Santander X awards Orquest for its disruptive and innovative solution

Santander X awards Orquest for its disruptive and innovative solution

• Orquest, an AI-powered workforce management and scheduling solution, wins the Santander X Global Challenge – The AI Revolution.
• Javier Lafuente, co-founder and Head of Product of Orquest, collects the award in Silicon Valley at Microsoft headquarters.
• Promoted by Banco Santander, Microsoft and Oxentia Foundation, the award includes mentoring by Microsoft’s VP of Co-Innovation.

Silicon Valley (USA), June 29, 2023. Orquest, represented by its co-founder and Head of Product Javier Lafuente, receives its award at Microsoft headquarters as winner of the Santander X Global Challenge | The AI Revolution, in the scale-up category, for being a “disruptive and scalable solution in Artificial Intelligence” that creates a “lasting social and economic impact”.

“We have a great product, we have healthy financial indicators, we have an ambitious business plan, and we have an international mindset. And, also, we have a goal: to make happy employees, happy customers and, then, profitable stores,” notes Lafuente.

The award, promoted by Microsoft, Banco Santander and Oxentia Foundation, and featuring funding, coaching from Microsoft’s VP of Co-Innovation and membership in the Santander X 100, a global community of entrepreneurs, recognizes solutions that have demonstrated exceptional ingenuity, technical prowess and tangible results in using AI to transform business operations and deliver cutting-edge solutions.

Orquest was developed precisely as such, to respond to McDonald’s Spain‘s need to improve the customer and employee experience by implementing an integrated scheduling platform for its restaurants. The result was a solution so powerful, it was launched in 2019 as a product. 

Based on Machine Learning and operational research algorithms, Orquest automates the retail and QSR scheduling process to place the right employee, in the right place, at the right time. Led by its CEO and co-founder, Alberto del Barrio, in addition to Lafuente and its CRO, Adara González, the solution today schedules more than 120,000 employees of large retailers such as Zara, Norauto, H&M and Kiabi, distributed in over 40 markets.

Many thanks to Santander X for recognizing the transformative power of Orquest and its contribution to the innovative retail landscape. We also take this opportunity to thank our talented team for their exceptional work and their tireless quest to always deliver the most innovative solution.

This recognition is a boost to continue making Orquest a cutting-edge solution that truly transforms retail with AI by making happy employees, happy customers and, of course, profitable stores.

The AI revolution has only just begun.