Endava and OpenAI: Revolutionizing Software Development

Endava, a global technology services company, has spent over 25 years helping businesses solve complex commercial problems through technology. Today, this mission increasingly focuses on artificial intelligence (AI), a field in which it is deeply committed. Matthew Cloke, Endava's CTO, emphasizes that the adoption of AI has required a rethinking of workflows, leadership behaviors, and collaboration within the company.

According to Cloke, "AI has fundamentally impacted Endava over the past few years. We really had to address the question of how to be a relevant organization in the new world of AI." This reflection led Endava to choose OpenAI as its enterprise AI platform, providing its employees access to ChatGPT Enterprise and Codex. The goal was to make AI an integral part of the daily workflow, rather than just an additional tool.

Transforming Workflows

The transformation through AI began within Endava's software delivery teams. Developers started experimenting with AI-assisted coding and agentic workflows, quickly discovering that the bottleneck was no longer engineering production. Gathering requirements, business analysis, planning, and stakeholder coordination also needed to move faster.

This realization led to the creation of DavaFlow, Endava's AI-native delivery methodology. "We started to question how quickly we could produce requirements and the right business solutions for our clients," explains Cloke. Today, OpenAI technology is integrated throughout the DavaFlow lifecycle, from meeting preparation and business planning to product discovery, software engineering, and deployment. "There is not a part of DavaFlow that does not use OpenAI technology," asserts Cloke.

Adoption Beyond Engineering

The adoption of AI at Endava did not stop with developers. Legal teams began using AI to streamline research and documentation workflows. Project managers utilized Codex to generate governance reports and summarize engineering progress. Business teams replaced heavy spreadsheet planning exercises with lightweight AI-generated applications.

During an internal pricing discussion, employees completely avoided spreadsheets and instead built a one-page pricing application that teams could interact with immediately. "This completely changed the conversation," says Cloke.

AI agents have also integrated into daily operations. Leadership teams use agents to summarize projects, automate communications, manage inboxes, and coordinate work asynchronously.

Results at a Glance

• Software delivery has been accelerated through the integration of AI agents into engineering workflows.
• AI adoption has expanded beyond engineering to legal, financial, and operational teams.
• Manual reporting and coordination work has been reduced through AI-assisted workflows.
• Teams can now create internal tools and applications without dedicated engineering support.
• AI fluency has become part of hiring and promotion expectations across the company.

Lessons Learned from Endava

As Endava deployed AI within its global workforce of 11,000 people, several principles emerged:

• Treat AI adoption as a behavioral change, not just a software deployment.
• Leaders must actively use AI to drive organization-wide adoption.
• Create space for experimentation, even when results are not perfect.
• Involve non-technical teams in the process from the beginning, not later.
• Hands-on experience is the fastest way to overcome skepticism.
• Make AI an integral part of daily workflows, not a separate initiative.

What’s Next?

As a long-term partner of OpenAI, Endava sees the next phase of enterprise AI centered around orchestration—the combination of models, agents, workflows, and human expertise into integrated systems that fundamentally redefine how organizations operate. "We are really excited about the workflows that can be created by combining these tools," states Cloke.

From reasoning models and Codex agents to automation and enterprise-wide collaboration, Endava believes that AI is becoming more than just a layer of productivity. It is becoming the operational model itself. And for organizations still at the beginning of their journey, Cloke's advice is simple: start using the technology personally. "The future has arrived," he says. "You just have to dive in."