At Terminal 2 of Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, people in a hurry are used to being surrounded by giant screens. Usually, those screens belong to luxury watches, designer handbags, famous models, or stern‑faced business tycoons with arms crossed.
But this past week, 30 unfamiliar faces appeared on those screens.
They wore blue work uniforms and yellow hard hats. They are not celebrities or CEOs. They are engineers from the workshop floor, salespeople at fish ponds, inspectors at energy plants, the most ordinary accountants at their workstations, and marketing staff.
These faces might catch your curious gaze for a few seconds. They come from something we had been “planning for a long time” – the recently concluded “2025 Feishu AI Efficiency Pioneer Competition.”
Today, we won’t talk about technology or scenarios. Instead, let’s talk about the stories of “people” we saw behind the scenes of the competition.
“Take a photo for me. I want to show my mom.”
When we decided to put the efficiency pioneers on airport screens, we didn’t anticipate how big a ripple it would create.
Then we received a screenshot.
It came from Li Yuewei, an efficiency pioneer at Hithium Energy Storage. When she learned that she would appear on the airport advertisement, she sent a message in the group: “If you run into [the efficiency pioneer airport ad], take a photo for me. I want to show it to my mom. Otherwise, she always worries about me, thinking I’m not doing well~”
The Feishu staff member who was in contact with her was both touched and heartbroken – who hasn’t had a moment of smiling and telling Mom, “I’m doing fine”?
But this time, that huge, shining screen spoke for Li Yuewei – proudly and loudly: Li Yuewei is doing something really cool. Her efforts have been seen. She really is doing well.
This feeling of “being seen” was even more direct for Shang Yangjian, an efficiency pioneer at Pengfei Group.
He is an instrumentation equipment inspector at Pengfei Group, spending his days patrolling the energy plant area, checking for hazards, working in obscurity.
Just one hour after the competition ended, the entire Pengfei Group received the good news that Shang Yangjian had won a national bronze award. The company worked overnight to design an exclusive avatar frame for him – the previously unknown inspector became the pride of the entire plant.
At Hongqiao Airport, when Shang Yangjian passed by that billboard and saw himself in a hard hat with determined eyes, he stopped in his tracks.
He raised his phone and took a photo with himself in front of this symbol of prosperity and recognition.
There are two Shang Yangjians in the photo: one is the efficiency pioneer on stage; the other is the inspector who has to hurry back to the factory to continue his inspections and keep the plant safe – the pioneer looking toward the future and the guardian walking with his head down, waving and embracing at the same coordinates.
Zhou Bin from Yongzhuo Holdings said: “Ever since you put me up there, I’ve had so many people forward it to me, saying they’ve seen me.” Zhou Meijun from New City Group was liked by his family, and he said it was a moment of “great pride and emotion.” The efficiency pioneer from 21Vianet exclaimed: “The real business experts are all on the ad.”
That was exactly our original intention in booking those screens. We wanted the world to know that the protagonist doesn’t have to be a hero riding on clouds. It can be you – an ordinary person in an ordinary role, trying to change a little piece of the status quo with innovation.
“This is the third time in my life I’ve worn a tie.”
If the airport screens were the outcome, then the stage that led to that outcome witnessed the transformation of even more “ordinary people.”
Backstage at the finals, we met Zhou Bin, Director of the Digital Intelligence Center at Yongzhuo Holdings. He was wearing a sharp suit, looking a little nervous, occasionally looking down to adjust his collar.
He told our staff: “This is the third time in my life I’ve worn a tie.”
When were the first two times?
“Once for my university graduation photo, and once for my wedding.”
He had taken two days off especially for this competition. For him, this was not just a work presentation; it was a ceremony on par with major life events.
We often underestimate what a “stage” means to ordinary people.
Chen Dongjie, an efficiency pioneer at Geely Auto Research Institute, is a meticulous introverted engineer. He quietly told us that before leaving, his daughter had cast a magic spell on him: “Daddy will win.”
