A Lean Team Faces Growing IT and Security Challenges

Shakepay is a fast-growing fintech company with a strong emphasis on security and operational efficiency. They also maintain a lean team while handling increasing internal IT and security requests.

As Shakepay scaled, its IT and security teams found themselves overwhelmed with a high volume of interrupt-driven work - reactive, time-sensitive requests that pulled them away from strategic initiatives. Employees frequently tagged IT and security members across thousands of Slack channels, making it difficult to centralize support.

Shakepay needed a solution that could handle routine IT and security requests, centralize support, and maintain a high standard of service while keeping the team lean. That’s when they discovered Risotto.

Instantly Reducing Interrupt-Driven Work with AI-Powered Support

Shakepay implemented Risotto to act as an AI-powered IT and security assistant within Slack. Deployment was quick. Risotto was fully operational in under 48 hours and its impact was felt immediately.

“Value was pretty instantaneous for us. More than half of the things that come in Risotto is able to handle correctly, or it’s 90% of the way there,” a Shakepay team member shared.

By automating responses to frequently asked questions, Risotto allowed Shakepay’s IT and security teams to focus on high-impact work rather than constantly answering repetitive Level 1 support requests.

Not only did Risotto provide fast, reliable responses, but it also triaged more complex requests by escalating them only when necessary. This meant IT and security team members no longer had to manually sift through Slack requests, significantly improving efficiency.

Reinforcing a Security-First Culture with Centralized Support

Before Risotto, security-related questions were scattered across many different Slack channels, making it difficult to track and reinforce security best practices. By implementing Risotto in Shakepay’s dedicated security Slack channel, the company saw a cultural shift:

“Since we’ve started using Risotto people come consistently to the security channel with their questions which really reinforces our security-first culture.” Shakepay said.

Instead of employees tagging security members in unrelated threads, they naturally started directing their security and IT requests to the right place, reducing noise and making it easier for the team to track and respond efficiently.

Easy Onboarding for New Employees

Beyond IT and security, Risotto has proven invaluable for new hire onboarding. Employees, especially those hesitant to ask questions publicly, now turn to Risotto for instant guidance.

Risotto also acts as a real-time knowledge base, allowing employees to reference previous valid solutions rather than repeatedly asking the same questions. This has significantly accelerated onboarding and reduced dependency on IT and security teams for basic troubleshooting.

An Always-On AI Team Member

One of the biggest validations of Risotto’s impact came when Shakepay’s security and
IT teams attended an offsite. Typically, such
events would mean delays in handling IT requests, but with Risotto in place, support remained uninterrupted.

This experience reinforced that Risotto was more than just a tool—it was a dependable AI team member, ensuring Shakepay’s IT and security operations continued running smoothly, even when the team was offline.

“I rate Risotto a 9 out of 10. I already recommend it to other IT leaders — it saves time, and in startups, time is everything,”  A Shakepay IT team member said.

Why Shakepay Recommends Risotto

With Risotto, Shakepay has successfully:

• Reduced interrupt-driven work  allowing IT and security teams to focus on high-value tasks.
  

• Centralized security and IT requests, reinforcing a security-first culture.
  

• Accelerated employee onboarding, helping new hires get answers faster.
  

• Maintained business continuity, ensuring seamless support even during offsite events.
  

For companies looking to scale IT and security operations efficiently without hiring additional headcount, Shakepay strongly recommends Risotto.

“It’s like having another team member. We put Risotto up there with the best products on the market. And we definitely want to expand it—there’s so much potential, especially for things like automating more access requests,” Shakepay said.

For Shakepay, Risotto isn’t just an AI assistant—it’s a game-changer for IT
and security efficiency.