CASE STUDY · AVIATION AND TRAVEL
Lufthansa's innovation unit took daily AI use from 31% to 83% in four weeks
A manager at Lufthansa Innovation Hub tried Mindstone's Enterprise AI Academy on his own work first. Then the rest of the team followed.
The result
29
ways to use AI, found in the team's own work
logged by the team during the programme
-
4.2 / 5
average readiness to use AI at work
the team's score at the end of the programme
-
~50
people in the unit, inside the Lufthansa Group
Company figure.
-
2014
founded, with years of published research on AI in travel
Company figure.
The challenge
Everyone used AI a little. Nobody knew what came next.
Lufthansa Innovation Hub is the group's digital innovation unit. It researches what comes next in travel, launches ventures and trains colleagues across the group. It even built Swifty, an AI travel assistant for business bookings. This team knew AI well.
Using it well in its own daily work was a different problem. Some people had gone further with advanced uses. Many used AI now and then for things like drafting emails. What was missing was a shared answer to three questions: which tasks matter most, which tools fit them, and how to adopt AI as a team rather than as separate experiments.
What they did
One leader first, then the whole team, week by week
Clemens Jakubeit, a Senior Venture Development Manager, tried the Academy on his own work before asking anyone else to. Then the team went through it on their real jobs.
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Step 1: Week one
Find the uses that fit each person's job, and see how better questions change the answers.
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Step 2: Week two
Try a range of AI tools on real work and learn which suits which task.
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Step 3: Week three
AI moves from one-off tasks to everyday work, including analysis outside people's own expertise.
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Step 4: Week four
The new way of working becomes the team's normal.
The first result
From meeting notes to his own AI assistants
Before
Small tasks
Clemens used AI for simple jobs like summarising meetings.
After
His own assistants
He built AI assistants for drafting business models, customer support analysis and market research, and found he was working faster and deciding more sharply.
What changed in the work
From one chat tool to the right tool for each job
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Tools combined
People now use several AI tools in one piece of work, image and design tools included, instead of one chat tool for everything.
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Harder work
Large datasets, research across languages, and error analysis cut from hours to minutes.
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The business case
As use grew, so did requests for the right tools, which made the case for investing in them.
Where it went next
AI became part of how the team works
Even people who already used AI every day got more from the programme. The team reports gains in the quality of its work, its decision making, the time tasks take, and in cost savings and new revenue ideas found along the way.
For a unit whose job is spotting what comes next in travel, the bigger change was turning that expertise on its own work.
YOUR TURN
Who on your team goes first?
At Lufthansa Innovation Hub, one manager tried it on his own work and the team followed. Find where AI pays off first for yours.
- Where AI pays off first for your team
- What teams like yours did next
- A straight answer on the return
About 10 minutes
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Sources and notes
- 31% to 83%: share of the team using AI daily, before and after the four-week Enterprise AI Academy; base: Lufthansa Innovation Hub team (about 50 people). Measured.
- Four weeks: programme length; source title and pp.3 to 6.
- 29: unique use cases discovered by the team during the programme. Measured.
- 4.2 / 5: average AI adoption readiness score at the end of the programme. Measured, self-assessed.
- About 50 people and founded 2014: company facts, self-reported; Source: p.1 ('~50 employees') and p.2.
- Error analysis from hours to minutes: one example from the source p.5, no measured figure. Self-reported.
- Reported gains in quality, decision making, time and cost or revenue: self-reported by the team; Source: p.7. The four percentages are not used.
- Company size band Under 200: from about 50 people; the unit sits inside the much larger Lufthansa Group.