Spark Tank Hackathon: From Ideas to Impact

Spark Tank - our AI themed Hackathon and Learning Experience - recently brought our AU-based Zipsters together to explore how AI can help us work smarter, solve meaningful problems and create better experiences for customers, merchants and one another.

Across two days of hacking, ideas evolved rapidly through collaboration, experimentation and plenty of feedback from Zip’s leaders and our partners AWS, Open AI and Zendesk - showing that innovation doesn’t need to begin with a perfect plan. It starts with curiosity, diverse perspectives and the willingness to test, learn and adapt.

To wrap up Spark Tank, we spoke with Zipsters from three of our winning teams: Team Lead, Lending Vivien Luu, Product Designer I Luke Niccol and Rulie Goswami, Senior Manager in our Customer Experience Operations function.

In this blog, our Zipsters reflect on the Spark Tank moments that stood out, the lessons they’ve carried into their day-to-day roles and what they believe is ahead as AI continues to shape the future of work at Zip.

Vivien - Team Lead, Lending Hackathon team: Hacktopups (Spark Tank Runners Up)

What moment from Spark Tank stands out most to you, and why?

The moment that stands out most was seeing our idea come together through teamwork. This was my first Spark Tank, and we arrived without a clear idea, spending the first morning sharing quick pitches and bouncing ideas off one another. I really enjoyed the camaraderie and real-time feedback from different departments. Seeing everyone bring their own perspective was inspiring and left me excited about what we can achieve together in the future.

What is one skill, insight or way of working you developed that you’ll take into your day-to-day role?

One skill I developed during Spark Tank was the ability to make decisions quickly and be comfortable changing direction. I can sometimes hesitate to commit because I’m worried about making the wrong choice. However, working within such a short timeframe taught me that it’s better to test an idea, learn quickly and pivot if it doesn’t work. This is a mindset I’ll carry into my day-to-day role.

How has Spark Tank changed the way you think about innovation at Zip?

Spark Tank showed me that innovation doesn’t always start with a fully formed idea. It can come from sharing different perspectives, testing concepts quickly and building on feedback from others. Seeing how much our idea developed in such a short timeframe made innovation feel more achievable and collaborative. It has encouraged me to be more open to sharing early ideas and exploring what they could become with the right input.

Luke - Product Designer I Hackathon team: Zipzillas (People’s Choice Award winners)

What are you most proud of your team for achieving?

I’m most proud of how well the team brought together such different strengths and made everyone feel heard. We had product design, engineering, data and CX all in the same team, and that mix really lifted the work. Under a tight timeline, we stayed collaborative, moved quickly, and still took time to workshop the problem properly before jumping into solutions.

How did working with Zipsters outside your usual team influence the idea?

Working with people outside my usual team made the idea much stronger and more grounded. We got different perspectives from design, data, CX and engineering, which meant we weren’t solving for just one viewpoint. It also helped us stay flexible and open to changing direction when needed. Hearing how other teams think and work gave us a much better understanding of Zip as a whole.

After building your team’s idea, what excites you most about AI’s potential to improve how Zip works or serves customers, merchants and/or Zipsters?

What excites me most is how AI can help turn pain points and workarounds into real tools much faster than we ever could before. Spark Tank showed how quickly an idea can go from concept to a working MVP, which was pretty eye-opening. It made me think much more broadly about the kinds of internal tools and customer experiences we could build to save time, reduce friction and make work feel easier.

Rulie - Senior Manager, Customer Experience Operations Hackathon team: Midas Touch (CEO/Co-founder Award winners)

When did your idea shift from an interesting concept to something that felt real?

The idea began to feel real when we gave it focus. We initially set out with a broad ambition: to transform customer service from a traditional contact centre into a growth centre. While this sparked many exciting ideas, conversations with AWS and colleagues who had participated in previous hackathons helped us recognize that impact comes from clarity. By narrowing our scope to one tangible outcome, we turned an ambitious concept into something practical, achievable, and genuinely valuable.

How did working with Zipsters outside your usual team influence the idea?

Working with Zipsters outside our usual teams brought a richness of perspective that shaped the idea in ways none of us could have achieved alone. Colleagues from Engineering, People & Culture, Marketing, and Customer Experience (CX) contributed their unique expertise, experiences, and ways of thinking. By combining those different strengths, we challenged one another’s assumptions, strengthened the concept, and brought together a compelling final story that truly reflected the power of cross-team collaboration.

Where could AI make the biggest difference to how Zipsters work?

AI can help us work smarter and faster, reducing the time spent on repetitive and administrative tasks. It can simplify how we find information, analyse data and turn insights into action, enabling faster and better-informed decisions. AI can also help us improve the quality and consistency of our work, while freeing up time to focus on customers, collaboration and higher-value activities.

For example, in CX, AI could help respond to customers and take simple actions, or analyse large amounts of customer feedback to quickly identify emerging trends or help identify vulnerable customers in real time. Ultimately, AI gives Zipsters more time to focus on the work where human judgement, creativity and relationships make the biggest difference.