JAL | How Japan Airlines Built a Company-Wide GAS Certification Program and Got 230+ Employees to Join

Japan Airlines (JAL) wanted employees across the company, well beyond the IT department, to automate their own work using Google Apps Script (GAS). To make that happen at scale, the airline created an internal certification program and needed a credentialing system that was tamper-proof, connected to HR records, and didn't require manual effort to run. JAL chose Digit.ink's Verifiable Credentials & Open Badges and wired them into its existing Google Workspace setup via API, fully automating the path from exam to credential. The program launched with nothing more than an internal portal announcement and a chat post. Over 230 employees signed up, spanning IT, general affairs, procurement, airport ops, maintenance, and cabin crew. Many are already applying GAS to solve real problems in their daily work.

JAL operates passenger and cargo flights, supported by group functions in aircraft maintenance, ground handling, in-flight service, and IT. The airline runs on Google Workspace company-wide, and the next step was straightforward: get individual employees to use that platform to improve their own workflows, rather than waiting for top-down IT projects to do it for them.

JAL built a training program to teach employees GAS, the scripting tool built into Google Workspace. The goal was to get people to actually automate things in their day-to-day jobs and build a lasting culture of self-driven improvement. But two practical problems stood in the way.

First, JAL needed credentials that HR could trust. The airline wanted to register GAS certification in its internal qualification system, but image-based certificates are trivially easy to fake. They weren't credible enough to serve as official proof of skill.

Second, issuing certificates by hand wouldn't work at company scale. JAL needed the entire pipeline, from exam results to credential delivery, to run automatically, accurately, and without adding work for administrators.

JAL adopted Digit.ink's Open Badges to solve both problems at once. Open Badges are digital credentials with built-in verification: they can't be forged, and anyone can confirm they're authentic. That gave HR the confidence to link badge data directly to JAL's qualification registry.

For automation, JAL connected its Google Forms exam and Sheets-based grading to Digit.ink's API using GAS itself. An employee takes the exam, the score is recorded in a spreadsheet, and if they pass, a verified Open Badge is issued automatically. No manual steps, no bottlenecks.

The program runs within JAL's internal domain for security reasons, and it launched with minimal promotion: the company intranet and a chat space. Despite that, over 230 employees have earned certification, far exceeding initial expectations.

The range of participants is notable. Certified employees come from across the company, including general affairs, procurement, airport operations, maintenance, and cabin crew. They're using GAS to build things like automated data collection tools and conditional reminder emails: practical fixes for real problems in their own workflows.

Digit.ink was chosen to power what JAL calls its principle of "providing a place to learn for everyone who wants to learn."