Redesigning work with AI: Moving from access to impact at scale

Client need

For a 175-year-old technology company, competitive advantage isn’t just built on technical innovation: it’s built on leaders who know how to get the best thinking from every person around them. That culture of drawing out ideas, developing people, and driving innovation through engaged teams had been a defining feature of the organization for generations. And it depended on having the right infrastructure to keep developing frontline leaders at scale.

In 2020, that infrastructure was disrupted. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the organization to pivot its in-person development to virtual almost overnight, risking the erosion of frontline leadership capability while simultaneously needing to navigate the broader shocks of the pandemic: supply chain volatility, shifting materials costs, and a workforce managing profound uncertainty.  

Stalling frontline leadership development meant risking productivity, employee engagement, talent retention, job performance, and downstream impacts on quality and operating margin, at a moment when the organization could least afford it.

The question now was how to reimagine frontline leader development to equip thousands of global leaders to continue supporting their teams through disruption, and to ensure the next generation of managers could help their people do their best work under any conditions.

Solution

The client partnered with BTS to reimagine frontline leader development from the ground up, equipping leaders globally with the practical skills, tools, and mindset shifts needed to support their teams in doing great, innovative work.

The partnership began in 2019, and over five years has reached over 1,600 frontline leaders capturing 700+ documented behavior change actions. In 2022, BTS collaborated with the organization to refresh the program to reflect their evolving strategy and develop a sharper focus on supporting a culture of continuous improvement and innovation with coaching and feedback.  

The blended program experience combined the following elements:

• Immersive leadership simulations: Scenario-based experiences placing leaders in realistic situations, surfacing Multiplier and Diminisher tendencies in real time and making the learning immediately personal and actionable

• Multipliers and Diminishers framework: A structured exploration of how leaders either amplify or diminish the intelligence of those around them, including specific “experiments” leaders could use to better understand their own leadership approaches

• Custom leadership frameworks: Including a structured, step-by-step process for having significant feedback conversations, a tool to understand and flex to communication preferences, and a coaching approach designed to help leaders guide team members toward their own solutions, building capability and long-term ownership.

• Structured application sessions — on-the-job practice components designed to bridge the gap between the program experience and day-to-day behavior, giving participants specific frameworks to apply immediately with their teams

• Peer networking and breakout groups — cohort-based learning that participants identified as a standout feature, both for deepening the learning and for building cross-functional relationships that extended beyond the program

• A commitment-capture platform integrated into the program to log participant actions and reinforce behavior change after the program ended; over 670 participant actions were captured across the program’s delivery

Throughout the program, leaders examined the impact of their own behaviors, recognizing where they were unintentionally diminishing their teams, and built new habits around challenging, creating space for mistakes and learning, listening, questioning, giving developmental feedback, and creating ownership. The feedback model gave participants a practical process for the positive and constructive conversations that actually change performance.

Results

More than 1,600 frontline leaders and individual contributors have participated in the program—the population closest to daily execution, quality, and operations. A recent impact study told a clear story about the effects of the program across participants:  

100% of participants reported actively applying what they learned. 59% reported producing significant, measurable business impact, with concrete evidence to describe it.

The results weren’t theoretical. One engineering leader restructured how his team developed project plans, creating space for debate and ownership instead of coming in with the answer. His team exceeded their quality target by 10 percentage points and accelerated the project timeline by +4 months.

One production leader used the feedback model to coach a struggling supervisor and cascade the process across his entire leadership layer. His unit reached #1 performance in its division, improving a key quality KPI by more than 18% year-over-year. A department head with over a decade in leadership set new production records after learning to flex his communication style and draw out quieter team members. And a development lab supervisor used the program to clarify her leadership identity, earn a promotion, and coach her direct report to one as well.

The study also confirmed that when managers actively supported participants post-program, the likelihood of significant business impact increased substantially, shaping the organization’s next phase of reinforcement and cohort follow-up.

For an organization whose competitive advantage rests on the innovation and intelligence of its people, the program gave its leaders something technical training rarely delivers: the confidence, the tools, and the self-awareness to make everyone around them better.

Testimonials

“The program gave me greater confidence to try new things as a leader. It helped me realize what I do and what I don’t do.”  - HR Leader

“The skills I learned in the training helped me be more efficient. It helped me do the right thing, right away.” - Production Manager

“Feedback is very important to create a positive environment; and how to [give] feedback is a specific skill I learned from this training and how to share constructive feedback.” - Production Leader

Client need

Safety in the transportation industry has often been treated as a set of rules to follow and boxes to check. But one Spanish railway organization saw an opportunity to redefine safety as something far greater, a core value embedded into the culture of their company at every level.

