250 “hackers” in the Pilot Company brainstorm innovations for the transportation giant
The Pilot Company’s annual hackathon-style competition, Innovate.25, took place Aug. 4-6 at the Pilot Company Ballroom at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Student Union.
Pilot Company’s annual hackathon-style competition, Innovate.25 wrapped up on Wednesday, after three days of “hacking” innovative ideas for the Pilot Company at the University of Tennessee Student Union.
More than 250 Pilot team members from coast to coast gathered in Knoxville to develop innovative solutions that enhance team member and guest experiences. The theme of this year’s event was to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into existing problems or processes that could benefit from newfound efficiencies.
On Monday and Tuesday, 19 teams hacked away. They pinpointed issues at various points of the customer experience, brainstormed solutions, and crafted and coded practical programs and software.
On Wednesday, finalists pitched their ideas to a panel of judges in a Shark Tank-style finale called “Fuel Tank,” a dynamic and engaging presentation format.
The purpose of the event is to promote “intrapreneurship” among Pilot Company employees. It gives them a platform to voice their big ideas to key company leaders, which this year included the Pilot Company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Adam Wright, Brad Anderson, the President of Retail, Gary Hoogeveen, the President of Energy, Jamie Landis, the Senior Vice President of Business Planning and Execution, and Rakesh Srinivasan, the Chief Data and AI Office.
Several past projects pitched at Innovate in Knoxville have become technologies used across Pilot’s North American operations, including an internal team member app, fraud prevention tools, and self-service guest support automation.
Due to the information being sensitive and proprietary, our reporting cannot disclose the exact technological ideas pitched on stage. However, some of the innovations revolved around improved AI solutions for monitoring gas prices, simplified invoicing, auto-scheduling shower times and stops for paid drivers, and improving the user experience with the Pilot app.
The teams competed on behalf of local nonprofit STEM organizations. Since 2019, Innovate has raised $164,000, with that total expected to reach $250,000 after this year’s event.
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