Quests, token leaderboards, and a skills marketplace: The elite AI adoption playbook | John Kim (Sendbird)

2026-05-11 · Source: Lenny's Newsletter · Field: Business & Management — Corporate Strategy & Leadership, Operations & Process Management, Human Resources & Workforce Development · Depth: Intermediate, extended

Summary

Sendbird CEO John Kim has transformed AI adoption into an internal product, featuring an "Automators Platform" and "AI Quests" where employees can propose automation needs and AI agents or human engineers build solutions. This initiative has enabled non-engineering teams, like marketing, to independently develop sophisticated tools such as a dynamic swag store and a comprehensive marketing SaaS portal, complete with real-time campaign tracking and social media posting capabilities. Sendbird also employs an AI token consumption dashboard and a tiered leaderboard (from "AI newbie" to "AI god" for those spending over 100 million tokens daily) to encourage and measure AI usage across the company. An internal AI engineering team, reporting directly to the CEO and Chief of Staff, maintains the platform and provides vetted, secure templates, allowing teams to focus on creative ideas without infrastructure concerns.

Key takeaway

For CTOs and Product Managers aiming to accelerate company-wide AI integration, establish a dedicated internal AI platform that enables non-technical teams to build and deploy solutions. Implement a gamified adoption strategy, like Sendbird's token consumption leaderboard, to foster engagement and identify champions. This approach will decentralize AI development, reduce reliance on core engineering for internal tools, and cultivate an AI-first culture.

Key insights

Sendbird's internal AI platform and gamified adoption strategy empower non-technical teams to build and deploy AI-powered solutions.

Principles

• Treat AI adoption as an internal product.
• Empower non-engineers to be AI builders.
• Measure AI usage to drive adoption.

Method

Implement an internal 'Quest' system for AI automation requests, supported by AI agents and human engineers, with pre-built secure templates and a gamified token consumption leaderboard.

In practice

• Develop an internal platform for AI automation requests.
• Create secure, templated AI app environments.
• Track and visualize AI token consumption.

Topics

• AI Adoption Strategy
• Internal AI Platforms
• AI Quests
• AI Skills Marketplace
• AI Token Consumption

Best for: Executive, CTO, Product Manager, Director of AI/ML, VP of Engineering/Data, AI Product Manager

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by Lenny's Newsletter.