This bold vision demanded more than compliance. It required a cultural transformation to challenge outdated behaviors, inspire teams, and empower leaders to embrace and model a safety-first mindset. For years, the organization had been working to foster a culture that prioritized protection over profit, setting new behavioral standards across the industry.

To accelerate this shift, the organization partnered with BTS to design a leadership development program that dismantled old practices and equipped leaders with the tools, insights, and behaviors needed to bring their vision to life.

• Deconstruct existing mindsets to enable cohesive change.
• Identify barriers preventing progress.
• Equip leaders with practical behavioral knowledge and tools.

Solution

BTS partnered with the organization to design a leadership journey that would reshape not just processes but perspectives, fostering a workplace where physical and psychological safety were paramount. Over eight months, the project team conducted interviews with leaders and focus groups to uncover critical behavioral insights and tailor the program to the organization’s unique needs.

Participants explored essential themes, including:

• Embedding safety into daily decision-making.
• Cultivating greater awareness of safety risks.
• Understanding the influence of their leadership on safety outcomes.
• Leading by example to set a cultural standard.
• Building trust, commitment, and open communication within their teams.

The program unfolded in three distinct phases to drive lasting behavioral change:

1. Workshop preparation
   Participants began with a self-assessment to uncover personal “safety blind spots” and mind traps. This phase, delivered through a custom online platform, helped leaders reflect on their current practices and prepare for the transformational journey ahead.

3. Safety workshop
   The one-day, immersive workshop was designed to spark deep conversations about safety culture, challenge ingrained mindsets, and equip participants with actionable strategies for change. Leaders engaged in real-world scenarios to explore the implications of their decisions and practice new behaviors. The day concluded with collaborative debrief sessions, leaving participants with practical tools to implement their insights immediately.
4. Implementation in action
   To sustain momentum, the post-workshop phase extended over six months, offering six targeted activities. These activities reinforced key lessons, encouraged team collaboration, and provided ongoing support for integrating safety-first behaviors into daily routines.

The leadership program was delivered to 1500 participants over 66 workshops in seven locations across Spain.

Results

To measure results, the project team created a resource map evaluating progress.  

Average completion rate of Activities One–Three: 57 percent. (One: 78.21%; Two: 53. 01%; Three: 40.57%)

A post-workshop survey was sent to participants, reporting on the following metrics:

• Average satisfaction — 4.7/5.
• Trainer’s evaluation — 4.9/5.
• NPS — 82 percent.
• “Saw improvement in safety alignment” — 93 percent.
• “Integrated safety tools in daily roles” — 82 percent.
• “Identified new initiatives for improving safety” — 77 percent.
• “Mitigated team/peer mind traps” — 93 percent.
• “More aware of risk in daily roles” — 98 percent.
• “Identified a normalized risk to work on” — 92 percent.

Testimonials

• “Many of the methodologies and tools not only help to improve safety but can also be used to improve operational or organizational processes.”

• “It has put us in front of the mirror of how we are today in terms of safety culture, opening our eyes to our development areas. Very participative and practical.”

‍

Over the years, BTS has expanded its global footprint through thoughtful acquisitions and collaborations, bringing new creative capabilities and local expertise into the fold. From digital design studios to leadership consultancies across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, we’ve built a community that blends shared values with local perspective. That diversity has become one of our greatest strengths, shaping how we design and deliver learning that feels deeply personal everywhere we work.

Whether someone is in a leadership journey in Singapore, a coaching program in São Paulo, or a strategy workshop in Stockholm, the goal is always the same: to make the experience feel like it was made just for them.

Many of those experiences live on Momenta, BTS’s digital experience platform, powering journeys like Coaching, Multipliers, and other core programs.

As those experiences grew, so did the need for nuance. Every journey had to feel local, not just sound translated. Tone, humor, and cultural context have always been central to the BTS approach, and as demand expanded across formats and regions, our translation model was ready for its next evolution.

In early 2024, the team began exploring how AI could help. Rather than treating technology as the destination, we saw it as a catalyst, a way to rethink translation and deliver richer, more customized client experiences at scale. That curiosity sparked one of BTS’s most ambitious AI-first experiments, led by our Global Product Enablement Function team in partnership with our global network of linguists and translators.

Shifting to AI-first

The next step was finding the right place to experiment. Enter Phrase, a cloud-based translation management platform that quickly became our test lab. Phrase brings every part of the translation process into one place, from machine translation engines to human review, terminology management, and workflow tracking. It gives our linguists, designers, and project teams a shared space to collaborate, test ideas, and learn.

