The partnership between Atlassian Corp., the enterprise software giant best known for products such as Jira and Confluence, and Formula 1 team Williams Racing is far more than a simple sponsorship with a logo on a helmet.

One of the aspects I like most about Formula 1 is that the value of all technical sponsorships counts towards the race teams operating cap. That means even if a vendor were to give the organization free hardware or software, the value of that is calculated and counts toward the annual spend. And that means any brand being associated with any of the race teams is being used by them.

Atlassian is the title sponsor for Williams, hence the name “Atlassian Williams Racing,” and the collaboration is an excellent proof point for how its “System of Work,” powered by AI, can transform one of the most data intensive and demanding sports on the planet. A big part of my research is the cross over between sports and tech, and there is no sport that collects as much data and acts on it as quickly as F1. Because of this, I was looking forward to attending the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix in late November and spending time with Atlassian to get a deeper dive on the partnership.

Beyond the dev team: Atlassian’s System of Work

At the track, I met with Jamil Valliani, head of AI product for Atlassian. I mentioned that for many years, the Atlassian brand was synonymous with Jira, which has become an indispensable tool for software development and issue tracking. Valliani agreed that was the case, but that perception is now changing. While Jira remains foundational, Atlassian’s vision has broadened to encompass a complete System of Work — a philosophy and product suite designed to empower virtually any team with complex projects, goals, and knowledge bases.

This system is an integrated collection of tools, including:

• Jira: For tracking issues, tasks, and asset management (e.g., car parts from suppliers).
• Confluence: For maintaining knowledge bases (e.g., track conditions, race learnings).
• Loom: For recording and annotating video content, such as internal meetings and presentations.

The ultimate goal is to connect the entire organization — from HR to the pit crew — using standardized, accelerated processes. Valliani explained, the partnership with Williams is built on a shared commitment to unlocking “human potential through technology and teamwork.”

Rovo: The AI teammate driving the system

The cornerstone of the Atlassian System of Work, and the engine of innovation for Atlassian Williams Racing, is Rovo. Rovo is not a single product but an AI-powered intelligence layer that runs across all Atlassian’s offerings.

Valliani describes Rovo as a multifaceted capability that serves as an “AI teammate” to the workforce:

World-class enterprise search: Rovo can query across the vast, disparate knowledge locked within an organization’s Jira, Confluence and Loom content.

AI Rovo Chat: A conversational interface that allows users to ask questions and receive intelligent answers based on their internal company knowledge.

Rovo Studio (agent building): This is perhaps the most transformative feature. Studio allows nontechnical users to build custom agents and automations simply using natural language, providing an “extra pair of hands” for repetitive or complex tasks.

The adoption of Rovo across Atlassian’s paid customers has been very strong. Valliani cited more than 3.5 million monthly users. The growth rates — over 100 times growth in Rovo search and 50 times growth in Rovo chat — underscore the immediate value teams are finding in accelerating their work. Also, the studio feature has seen more than 2 million automations and workflows accelerated, demonstrating that the future of work is not just about using AI for personal tasks (like writing an email), but for accelerating teamwork.

Williams Racing: A Formula 1 use case

The highly regulated and competitive environment of Formula 1 makes it the perfect testing ground for a System of Work. As mentioned above, because of the sport’s cost cap rules, every piece of technology must deliver verifiable, competitive value. The Atlassian Williams Racing F1 team is utilizing the System of Work and Rovo across their entire organization for several uses cases, including:

Accelerating design and interpretation

The most compelling example shared by Valliani involves the team’s wind tunnel testing:

• The challenge: Wind tunnel tests produce massive amounts of raw data. Previously, only a few highly specialized engineers possessed the knowledge to interpret this data and translate it into actionable design changes (such as redesigning the car’s fin or wing). This created a bottleneck, slowing down the car’s iteration cycle.
• The Rovo solution: Williams trained a Rovo Agent to consume and interpret the raw wind tunnel data. This agent now gives tailored feedback to the right teams, ensuring they receive instantly actionable insights relevant to their domain.
• The result: The ability to interpret complex data and disseminate the insights to global teams rapidly has helped Williams improve their on-track performance, saving the crucial milliseconds that differentiate success from failure in F1.

Extending the lifespan of knowledge

Williams’ widespread adoption of Loom, especially for recording all team meetings, demonstrates how Rovo turns unstructured data into organizational memory:

• The challenge: Meetings often generate vital actions and insights, but this information is lost soon after the meeting concludes. This is compounded when employees miss a meeting or forget a specific action item.
• The Rovo solution: Loom AI takes the video recording and does much more than generate a transcript. It helps annotate the video, identifying actors and decided actions. A user can then use Rovo to query the knowledge — asking, for instance, “What action item did the driver have on the setup for the next race?” — and Rovo instantly recalls the information, finding the exact moment in the video.
• The result: The system extends the lifespan and accessibility of meeting knowledge, ensuring that insights from drivers or engineers are quickly found and actioned, even by people who weren’t present at the time.

A blueprint for organizational AI transformation

Atlassian and Williams Racing offer a critical lesson for any company looking to realize value from AI. As Valliani noted, many organizations are “stuck” because they focus only on using AI for individual acceleration. The key to true organizational transformation lies in teamwork acceleration.

Valliani’s advice for successful AI adoption, proven by the Williams partnership, is twofold:

1. Top-down leadership: Leaders must embrace the AI tools themselves, sharing their successes and failures. This makes it “OK” for employees to experiment and learn without fear, establishing a culture of innovation.
2. Trailblazer teams: Identify the most open-minded or “pain-felt” teams — those with a clear, pressing need for improvement. Give them the AI tools, put a spotlight on their wins, and let them become bottom-up evangelists.

The Atlassian Williams partnership is a tangible demonstration that when AI is integrated not just as a feature, but as the foundational layer of a connected, cross-organizational System of Work, it delivers measurable results. In the high-stakes world of Formula 1, this means better cars, faster processes and climbing the championship ranks. For the rest of the enterprise world, it means a proven blueprint for competing effectively in the new AI era.

The ability to drive organizational transformation has had tangible results for Williams. Atlassian became the title sponsor in 2025, and Williams Racing has seen a major shift in results. From 2018 to 2024, Williams accumulated a total of 84 points. With the 10 points earned in Las Vegas, the team now has 111 points in 2025 alone. When it comes to any organization, F1 included, teamwork matters but that requires having the right tools in place to see across every member.

Zeus Kerravala is a principal analyst at ZK Research, a division of Kerravala Consulting. He wrote this article for SiliconANGLE.

Image: Atlassian Williams Racing