SharkNinja's Big AI Bet: a 4-Day AI Hackathon - Business Insider

SharkNinja didn't hire consultants to figure out AI. They gave their own people four days to experiment and find what actually works. That's worth sitting with for a moment. If you've paid a consult

SharkNinja didn't hire consultants to figure out AI. They gave their own people four days to experiment and find what actually works.

That's worth sitting with for a moment.

If you've paid a consultant who disappeared after the invoice, or bought a tool your team quietly stopped using — you're not alone, and you weren't foolish. The AI industry made it incredibly easy to buy things and incredibly hard to actually use them.

Here's what SharkNinja got right: they didn't start with a vendor. They started with their own people and their own problems. Four days. No outside experts. Just internal teams testing AI against real work they do every day.

That's the part nobody talks about. The AI tool isn't the decision. Knowing which problem to hand it first — that's the decision.

You don't need a hackathon. But you can borrow the principle. Pick one repetitive task your team complains about. Just one. Run a two-week test with a single free or low-cost tool. Measure the time saved. That's your first win — and it costs almost nothing to find out.

Small proof beats big promises every time.

What's the one task in your business you'd most want AI to handle first?

#AIStrategy #SmallBusiness #BusinessGrowth #AIImplementation

Original Source

SharkNinja didn't hire consultants to solve its AI challenge. Instead, it shut down normal work for four days and told employees to start hacking.