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Maintaining team morale and motivation for daily tasks, such as posting their standups and participating in presentations, can be challenging. To incentivize team members, we decided to try something different within the company: creating a collectible card game inspired by Magic: The Gathering, fully customized with our team members, inside jokes, real stories, and the memorable moments we’ve shared along the way.

At first glance, it might seem like just a fun side project, but it would be a monumental task involving hours of copyrighting and illustration. So we wondered whether AI would be helpful in this case. In the end, this AI-powered initiative turned into one of the most impactful actions we’ve taken to foster engagement, culture, and team well-being.

Below, we share how this experiment came to life and what it taught us about creativity, organizational culture, and the role of AI in modern workplaces.

They realize that processes are not a waste of their time and are beneficial for them, they'll remain committed.

AI Beyond the Obvious: Creativity in the Workplace

When we talk about AI in tech companies, the conversation usually revolves around:

• Process automation
• Code generation
• Efficiency gains
• Faster delivery cycles

All of these are valuable, but they represent only a fraction of what AI can do. In our case, we deliberately chose a less conventional path: using AI to create something playful, human, and culturally meaningful.

With generative AI, we created:

• Original card illustrations in a fantasy-inspired style
• Thematic descriptions and attributes, inspired by each person’s personality and contributions
• Abilities, flavor text, and narratives that reference real moments from our team’s journey

There is still a creative aspect to crafting the prompts for all the cards, such as finding funny moments and translating them into accurate prompts to generate the cards as intended.

Additionally, a lot of experimentation has been done with various tools, such as Sora and Nano Banana, to determine which yields the best results, and sometimes, combining them to achieve the final outcome.

AI didn’t replace creativity, it amplified it, making it possible to build an entire universe that would have taken months to produce manually.

Why Build a Card Game Inside a Company?

The card game started as a light-hearted incentive. Team members earn cards by completing everyday actions that support the company and the team, such as doing their daily standups, collaborating with others, and sharing knowledge.

1. Engagement Through Thoughtful Gamification

The cards act as symbolic rewards that increase participation in key rituals and reinforce positive behaviors — without pressure, heavy systems, or extra bureaucracy.

2. Stronger Culture and Shared Identity

Each card represents a person, a story, or a moment from our collective experience. People recognize themselves and each other, laugh, reminisce, and share. Culture is built through shared memories, and the game made those memories tangible.

3. Authentic Recognition

The cards turn everyday contributions, often invisible, into something concrete and personal. It’s a creative way of saying: we saw what you did, and it mattered.

What we Learned

Beyond the fun factor, the card game highlighted a few important principles that apply to any modern organization:

Culture Is Built in the Details

Sometimes, a single inside joke turned into a card can be more powerful than a perfectly planned corporate event.

AI Can Bring People Closer, Not Just Automate Work

When used with human intention, technology acts as a bridge, bringing people closer together, even when miles apart.

Creative Experiments Can Drive Real Organizational Impact

Not every meaningful initiative needs to start as a formal OKR.

Conclusion: In the End, It’s About People

The card game may seem like a small initiative, but it represents something much bigger: a more human way of using AI at work. It reinforced culture, encouraged collaboration, created shared memories, and brought people closer together.

In a corporate world that often prioritizes speed, efficiency, and output, projects like this serve as an important reminder that it is the people who make this company, its culture, and its legacy.