A.S Watson
Health & Beauty Retail Chain
A.S. Watson Group is the world’s largest international health and beauty retailer, operating more than 16,500 stores across 28 markets, primarily in Asia and Europe. In the Netherlands, A.S. Watson is behind leading high-street chains such as Kruidvat and Trekpleister. With this scale comes complex operations and fast-moving digital teams, making practical AI adoption a strategic priority. To support this, Riverflex delivered a full-day program including 70 participants who tackled real business challenges, covering an expert-led masterclass, AI design-and- build breakouts, and competitive pitching demos.
· Explore: Spark curiosity with expert-led masterclasses tailored to different AI fluency levels. · Hack: Incite a learn- by-doing culture with real business challenges, guided by AI experts. · Grow: Inspire long term action, designed “not be a moment, but a movement.”
1. AI-literacy improvement: Expert-led masterclasses combined with guided AI solution development significantly improved the teams’ understanding of (Gen)AI capabilities and its application to their daily tasks 2. Solving real business challenges: Riverflex and A.S. Watson scoped and structured 7 real business challenges for the event, ensuring all prototypes addressed tangible business needs and had practical short-term value. Participants reported immediate benefits in their daily work, including time savings, reduced manual effort, and faster turnaround times. 3. Learning movement beyond the event: AS Watson leaders highlighted strong energy and post-event momentum, with teams self-organizing follow-ups to improve prototypes. The hackathon created shared language, practical methods, and concrete next steps, enabling teams to continue experimenting and improving after the event. 4. Reusable enablement assets: Reusable training materials, a pocket-sized AI guide and a curated Wiki of resources gave participants an AI starter kit they can refer to and continue to develop further. The hackathon focused on the reality of AI, not the hype. By grounding AI learning in real business problems and giving teams the space to experiment safely, the hackathon accelerated both understanding and adoption. It helped turn AI from a buzzword into a practical capability inside the organization.
“The quality of the event was far above what we expected from a one day hackathon. Riverflex pushed the bar on what ‘good’ looks like.” – Roland van den Berg, Managing Director Trekpleister and Chief eCommerce Officer
“Motivating people to learn AI hasn’t been easy. The day effectively sparked genuine curiosity, broke down complexity into digestible steps, and helped even hesitant colleagues feel excited to try build, and explore.” - Nico Borst, Head of Online Business & eCommerce Benelux
“In just one day, our teams moved further than what they had with self-study, gaining practical skills, shared methods, and the motivation to apply AI in their daily work. They were already organising follow-up sessions together afterwards!” – Sjors van de Wiel, Head of Online Business & Innovation Benelux
“It was motivating to see the Riverflex developers fit right in with our team in the advanced hackathon session. Within half an hour we already had a solution design for one challenge!” – Ralf Peters, Head of Technology Online Business Benelux