Zurich Switzerland Hosts Inaugural Hackathon

Zurich Schweiz, the Swiss insurance provider, is commited to fostering innovation and advancing technological understanding among its employees. In late summer 2024, Zurich Switzerland's IT and Human Resources departments held a two-day hackathon for the first time at its headquarters in Oerlikon . The event provided employees with specially adabted spaces and access to various traning sessions and workshops.

The term hackathon combines «hacking», which represents tackling technical challenges, and «marathon», symbolizing sustained effort over a set period. This event emphasized innovative thinking, fresh ideas, and rapid protodyping, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence and collaboration across interdisciplinary teams.

(Image: zVg)

Acumen and Ingenuity

The hackathon brought together around 90 employees, who were divided into teams and spent two days addressing challenges and solving real-world problems drawn from Zurich's day-to-day operations, Michaela Christian Gartmann, Chief Human Resources Officer, explains. Some of these challenges centred, for example, on improving the customer experience with the help of artificial intelligence and its application.

According to Stefan Pleisch, Chief Information and Technology Officer of Zurich Switzerland, the development went smoothly from a technical perspective. Thanks to the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the employees, the quality of service for customers was sustainably improved, existing chat bots were further developed and the customer journey in Zurich apps was optimised.

Click to enlarge (Image: zVg)

Positive Influence on Corporate Culture

After the two intensive days, the participants discussed what went well and where there were difficulties at a joint meeting. The various teams also pitched their hacks and five of them were honoured with an award by Michaela Christian Gartmann and Stefan Pleisch.

The hackathon had a positive influence on the corporate culture. According to Michaela Christian Gartmann, the employees from the various departments not only grew together, they also took away positive energy from the event. The event was the perfect combination of people, culture and technology, with AI empowerment playing a major role.

Looking to the Future

Following the Hackathlon, employees not only gained valuable experience and exchanged expertise, but also built stronger in-house networks. They returned to their day-to-day roles with a renewed sense of inspiration and positive energy.

«In the coming months, we will thoroughly explore the potential to implement the solutions developed during the hackathon,» says Stefan Pleisch. «This will involve close collaboration with both IT and Business teams as we define the next steps.»