Complete AI with Alec Fireside Chat w.Wendy's AI Leader Will Croushorn: Enterprise AI at Scale

Complete AI with Alec fireside chat with The Wendy's Company AI leader, Will Croushorn, MBA. A lot of signal in this conversation about the AI enabled results they’re generating at scale but if I had to pick 3 things that especially stood out?

1: Critical role of storytelling to unlock AI enabled innovation at scale.

“Every point is a data point.”

“And again, it's this collaborative team effort, but it really comes down to asking the right questions and then being a really good storyteller to help everybody get on board.”

“But if you're able to actually meet those needs, and I think that's one of the things that our team has been able to deliver, there's real value here."

"And when there's value, the business is going to come behind you because it only makes sense to push that thing forward.”

2: Humans + machines is where the real magic happens.

“My team can iterate and move in ways that we never could.”

“We're able to bring just a consistency and a scale, a consistency and personalization at scale that just would never have been possible before LLMs and AI.”

“And I think the thing that I've learned in building products in this space is there is a role that AI and computers can do that humans can't. There's efficiency, there's optimization, there's creating these really cool experiences, there's the language aspect of it. We can't do that with a human, but there's also this human element…”

“And so it's finding that balance of what is it that makes it the best experience for the customer? What does this AI platform do well? And what is something only a human touch can bring?”

“And you put that together. And I think that's where the real magic is.”

3: “What if” thinking combined with next level customer experience innovation led by getting out in the field.

“You know, I spend hours listening to the drive-through, getting that feedback.”

“I spend so much time just sitting and listening to customers. It's one thing to sit in an office, but it's another thing to actually get out in the field and understand what are the real problems?”

“I think one of the things, if you're going to be successful in this space, you just have to be insanely curious, like almost to a fault. Because the reality is we're all figuring this out together.”

“I mean, two years ago, a lot of these platforms, a lot of these capabilities didn't even exist.”

“And so having that deep hunger, that curiosity, again, that’s supported by that data set.”

“And then finding like-minded people that are bringing different perspectives and just having that culture of asking those what if questions.”