Over the next few months, two key discoveries reshaped how we think about translation, and ultimately, how we work.

Key discovery 1: Making AI a teammate

We began with a clear goal: make translation faster and more consistent. Using Phrase, AI handled the first drafts while our linguists refined them. Quickly, we realized there was potential for AI-value that went far beyond speed.  

With AI completing the first 80% of the work in a fraction of the time, our linguists could focus on what matters most: nuance, tone, and cultural resonance. The relationship evolved from oversight to collaboration, AI structured and scaled, humans shaped and elevated.

The result was more than efficiency. It was better work, created by people and technology learning to amplify each other.

Key discovery 2: Turning a roadblock into a redesign

Next came a design challenge. Phrase, like most translation tools, struggled with text embedded in graphics, a hallmark of many BTS learning experiences. Instead of forcing the tool to adapt, we changed how we created.

We began designing with translation in mind: simplifying visuals, reducing text, and using modular components that could flex across languages. The constraint sparked better design, easier to scale, more consistent, and more inclusive for every audience.

Key discovery 3: Integrating systems for scale

With people, AI, and design in sync, the last barrier was process. Managing translations between Phrase and Momenta still required manual effort.

To fix that, we built an API integration linking the two platforms. Now, files move automatically, progress is tracked in real time, and everything stays connected.

That integration turned our workflow into a unified ecosystem, fast, transparent, and ready to scale globally.

Business impact

Just 18 months ago, our translation reviews lived in double-column Word docs. Today, we work in a fully connected, AI-first ecosystem. Each project feeds the next, refining prompts, tone profiles, and design patterns, so our translation process keeps getting faster, smarter, and more aligned with BTS’s voice.

Speed and quality. Translation cycles that once took months now wrap up in weeks, cutting turnaround times by over 40%. Phrase’s tools and AI-powered workflows accelerate production while maintaining quality through expert-approved reuse, glossaries, and automated quality checks. Even complex formats like videos and animations are localized faster, with AI supporting linguists at every step.

Smarter workflows. The integration between Momenta and Phrase automates project transfers and tracking, saving an estimated 2.5 hours per project. Teams across language, digital, and project management now collaborate in one streamlined environment.

Human focus. Our linguists remain the engine of quality and innovation. With AI managing repetitive tasks, they focus on nuance and meaning, and go further by creating specialized GPTs, training databases, and testing translation engines to continually raise the bar.

Client need

For a 175-year-old technology company, competitive advantage isn’t just built on technical innovation: it’s built on leaders who know how to get the best thinking from every person around them. That culture of drawing out ideas, developing people, and driving innovation through engaged teams had been a defining feature of the organization for generations. And it depended on having the right infrastructure to keep developing frontline leaders at scale.

In 2020, that infrastructure was disrupted. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the organization to pivot its in-person development to virtual almost overnight, risking the erosion of frontline leadership capability while simultaneously needing to navigate the broader shocks of the pandemic: supply chain volatility, shifting materials costs, and a workforce managing profound uncertainty.  

Stalling frontline leadership development meant risking productivity, employee engagement, talent retention, job performance, and downstream impacts on quality and operating margin, at a moment when the organization could least afford it.

The question now was how to reimagine frontline leader development to equip thousands of global leaders to continue supporting their teams through disruption, and to ensure the next generation of managers could help their people do their best work under any conditions.

Solution

The client partnered with BTS to reimagine frontline leader development from the ground up, equipping leaders globally with the practical skills, tools, and mindset shifts needed to support their teams in doing great, innovative work.

The partnership began in 2019, and over five years has reached over 1,600 frontline leaders capturing 700+ documented behavior change actions. In 2022, BTS collaborated with the organization to refresh the program to reflect their evolving strategy and develop a sharper focus on supporting a culture of continuous improvement and innovation with coaching and feedback.  

The blended program experience combined the following elements:

• Immersive leadership simulations: Scenario-based experiences placing leaders in realistic situations, surfacing Multiplier and Diminisher tendencies in real time and making the learning immediately personal and actionable

• Multipliers and Diminishers framework: A structured exploration of how leaders either amplify or diminish the intelligence of those around them, including specific “experiments” leaders could use to better understand their own leadership approaches

• Custom leadership frameworks: Including a structured, step-by-step process for having significant feedback conversations, a tool to understand and flex to communication preferences, and a coaching approach designed to help leaders guide team members toward their own solutions, building capability and long-term ownership.