For the sake of that promise – to live up to his daughter’s expectations under the spotlight – he practised repeatedly in his spare time, on top of his busy work. He wanted his daughter to know that her dad not only builds cars, but is also a superhero who can shine on a national stage.
The “Chief Director” of this Feishu national efficiency pioneer competition shared internally: “Before this, we always talked about ‘efficiency pioneers’ as a cool, tech‑sounding term. But now we understand: these so‑called ‘pioneers’ are not superhumans. They are simply people who are willing to stubbornly pour all their heart and energy into solving a problem or perfecting one thing.”
They saw their appearance on stage as the highest tribute to their own careers.
“I feel like my first thirty years were a waste.”
Among all the contestants, Lv Wang, an efficiency pioneer from Jinhong Quzhou in Neijiang, Sichuan, was the most “stubborn.”
From departing Sichuan, flying, strolling along the Bund, seeing the Oriental Pearl Tower, until finally standing on the finals stage – he always wore that blue‑gray work uniform with the company logo.
In the dazzling lights of Shanghai, that uniform looked a bit out of place, but Lv Wang wore it with pride.
He is a grassroots accountant who also often solves problems in the workshop. In the past, he was buried every day in all kinds of paper documents for inventory. Now, he has used Feishu to build an AI that understands the Sichuan dialect – not only making his own work easier, but also allowing veteran workers who aren’t good at typing to input data just by speaking.
After the competition, when we asked how he felt, this down‑to‑earth Sichuan guy said:
“After using Feishu, I feel like my first thirty years were a waste. Both in work and in life, it’s like I’ve got a cheat code.”
“A waste” – not a denial of the past, but an exclamation of the possibilities of the future.
Before, days just repeated themselves, growing old slowly in the workshop. But now, he finds himself holding a key – a key that opens not only the door to AI, but also the door to the future.
He felt it was all too dreamlike – “something I wouldn’t even dare to dream of.”
But it was also real.
Because of his efforts, he received the company’s “AI year‑end bonus.” This wasn’t empty talk; it was a real, hard‑cash incentive. The leadership at Jinhong Quzhou said after the competition that they would promote his case throughout the plant.
We see change happening.
We want the hard‑working to be seen first.
The competition ended. The lights went out. The crowds dispersed. All the Feishu staff who had worked on the competition returned to their desks and business trips.
But the echoes of this competition have filled us with a warm current and a sense of pride.
In the past, we heard too many anxious narratives about “AI replacing humans.” People worried about being eliminated by technology, about their experience becoming worthless.
But these frontline workers – workshop workers, safety officers, accountants – using their own hands, have offered a different answer.
They were not scared off by AI, nor abandoned by the times. On the contrary, they stood on the shoulders of technology and saw a farther landscape. They proved that technology has no warmth – but the people who use technology to solve problems do.
Why did Feishu give out “AI year‑end bonuses”? Why go to all the trouble to put them on airport screens?
Because we deeply know that in some workplace evaluation systems, these “little people” who innovate quietly in the corners are too easily overlooked.
They may not be able to make beautiful PPTs. They may not be good at performing in front of others. They may still have a rural accent when giving presentations. But they solve the most real business pain points, and they invest their most precious spare time.
We want to be the first to light the torch.
We want to tell all enterprises: Please look at these brave innovators. They should not be the silent majority. They should be protagonists surrounded by flowers and applause.
And we want to tell every ordinary you:
Don’t think your role is insignificant. Don’t think innovation is something only scientists do. As long as you are willing to look up at the moon, you can also bend down and pick up sixpence.
Feishu is willing to be the one that builds the stage, turns up the lights, and raises the curtain.
All you need to do is walk up confidently – even if it’s the third time in your life you’ve worn a tie, even if you’re wearing that faded work uniform.
Because this is your moment in the spotlight.