9X FASTER SOFTWARE DELIVERY FOR A GLOBAL BEVERAGE LEADER

AI-powered refinement accelerated planning activities by 10x, increased delivery velocity by 9x, and achieved 89% implementation adherence.

INTRODUCTION

In large-scale software organizations, faster delivery often depends on what happens before development begins. When requirements lack clarity, business context, or technical detail, engineering teams spend valuable time refining stories, resolving ambiguities, and reworking deliverables before they can create value.

A leading global beverage company faced this challenge across a complex engineering ecosystem involving hundreds of contributors, multiple value streams, and dozens of repositories. As work moved through the delivery pipeline, inconsistent refinement practices created bottlenecks, increased lead times, and reduced confidence in delivery outcomes.

Rather than focusing solely on accelerating development, the organization partnered with CI&T to improve the quality and readiness of work entering the engineering lifecycle. The goal was to create a more efficient path from business requirements to implementation while increasing delivery speed, predictability, and quality.

Leveraging an agentic refinement framework Powered by CI&T Flow, teams transformed business requirements into implementation-ready specifications, reducing manual effort, improving backlog quality, and creating a faster, more reliable path from idea to execution.

The result was a 10x faster refinement process, a 9x increase in development speed, and a stronger foundation for scalable software delivery.

THE CHALLENGE: WHEN REQUIREMENTS BECOME THE BOTTLENECK

Engineering teams spent valuable time clarifying requirements, resolving ambiguities, and filling information gaps before development could begin, impacting delivery speed and predictability.

Requirements Were Slowing Delivery

User stories frequently entered development without sufficient business context, technical detail, or acceptance criteria.

As a result, engineering teams spent significant time clarifying requirements, identifying dependencies, and filling information gaps before implementation could begin.

Complex Engineering Ecosystem

The organization operated within a highly distributed environment involving hundreds of collaborators, multiple value streams, and dozens of repositories.

This complexity amplified the impact of poorly defined requirements and made delivery predictability increasingly difficult.

Long Lead Times and Rework

Immature stories entering development contributed to extended delivery cycles, additional rework, and lower confidence in the quality of releases.

Improving delivery outcomes required addressing the problem at its source.

THE SOLUTION

CI&T implemented an AI-powered refinement and development framework designed to improve the quality, consistency, and readiness of work before it reached engineering teams.

AI-Driven Story Enrichment

Agentic workflows automatically analyzed incoming requirements and enriched them with business and technical context, transforming Jira tickets into implementation-ready specifications.

This enabled teams to start development with clearer requirements, better alignment, and fewer uncertainties.

Agentic Development Pipeline

AI agents supported both business and technical refinement activities, helping teams define acceptance criteria, identify dependencies, and improve story quality before development began.

By reducing manual effort during refinement, teams significantly shortened the time required to prepare work for execution.

AI-Assisted Development

Once stories reached the development phase, AI-powered workflows accelerated implementation activities while maintaining engineering standards and quality guardrails.

This created a seamless flow from business requirements to working software.

THE IMPACT

The initiative delivered measurable improvements in refinement, development, and quality processes.

REFINEMENT ACCELERATION

10x

faster refinement
cycles

Reduced story enrichment and preparation time from approximately two days to two hours

Improved consistency and quality of requirements entering development

DEVELOPMENT PERFORMANCE

9x

increase in
development velocity

Reduced reduced implementation cycles for end-to-end AI-assisted workflows from five days to approximately five hours

LOWER COSTS

Automated generation of test scenarios

Reduced rework effort, averaging approximately two hours per story

89%

adherence to established quality standards

INCREASED DELIVERY CONFIDENCE

By improving the quality of work before development began, teams gained greater predictability, improved execution efficiency, and higher confidence in delivery outcomes.

TECHNOLOGIES USED

CI&T FLOW

CI&T Flow Enterprise AI Management System that integrates intelligent agents into software delivery workflows, helping organizations accelerate execution while improving quality and governance.

AGENTIC REFINEMENT FRAMEWORK

A coordinated set of AI agents designed to enrich requirements, automate refinement activities, identify dependencies, and improve backlog readiness.

AI-ASSISTED ACTIVITIES

Intelligent workflows supporting coding, validation, and delivery activities while maintaining engineering standards and human oversight.

INTELLIGENT ENGINEERING ASSISTANTS

AI-powered capabilities that help teams enrich requirements, generate implementation-ready specifications, support development activities, and improve delivery quality.