Case Study

How Phiture Helped HBO Max EMEA Automate Personalized Movie Night Recommendations with Braze

Case Study Phiture x HBO MAX

~50%

reduction in QA review effort

~45%

hours saved per month

~540%

hours saved annually

HBO Max and Phiture collaborated to redesign one of the most manual parts of CRM campaign delivery: Quality Assurance (QA). Every campaign requires reviewers to validate that a live Braze Canvas matches the campaign brief and internal QA standards before launch. As campaign volume and complexity increased across EMEA and APAC, this process became increasingly time-consuming and repetitive. Rather than using AI to generate customer-facing content, the teams used BrazeAI Operator to improve internal CRM operations, reducing QA effort by approximately 50% and saving more than 540 hours annually.

The Challenge

Every CRM campaign at HBO Max requires reviewers to validate that a live Braze Canvas configuration matches the campaign brief and internal QA standards before launch. As campaign volume and complexity increased across EMEA and APAC, this process became increasingly time-consuming and repetitive.

The QA workflow involved manually checking audience configuration, segmentation, scheduling, flow logic, conversion events, control groups, channel-specific settings, naming conventions, and operational governance rules. The growing number of campaigns made this process a significant bottleneck, consuming CRM Operations time that could have been redirected to higher-value activities such as campaign optimization, process improvements, and automation initiatives.

The Solution

Building on a Standardized Foundation

This initiative was successful because it built on an already standardized CRM Operations process shared by HBO Max and Phiture. Before introducing AI, both teams had established consistent campaign briefs, a standardized QA checklist, clear operational governance rules, and structured Braze Canvas naming conventions and standards. These provided the structured inputs required for BrazeAI Operator to reliably compare campaign requirements against live Canvas configurations.

Designing the AI-Powered QA Workflow

Phiture designed an AI-powered QA workflow that runs directly within BrazeAI Operator, allowing reviewers to compare a live Canvas configuration against the campaign brief and a standardized CRM QA checklist.

BrazeAI Operator was the ideal solution because it has direct visibility into the live Canvas configuration and Segments, allowing reviewers to validate campaigns in their native environment without copying configuration details into external AI tools.

The solution analyzes audience configuration, segmentation, scheduling, flow logic, conversion events, control groups, channel-specific settings, naming conventions, and operational governance rules. It then categorizes the results into Matches, Potential Mismatches, and Items Requiring Manual Validation, helping reviewers quickly identify risks while preserving human oversight for final approval.

Integration and Rollout

Rather than introducing AI as a standalone initiative, HBO Max and Phiture collaborated to integrate it into the existing QA workflow. Phiture developed and iterated the prompt using real campaign scenarios, while HBO Max validated the output against live operational requirements and ensured it aligned with existing review processes.

Executive buy-in was achieved through an MVP approach. Instead of proposing a large-scale transformation, the teams demonstrated measurable improvements on real campaigns over several weeks of testing before documenting the workflow and rolling it out more broadly.

The Results

The AI-assisted QA workflow reduced campaign QA effort by approximately 50%, allowing reviewers to spend significantly less time on repetitive validation while maintaining the same quality standards.

Across all the campaign reviews each month across EMEA and APAC, this delivers:

  • ~50% reduction in QA review effort
  • ~45 hours saved every month
  • ~540 hours saved annually
  • Equivalent to more than 67 working days of CRM Operations time reinvested every year across the team

Beyond operational efficiency, the project has improved campaign quality by standardizing reviews across consultants, reducing manual configuration errors, identifying inconsistencies earlier in the QA process, and accelerating onboarding through a shared QA framework.

Instead of replacing reviewers, BrazeAI Operator became an intelligent validation layer that reduced repetitive work, standardized reviews, and allowed CRM consultants to focus on complex decisions requiring human judgment. The workflow is now being adopted as a global QA framework across HBO Max CRM Operations in EMEA and APAC, creating a consistent review process that scales across teams, regions, and future campaign programs.

The time saved is being reinvested into higher-value activities such as campaign optimization, process improvements, automation initiatives, and operational innovation.

HBO Max Logo

Client: HBO Max EMEA
Website: www.hbomax.com
Services: Retention & CRM

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is BrazeAI Operator, and how was it used here?

BrazeAI Operator is a BrazeAI feature that allows teams to interact with live Braze configurations using AI. In this project, Phiture used it to build an AI-powered QA workflow that compares live Canvas configurations against campaign briefs and standardized QA checklists, categorizing results into Matches, Potential Mismatches, and Items Requiring Manual Validation.

Can this kind of AI-assisted QA workflow work for other apps or industries?

Yes, in large part because the workflow relies on standardized operational documentation rather than campaign-specific logic. As such, it is designed to scale consistently across regions, teams, and additional CRM programs while maintaining all the critical details, including the same governance, quality standards, and reviewer experience. It can be applied to any team running structured CRM campaigns at volume within Braze.

How long does it take to implement an AI-powered QA workflow like this?

The timeline depends on the maturity of the existing CRM operations process. HBO Max and Phiture were able to move quickly because both teams had already established consistent campaign briefs, a standardized QA checklist, and structured Braze Canvas naming conventions. Teams with similar operational foundations can expect to design, test, and document a workflow like this within a few weeks.

What results can we expect from AI-assisted CRM QA?

Results vary by team size and campaign volume, but HBO Max saw a ~50% reduction in QA review effort, ~45 hours saved per month, and improved consistency across reviewers. The time saved was reinvested into campaign optimization, process improvements, and operational innovation.

Does Phiture only work with Braze?

Phiture works across the major CRM and lifecycle marketing platforms, including Braze, Iterable, Customer.io, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, CleverTap, and others. Braze is a core area of expertise given its flexibility for mobile-first personalization, but the team adapts to whichever platform the client uses.