The most unlikely companies employing AI

Companies need not be in tech, or even tech-adjacent, to take part in the AI hullabaloo. In fact, part of what’s contributed to AI’s buzz is the potential to use the technology anywhere. Still, it can be shocking to hear companies in such quotidian industries as food service or consumer goods leaning into the AI revolution.

Here are some of the most unlikely companies we’ve heard pushing AI strategies on their latest earnings calls.

Bath & Body Works
CEO Gina Boswell:

Our Generative AI fragrance finder, Gingham Genius, will launch in the important fourth quarter, providing customers a personalized fragrance finding experience using large language models and the power of our data.

Yum! Brands
CFO Chris Turner:

We deepened our AI pursuits this quarter, taking steps to unlock the benefits of our RED 360 database and engage with an innovative start-up in the AI-driven personalization space to leverage our massive first-party data assets. This partnership covers the application and integration of a deep learning AI approach known as reinforcement learning, which we expect to be broadly and easily scalable across brands. This partnership will focus on our basic CRM channels and in the future, may extend to our other consumer sales and communications channels, for instance, paid media.

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As you recall, last quarter, we discussed plans to expand drive-thru voice AI technology to more Taco Bell stores.

I'm excited to announce that given our encouraging early results, the team has accelerated the rollout. And as of today, we now have this technology operational in over 100 Taco Bell stores. We plan to scale this technology to several hundred stores by year-end, while a pilot test is underway in KFC Australia. In our tests, we have witnessed consistent consumer experiences and higher team member productivity.

Kraft Heinz
CEO Carlos Abrams-Rivera

Expanding options and functionality is more important today than ever as consumers want choices that provide unique benefits, such as dairy-free, plant-based, and immunity support. Our partnership with NotCo has allowed us to expand such options while using AI technology to deliver delicious taste and texture.

Starbucks
CFO Rachel Ruggeri

Our new store revenue is highly incremental, adding an average of nearly 90% to the trade area attained by our world-class store development partners and their rigorous work that leverages AI-assisted strategic site selection process.

Chipotle Mexican Grill CEO (and soon-to-be Starbucks CEO) Brian Niccol

So there's a lot of things going on back of house to make us more effective culinary-wise, prep-wise, which then sets us up to be successful consistently on the front line and the digital makeline. I've talked about these things also where we're also experimenting with AI and vision to ensure that our teams get the support. I'm actually reading a great book right now, it's called Co-Intelligence. It talks about how you use AI as a partner and that's really what – you've heard us talk about this, it's cobotics, right? I think now this is – I like this term, co-intelligence, to help our teams be more effective with forecasting, executing every single bowl correctly, bringing things up exactly correctly.

Coca-Cola
CEO James Quincey

Our system is also piloting an AI driven initiative to push personalized messages to retailers with suggested items based on previous orders and market data. Initial pilots indicate that retailers who receive the messages are over 30% more likely to purchase recommended SKUs, which results in incremental sales for our retailers and the system.

In case you’re wondering: Build-A-Bear did not mention AI on its earnings call today.