Booking.com
How the founder of Shift Labs accelerated AI adoption across 500+ developers globally.
engineers trained
solutions in 5 days
to production in 6 months
industry average
This case study is from Mike's time as AI Adoption Lead at Booking.com. It's the experience that led to founding Shift Labs, and the methodology we now bring to other organisations.
The Story
The Challenge
Booking.com had 500+ developers across multiple countries who wanted to use AI but didn't know where to start. Traditional procurement was slow. Third-party tools created security and compliance headaches. Teams had ideas but lacked the skills and framework to actually build anything.
The Approach
Rather than buying tools, we taught teams to build their own. The methodology combined three things:
- •Strategic alignment: Senior stakeholders created 12 challenge papers identifying real business problems worth solving
- •Hands-on training: The Agentic Academy took developers from zero AI experience to building functional agents
- •Intensive building: A one-week hackathon where 120 people built 42 working solutions
The Results
- ✓42 working solutions built in one week
- ✓10% reached production within 6 months
- ✓16 additional ideas committed to within 12 months
- ✓98% 5-star training reviews
- ✓Directors who'd never used AI now use it daily
- ✓Self-sustaining innovation culture established
“The 10% production rate wasn't luck. It came from teaching teams to identify real problems and build practical solutions. That's why I founded Shift Labs.”
Mike Brits, Founder
What Teams Built
These aren't hypotheticals. Real solutions built during the hackathon that went on to save real time and money.
Third-Party Integrations
AI-powered validation and automated data transformations
30% faster integration time
Data Ingestion
AI agent to automatically ingest and classify supplier data
80% time saved, 95% data parity
Data Criticality
Automated classification using schemas and code references
87% accuracy
Jira Agent
Slack + GenAI for collaborative ticket creation
94% better ticket consistency
Code Migrations
AI-powered automation for config migrations
90% time saved
MCP Services
Global services integrating Jira, GitLab, and internal systems
Enhanced context for all dev teams
Let's Talk
This methodology is now available to your organisation. Let's discuss how we can help your team.