• Structured application sessions — on-the-job practice components designed to bridge the gap between the program experience and day-to-day behavior, giving participants specific frameworks to apply immediately with their teams

• Peer networking and breakout groups — cohort-based learning that participants identified as a standout feature, both for deepening the learning and for building cross-functional relationships that extended beyond the program

• A commitment-capture platform integrated into the program to log participant actions and reinforce behavior change after the program ended; over 670 participant actions were captured across the program’s delivery

Throughout the program, leaders examined the impact of their own behaviors, recognizing where they were unintentionally diminishing their teams, and built new habits around challenging, creating space for mistakes and learning, listening, questioning, giving developmental feedback, and creating ownership. The feedback model gave participants a practical process for the positive and constructive conversations that actually change performance.

Results

More than 1,600 frontline leaders and individual contributors have participated in the program—the population closest to daily execution, quality, and operations. A recent impact study told a clear story about the effects of the program across participants:  

100% of participants reported actively applying what they learned. 59% reported producing significant, measurable business impact, with concrete evidence to describe it.

The results weren’t theoretical. One engineering leader restructured how his team developed project plans, creating space for debate and ownership instead of coming in with the answer. His team exceeded their quality target by 10 percentage points and accelerated the project timeline by +4 months.

One production leader used the feedback model to coach a struggling supervisor and cascade the process across his entire leadership layer. His unit reached #1 performance in its division, improving a key quality KPI by more than 18% year-over-year. A department head with over a decade in leadership set new production records after learning to flex his communication style and draw out quieter team members. And a development lab supervisor used the program to clarify her leadership identity, earn a promotion, and coach her direct report to one as well.

The study also confirmed that when managers actively supported participants post-program, the likelihood of significant business impact increased substantially, shaping the organization’s next phase of reinforcement and cohort follow-up.

For an organization whose competitive advantage rests on the innovation and intelligence of its people, the program gave its leaders something technical training rarely delivers: the confidence, the tools, and the self-awareness to make everyone around them better.

Testimonials

“The program gave me greater confidence to try new things as a leader. It helped me realize what I do and what I don’t do.”  - HR Leader

“The skills I learned in the training helped me be more efficient. It helped me do the right thing, right away.” - Production Manager

“Feedback is very important to create a positive environment; and how to [give] feedback is a specific skill I learned from this training and how to share constructive feedback.” - Production Leader

Client need

Safety in the transportation industry has often been treated as a set of rules to follow and boxes to check. But one Spanish railway organization saw an opportunity to redefine safety as something far greater, a core value embedded into the culture of their company at every level.

This bold vision demanded more than compliance. It required a cultural transformation to challenge outdated behaviors, inspire teams, and empower leaders to embrace and model a safety-first mindset. For years, the organization had been working to foster a culture that prioritized protection over profit, setting new behavioral standards across the industry.

To accelerate this shift, the organization partnered with BTS to design a leadership development program that dismantled old practices and equipped leaders with the tools, insights, and behaviors needed to bring their vision to life.

• Deconstruct existing mindsets to enable cohesive change.
• Identify barriers preventing progress.
• Equip leaders with practical behavioral knowledge and tools.

Solution

BTS partnered with the organization to design a leadership journey that would reshape not just processes but perspectives, fostering a workplace where physical and psychological safety were paramount. Over eight months, the project team conducted interviews with leaders and focus groups to uncover critical behavioral insights and tailor the program to the organization’s unique needs.

Participants explored essential themes, including:

• Embedding safety into daily decision-making.
• Cultivating greater awareness of safety risks.
• Understanding the influence of their leadership on safety outcomes.
• Leading by example to set a cultural standard.
• Building trust, commitment, and open communication within their teams.

The program unfolded in three distinct phases to drive lasting behavioral change:

1. Workshop preparation
   Participants began with a self-assessment to uncover personal “safety blind spots” and mind traps. This phase, delivered through a custom online platform, helped leaders reflect on their current practices and prepare for the transformational journey ahead.

3. Safety workshop
   The one-day, immersive workshop was designed to spark deep conversations about safety culture, challenge ingrained mindsets, and equip participants with actionable strategies for change. Leaders engaged in real-world scenarios to explore the implications of their decisions and practice new behaviors. The day concluded with collaborative debrief sessions, leaving participants with practical tools to implement their insights immediately.
4. Implementation in action
   To sustain momentum, the post-workshop phase extended over six months, offering six targeted activities. These activities reinforced key lessons, encouraged team collaboration, and provided ongoing support for integrating safety-first behaviors into daily routines.

The leadership program was delivered to 1500 participants over 66 workshops in seven locations across Spain.

Results

To measure results, the project team created a resource map evaluating progress.  

