GermanyRetail and e-commerce2023 – ongoingOtto Group
ogGPT internal generative AI assistant
Otto Group's voluntary in-house assistant ogGPT passed 10,000 monthly users without usage targets
Problem
When generative AI tools became widely available in 2023, the German retail group needed a way for employees to use them without sending company data to public services, and to build skills across a large workforce.
Approach
On 18 September 2023 the group launched ogGPT, an internally developed, data-protection-compliant assistant open to all employees. Use is voluntary and deliberately has no KPIs. Adoption was supported by training for every level, a group-wide community called 'Discover AI' (later 'Adopt AI') with hackathons, a weekly use case with sample prompts, an award for creative uses, a prompt-template marketplace and custom GPTs. In 2026 its retail unit OTTO added 37 'GenAI enablement partners' who spend at least 20% of their time helping departments pick and build use cases.
Results
Takeaway
Otto promoted use through its community, training and examples, without targets. It reported usage and staff survey answers, with no measured productivity or cost effects.
Categories
- Size
- Large enterprise
- Industry
- Retail and e-commerce
- Business function
- Internal work and knowledge managementHuman resources
- Innovation type
- Organization and ways of working
- AI technology
- Generative AI
- Adoption
- Built in-house
- Evidence
- Company's own claim
Sources
Source summaries
Otto Group describes ogGPT, launched on 18 September 2023, and its employee training programme through the Corporate Digital Responsibility Initiative. It gives more than 10,000 monthly active users and more than 420,000 messages a month, and says use is voluntary with no KPIs. It reports that internal surveys show time savings and that around 80% of users say they enjoy their work more.
The German retail news site reports that OTTO has started a programme of 37 generative AI enablement partners who help departments find, prioritise and implement use cases. Partners take a five-day Bitkom training, are certified and may spend at least 20% of their working time on the role. The programme builds on an earlier group of GenAI ambassadors who shared knowledge over the previous two years.
Full details are in the original sources.
