SharkNinja's CEO worried workers were falling behind on AI. So he decided to 'shock the system.'

Local college students participate in SharkNinja's recent hackathon, called "Jailbreak." Tony Luong for BI The team was stuck. Someone called over a recent hire from another team — one of SharkNinja's emerging AI power users. Within about 90 minutes, he had built an AI tool that automated a cumbersome process for tracking projects and holding teams accountable. Word of the worker's feat spread beyond the group gathered around him in an office at the company's headquarters near Boston, said S...