Average completion rate of Activities One–Three: 57 percent. (One: 78.21%; Two: 53. 01%; Three: 40.57%)

A post-workshop survey was sent to participants, reporting on the following metrics:

• Average satisfaction — 4.7/5.
• Trainer’s evaluation — 4.9/5.
• NPS — 82 percent.
• “Saw improvement in safety alignment” — 93 percent.
• “Integrated safety tools in daily roles” — 82 percent.
• “Identified new initiatives for improving safety” — 77 percent.
• “Mitigated team/peer mind traps” — 93 percent.
• “More aware of risk in daily roles” — 98 percent.
• “Identified a normalized risk to work on” — 92 percent.

Testimonials

• “Many of the methodologies and tools not only help to improve safety but can also be used to improve operational or organizational processes.”

• “It has put us in front of the mirror of how we are today in terms of safety culture, opening our eyes to our development areas. Very participative and practical.”

‍

Over the years, BTS has expanded its global footprint through thoughtful acquisitions and collaborations, bringing new creative capabilities and local expertise into the fold. From digital design studios to leadership consultancies across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, we’ve built a community that blends shared values with local perspective. That diversity has become one of our greatest strengths, shaping how we design and deliver learning that feels deeply personal everywhere we work.

Whether someone is in a leadership journey in Singapore, a coaching program in São Paulo, or a strategy workshop in Stockholm, the goal is always the same: to make the experience feel like it was made just for them.

Many of those experiences live on Momenta, BTS’s digital experience platform, powering journeys like Coaching, Multipliers, and other core programs.

As those experiences grew, so did the need for nuance. Every journey had to feel local, not just sound translated. Tone, humor, and cultural context have always been central to the BTS approach, and as demand expanded across formats and regions, our translation model was ready for its next evolution.

In early 2024, the team began exploring how AI could help. Rather than treating technology as the destination, we saw it as a catalyst, a way to rethink translation and deliver richer, more customized client experiences at scale. That curiosity sparked one of BTS’s most ambitious AI-first experiments, led by our Global Product Enablement Function team in partnership with our global network of linguists and translators.

Shifting to AI-first

The next step was finding the right place to experiment. Enter Phrase, a cloud-based translation management platform that quickly became our test lab. Phrase brings every part of the translation process into one place, from machine translation engines to human review, terminology management, and workflow tracking. It gives our linguists, designers, and project teams a shared space to collaborate, test ideas, and learn.

Over the next few months, two key discoveries reshaped how we think about translation, and ultimately, how we work.

Key discovery 1: Making AI a teammate

We began with a clear goal: make translation faster and more consistent. Using Phrase, AI handled the first drafts while our linguists refined them. Quickly, we realized there was potential for AI-value that went far beyond speed.  

With AI completing the first 80% of the work in a fraction of the time, our linguists could focus on what matters most: nuance, tone, and cultural resonance. The relationship evolved from oversight to collaboration, AI structured and scaled, humans shaped and elevated.

The result was more than efficiency. It was better work, created by people and technology learning to amplify each other.

Key discovery 2: Turning a roadblock into a redesign

Next came a design challenge. Phrase, like most translation tools, struggled with text embedded in graphics, a hallmark of many BTS learning experiences. Instead of forcing the tool to adapt, we changed how we created.

We began designing with translation in mind: simplifying visuals, reducing text, and using modular components that could flex across languages. The constraint sparked better design, easier to scale, more consistent, and more inclusive for every audience.

Key discovery 3: Integrating systems for scale

With people, AI, and design in sync, the last barrier was process. Managing translations between Phrase and Momenta still required manual effort.

To fix that, we built an API integration linking the two platforms. Now, files move automatically, progress is tracked in real time, and everything stays connected.

That integration turned our workflow into a unified ecosystem, fast, transparent, and ready to scale globally.

Business impact

Just 18 months ago, our translation reviews lived in double-column Word docs. Today, we work in a fully connected, AI-first ecosystem. Each project feeds the next, refining prompts, tone profiles, and design patterns, so our translation process keeps getting faster, smarter, and more aligned with BTS’s voice.

Speed and quality. Translation cycles that once took months now wrap up in weeks, cutting turnaround times by over 40%. Phrase’s tools and AI-powered workflows accelerate production while maintaining quality through expert-approved reuse, glossaries, and automated quality checks. Even complex formats like videos and animations are localized faster, with AI supporting linguists at every step.

Smarter workflows. The integration between Momenta and Phrase automates project transfers and tracking, saving an estimated 2.5 hours per project. Teams across language, digital, and project management now collaborate in one streamlined environment.

Human focus. Our linguists remain the engine of quality and innovation. With AI managing repetitive tasks, they focus on nuance and meaning, and go further by creating specialized GPTs, training databases, and testing translation engines to continually raise the bar.