Back office ops · Production

Spendesk achieves 90% company-wide AI adoption in 6 months with Dust

The problem

Spendesk employees wanted AI tools to boost productivity but security and compliance requirements blocked unrestricted use of external AI, while point solutions explored for specific use cases would create vendor lock-in per use case rather than a company-wide benefit.

First attempt

Point solutions evaluated for customer support and sales acceleration were rejected because they would lock Spendesk into a separate vendor for each individual use case instead of providing a single platform that could benefit all teams.

Workflow diagram · grounded in source
1
Three-month customer support POC
trigger
“Spendesk launched a three-month POC focusing on customer support”
2
Leadership review of qualitative feedback
human_review
“At that time I didn't have metrics to share in terms of 'we saved 1,000 or 1,500 hours,' but when people told me, 'Greyg, tomorrow I can't imagine working without Dust,' that was strong measurable feedback”
3
Full company-wide deployment
integration
“By January 2025, after seeing strong results, leadership decided to move forward with full deployment. The scope quickly expanded beyond support to include RFP response tools and company-wide knowledge agents.”
4
Hackathons for agent experimentation
feedback_loop
“Spendesk launched a series of hackathons to accelerate learning and experimentation where teams competed to create the best Dust agents for their workflows, generating enthusiasm and practical use cases”
5
AI Champions program across departments
routing
“launched an AI Champions program, which placed one or two champions in each department: individuals responsible for understanding their team's needs and implementing AI into workflows”
6
Employee-built custom agents
output
“These agents are built by Spendeskers for Spendeskers to ease existing operations, 1 in 4 users are agent builders”
Reported outcome

Spendesk achieved 90% company-wide AI adoption within 6 months, reached 92% weekly user retention, and had 1 in 4 users building custom agents, while replacing multiple point solutions and eliminating redundant AI subscriptions.

Reported metrics
company-wide AI adoption rate90%
Weekly user retention92%
Users who are agent builders1 in 4
messages sent to custom Dust agentsaround 50%
Show all 5 reported metrics
company-wide AI adoption rate90%
weekly user retention92%
users who are agent builders1 in 4
messages sent to custom Dust agentsaround 50%
redundant AI subscriptions eliminatedelimination of redundant AI subscriptions and specialized vertical solutions
Reported stack
Dust
Source
https://dust.tt/customers/how-spendesk-achieved-90-ai-adoption-in-6-months-with-dust
Read source ↗

Frequently asked questions

What did this team achieve with this AI workflow?

Spendesk achieved 90% company-wide AI adoption within 6 months, reached 92% weekly user retention, and had 1 in 4 users building custom agents, while replacing multiple point solutions and eliminating redundant AI sub…

What tools did this team use?

Dust.

What results were reported?

company-wide AI adoption rate: 90%; Weekly user retention: 92%; Users who are agent builders: 1 in 4; messages sent to custom Dust agents: around 50% (source-reported, not independently verified).

What failed first in this deployment?

Point solutions evaluated for customer support and sales acceleration were rejected because they would lock Spendesk into a separate vendor for each individual use case instead of providing a single platform that coul…

How is this back office ops AI workflow structured?

Three-month customer support POC → Leadership review of qualitative feedback → Full company-wide deployment → Hackathons for agent experimentation → AI Champions program across departments → Employee-built custom agents.

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