The HR digital transformation journey of Coca-Cola Vietnam with Leena AI
The CEO and Director signed off urgent travel requests by hand, and 4,000 employees queued for HR answers.
AskMi now routes approvals, answers policy questions and runs attendance, in English and Vietnamese.
Coca-Cola Beverages Vietnam employs more than 4,000 people across three factories, and has been named one of the best companies to work for in Asia. Every day its HR team fielded questions on leave status, medical insurance and payroll, and signed off a steady stream of approvals.
The most expensive approvals were not HR's at all. Company policy required the CEO or the Director to clear high-value travel requests, and most of them were urgent — so the two most senior people in the business spent time every day on a repetitive task.
- High-value travel requests needed the CEO or Director to approve them, every day.
- AskMi was built into Workplace by Facebook, so nobody had to install or learn a new app.
- Blue- and white-collar employees use it in English or Vietnamese.
- Approval effort fell by 40%, and the time to find company information by almost half.
Where the time was going
Four problems sat on top of each other. Requests took too long to sign off. Senior management was pulled into high-value travel approvals. Employees struggled to find the organisation's policies and processes on time, so they asked HR for each one. And operators on the factory floor found the existing attendance system hard to use.
Underneath all of it was people doing routine HR work by hand.
The approvals needed to be immediate for a smooth employee experience, but they took valuable time that could have gone to strategic tasks and decisions.
Why it had to sit on top of what was there
Coca-Cola Vietnam wanted one platform that could resolve queries and run employee processes at the same time. Its existing systems worked in isolation, so the platform had to be the piece that joined them up.
Leena AI integrated SAP SuccessFactors, the local attendance system and other internal software behind a single conversation. It ran inside Workplace by Facebook, which employees already used, so there was no new application to set up or train people on.
What Coca-Cola Vietnam built
The assistant, named AskMi, launched with FAQ automation and high-value travel approvals. Employees describe a query in their own words, and requests are triaged to the right approver, who signs off in the chat. The personality was designed around Vietnamese culture, the company's own culture and Coca-Cola's brand in the country.
AskMi uses natural language understanding and conversational AI to work out each issue and resolve it within seconds. As a virtual employee helpdesk, it removed unnecessary human intervention from routine queries. As efficiency rose, Coca-Cola gradually rolled out more modules, and the whole HR policy knowledge base came to live in one place.
AskMi also broadcasts internal notices — the employee leaderboard, best performers by team, and personalised birthday and work-anniversary wishes — and displayed the national and central COVID-19 prevention protocols while collecting employee declarations.
One chat for employees, approvers and HR
- AnswersRoutine HR questionsPayslips and tax deduction, policies and quick replies, in English or Vietnamese.
- ApprovalsRequests to the right approverLeave, overtime, regularisation and travel requests are routed and approved in chat.
- AttendanceA usable attendance systemOperators reach attendance through AskMi, with month-end reminders to apply leave and regularise.
- CultureBroadcasts and onboardingLeaderboards, birthday wishes, COVID-19 health declarations and a module on the company's 150-year history.
Employees started using AskMi without training and were raising approval requests soon after launch. New joiners were onboarded through it too.
What changed
Senior management reported a 40% reduction in the time and effort spent approving employee requests. Employees now need almost 50% less time to find relevant company information, and they no longer navigate different portals to get help.
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Time spent approving requests | Daily, by senior management | 40% less |
| Time to find company information | Ask HR and wait | Almost 50% less |
| Where employees go for help | Separate systems and portals | One chat, AskMi |
| Attendance for operators | Hard to use | Through AskMi |
| Training needed to start | — | None |
Leena AI has helped us a lot in the Digital Transformation journey. We have centralized all our HR services into Leena AI and made it a single point of contact. And have saved 40% of our time for approval and request. Also, the automation of fingerprint notification has made the employees more compliant.
Dat LuongDigital Solution Manager, Coca-Cola VietnamCulture, not just tickets
AskMi did more than clear requests. Most employees did not know the company's 150-year story, so it became part of how new and existing employees learn it, and part of how the business shares recognition and news.
HR executives have won back time for strategic work, and the senior team is no longer the bottleneck on routine sign-offs.
Coca-Cola Vietnam believes in giving employees the best experience through technology, AI and automation. Since deploying Leena AI in 2019, AskMi has delivered on that, unlocking employees' potential by making them more productive.
About Coca-Cola Vietnam
Coca-Cola Beverages Vietnam is a subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company, established in Vietnam in 2012 and headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City. It creates more than 4,000 direct jobs through factories in Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and was named among the Best Companies to Work for in Asia in 2020 by HR Asia, and best ‘Employer of Choice – 2019’ by Career Builder.
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The full Coca-Cola Vietnam case study, as a PDF.
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