AI seems ubiquitous already, but there’s still a wide range of ways individuals, departments, and organizations are using it. On one end of the spectrum, departments are often piecing together a collection of ad hoc tools, and individual employees frequently turn to “shadow AI,” or non-approved AI tools, to try to speed up their workflows.
On the other hand, Wrike super users are creating cohesive, time-saving AI strategies that are transforming their work and the work of their colleagues.
AI strategy was one of our new categories for the Wrike Elite 100 in 2025, and the submissions showcased just how impactful AI can be when backed by a concerted thought process and plan.
In some cases, our customers aren’t just using the AI capabilities that are built into Wrike. They’re pairing Wrike with external AI layers to improve their workflows and achieve even greater productivity gains. The finalists in the AI strategy category are proof that staying fluid and flexible in AI implementation can make all the difference.
Let’s dive into how these two finalists are setting a new standard for AI-powered work management.
Turning a knowledge base into an instant expert
Let’s start with Ali Moses at Varsity Yearbook. For Ali and her team, the primary obstacle to the speed of their work was “search time.” They had SOPs buried in deep folder structures, and team members had to constantly ask colleagues where to find specific documentation.
Ali’s AI strategy was to integrate Wrike Copilot into their facility-wide knowledge base (KB) to empower self-service across the plant.
Instead of manually scanning checklists for complex tasks, team members now simply query Wrike in natural language. By restructuring KB spaces to be “AI-friendly” with standardized formatting, the team has significantly cut down on internal process questions and sped up onboarding for new hires.
Wrike Copilot was especially helpful in surfacing relevant process details buried within long SOP tasks. It eliminated the need to memorize folder structures or naming conventions, improving both speed and accuracy.
Ali Moses, Varsity Yearbook
The result at Varsity Yearbook has been a culture where team members take action faster and communicate more confidently. Ali explained, “Wrike could return the exact checklist or procedure embedded within the appropriate KB task, without requiring the user to manually open and scan multiple SOPs.” This pairing of Wrike AI and the Varsity Yearbook knowledge base also helped new hires make decisions without needing direct supervision — saving time and energy for management.
Ali’s team did make adjustments to their knowledge base to make it more searchable. They now use standardized formatting and consistent language so AI queries would yield the most relevant responses. “For example, SOPs now begin with clear, summary-based language and include keywords that align with how users are likely to phrase their questions — optimizing the KB for AI interaction,” Ali explained. This strategy improved AI response quality and reduced reliance on the Varsity Yearbook team leads for repeat questions.
By treating Wrike as the first stop for process clarity, Varsity Yearbook has reduced bottlenecks and interruptions during peak production periods, ensuring everyone stays aligned on standardized information.
Our goal was to cut down search time and improve self-service across departments, and Wrike AI made that possible.
Ali Moses, Varsity Yearbook
Building an AI-powered ‘front door’ for innovation
Whereas Varsity Yearbook’s teams layered their external information inside Wrike, at SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park, Grant Gotwald added an extra AI layer that supercharged Wrike’s ability to automate project kickoff.
Grant took on the organization’s Innovation Project Intake Process, which was so cumbersome that great ideas were frequently lost in email chains — or worse, users didn’t even bother to submit innovation ideas because they knew the process was so unpleasant.
To solve this, Grant’s team built what they now refer to as their AI Idea Evaluator: a custom AI integration that acts as an intelligent “ingestion layer” for Wrike, transforming the entire process for receiving and acting on new ideas. It serves as the front door to Wrike, enhancing the connection between employees and the Wrike platform.
Instead of a five-step process (idea, email, manual Q&A, manual Wrike task creation, data cleanup), adding an AI chatbot at the start and linking it to Wrike’s blueprints reduced it to three simple steps.
Now users engage in a five-minute chat with a “personal innovation assistant” that interviews them and summarizes the idea. This AI concludes the interview by generating a concise assessment that automatically creates a fully detailed project in Wrike via the API.
The AI acting as Wrike’s intelligent frontend concludes every user interview by generating a concise AI assessment summary. It automatically creates a fully detailed project in Wrike, eliminating manual setup.
Grant Gotwald, Sofi Stadium and Hollywood Park
The new process involves: an idea, an AI chatbot interview, and automated Wrike project creation.
This innovative approach has significantly reduced administrative overhead and improved submission quality. In one standout success story, the legal team engaged with the chatbot. Here’s how it went:
- The legal team explained an ongoing obstacle.
- The AI chatbot proposed an innovative idea.
- The chatbot assessed the idea and helped structure the proposal.
- The chatbot then ran through the existing projects and flagged that the new proposal was nearly identical to a recently completed project in another department.
By connecting these two silos, the team was able to adapt an existing solution already in use within the company rather than reinventing the wheel.
Across the board, the results of this Wrike front door were staggering:
- Reduced admin time: Hours of manual data entry and follow-up time for new proposals were eliminated.
- Improved submission quality: Submission quality rose significantly when using the AI intake.
- Accelerated review cycle: Reduced the “idea-to-review” time and time spent reviewing projects.
The AI Idea Evaluator is our flagship model. Our strategy is to use Wrike as our central work hub and build intelligent applications that feed it high-quality, structured information. We are now planning to extend this AI-driven, Wrike-centric model to other departments, including marketing creative briefs and IT support triage.
Grant Gotwald, Sofi Stadium and Hollywood Park
Ready to build your own system of intelligence?
Whether you’re looking to turn your internal documentation into an instant expert like Varsity Yearbook or build an intelligent automated “front door” for your team like SoFi Stadium, the right work management foundation makes it all possible.
In fact, Wrike’s newly launched AI Agents can support parts of these workflows, such as intake validation, triage, classification, routing, and field updates. You can also set them up to pull from your knowledge base by classifying SOPs, checking formatting, and routing outdated content for review.
The success of these Elite 100 finalists proves that when you pair your team’s ingenuity with Wrike’s versatile platform, you move beyond just managing work to mastering it.
We’ve already highlighted Wrike’s Elite 100 finalists in the Orchestration, Innovation, and Analytics categories. Check out those previous posts for an added dose of Wrike inspiration!
