Interactive Australia has launched a company-wide artificial intelligence adoption program that is using its own workforce as a testing ground before new AI capabilities are taken to customers.

The company has positioned itself as “Customer Zero”, with the program designed to test how AI can be used across day-to-day operations rather than treating it as a separate technology project.

The approach brings together technical specialists with Interactive’s People and Culture teams, while covering AI skills, data and architecture improvements and changes to internal workflows.

The program is also being used to work through some of the more practical issues businesses are facing as AI moves into everyday operations, including how employees are trained, how new tools are introduced safely and how processes can be redesigned without creating unnecessary disruption.

Lizzy Jones, Head of Data and AI, is leading the next phase of Interactive’s Data & AI capability, building on the organisation’s Customer Zero program as the company looks to take its internal experience into customer environments.

Having played a central role in developing the capability internally, Jones has helped test where AI can deliver useful results, refine Interactive’s delivery model and build confidence around how the technology can be applied in real working environments.

“AI is everywhere right now, but the real difference comes from making it useful. That means designing solutions around real workflows, not abstract ideas.,” said Jones

“For example, our procurement team is now onboarding vendors and suppliers around 20 per cent faster by using clearly defined, repeatable processes supported by enterprise AI agents.”

“By testing and refining these solutions ourselves, we gain practical insight that enables us to provide informed, experience-led guidance to customers. Our AI integration and system design work has the real-world experience informing what we build with customers.” she said.

Interactive has set a target for 80 per cent of employees to complete its internal AI certification literacy program by the end of FY26, with hundreds of staff already using AI-powered tools as part of their normal work.

Those uses range from meeting summarisation and research through to operational processes, service delivery and knowledge retrieval, giving the company a broader view of where AI is actually helping staff and where human involvement remains important.

Interactive has also introduced internal “AI Playground” sessions, where employees demonstrate practical uses of the technology and share examples of where it has improved productivity.

The sessions are aimed at staff across different business units and experience levels, giving employees a chance to test new tools in a supported environment rather than being expected to adopt them without guidance.

The company says the approach is already producing measurable results in customer-facing operations, particularly inside its Security Operations Centres.

Interactive has applied AI-assisted triage and investigation workflows within its SOCs alongside workforce training, with average threat detection and response times falling from 40 minutes to seven minutes.

The company says the change is helping analysts contain threats faster while spending more time on higher-value investigation and response work.

Routine assessments are also being accelerated through AI-supported workflows, with the aim of reducing the amount of time threats remain active inside customer environments and improving overall security outcomes.

Christina Anthony, Head of Learning and Development, says Interactive’s AI Certification Program is deliberately designed to address the cultural and people impacts of AI adoption, not just the technology itself.

As AI changes workflows and ways of working, the program helps employees build confidence, develop practical skills and navigate change that can otherwise be disruptive or uncertain.

“AI adoption is as much a people challenge as it is a technology challenge,”

“Our focus has been keeping the human in AI. We want employees to see it as an extension of their own capability – supporting both their day-to-day effectiveness and their long-term career development.” Anthony said.

As part of that effort, Interactive has formed a network of internal AI Guides and AI Champions across business units, helping teams identify areas where processes can be automated, productivity improved and new tools tested with clearer safeguards in place.

“What we’re seeing is confidence grows very quickly once people have the opportunity to experiment,” Anthony explains,”

“When employees can try AI in a safe, supported environment, they begin to see how it can remove friction from everyday work. Our role is to give them the skills, guardrails and encouragement to explore those possibilities.” said Anthony

Interactive is also developing a library of secure internal AI agents for tasks including research, service desk support and knowledge retrieval as it continues the Customer Zero program.

By testing those systems internally before taking them into customer environments, the company is effectively using its own operations to find out where AI delivers useful results, where it creates new risks and how much organisational change is required before the technology can be used reliably at scale.