented
- 4000 hours saved which equals more than 2 years of full time work
From Follow up Training:
- 18 additional business users trained
- 11 more processes identified with 11,800 hours of saving potential
- 9 use cases evaluated
- 4 out of 5 learner satisfaction score
🔢 Beyond the Numbers
The biggest shift wasn’t the hours saved. It was the mindset.
Teams went from “automation is scary” to “hey, we can actually build this”.
People closest to the processes are now spotting opportunities, mapping workflows, and collaborating with IT to bring ideas to life. That’s how you build a real automation culture.
And now everyone is already asking for the next Promptathon.
