The current AI boom has led to a wave of bold predictions and ambitious claims. Yet, behind the headline-grabbing breakthroughs, there’s often a disconnect between AI’s promise and its practical application.
AI is often touted as a game-changing technology that can drive innovation, improve efficiency, and elevate the customer experience. However, the path to successfully integrating AI into business operations is not without its challenges. To move past the buzz and make AI work for your brand, it’s essential to maintain a clear understanding of its capabilities, limitations, and the realities of adoption.
There’s no doubt, AI is an important concept to embrace. The key challenge for many brands is to embrace it where it’s appropriate to do so.
As the Senior VP of IT for Marco’s Pizza, I led the charge to migrate Marco’s to a 100 percent cloud-based proprietary technology platform that features various AI functions and capabilities. Behind his vast experience in the space, Molina believes it is essential to separate the reality from the rhetoric in order to understand the true state and trajectory of this transformative technology.
Beyond the Buzz: Balancing Innovation with Responsibility
It is easy to view and incorporate AI as a quick fix business solution, but very few QSRs weigh the challenges. This leads to difficulties with integration, scalability, plus security and privacy concerns.
For example, the lines are very blurry when it comes to how well AI tools protect users information or source information to power its algorithms. With AI algorithms becoming increasingly sophisticated in processing customer data, QSR brands must prioritize data protection and vendor transparency.
Brands need to move past the hype by developing a full understanding of AI’s capabilities—grounding AI expectations in reality. Focus on what AI can realistically achieve in the present and take the time to dive into each software, compare capabilities, etc. before making decisions.
While it’s true that AI has made significant advancements in areas like data analytics, order personalization, and inventory management, it’s still a tool with a fairly limited scope compared to the grand visions for the future.
As you introduce AI, you must balance the excitement with the realism to foster innovation responsibly. This will allow your team to leverage its transformative power without overextending the capabilities of AI, ultimately putting your brand in the best position for success and growth.
The Cost of Adoption
All new technology requires some level of investment, and when adopting a piece of technology as transformative as AI, that cost can be very steep.
Part of this is because implementing AI involves more than just acquiring the software—it requires an investment in securing the right expertise to interpret the data, manage AI systems, handle training, and more.
Prior to adopting the technology and introducing it to your system, you have to weigh the return on investment. With the steep learning curve that comes with all that AI offers, your business needs to ensure it has the right talent and infrastructure to support it.
Demystifying AI Hype
It can be very easy to overexaggerate the possibilities that come with a new technology. Instead of getting swept up in futuristic visions, focus on what AI can do today in order to yield the most value for your brand.
For example, by setting realistic objectives—like reducing order errors, improving delivery times, streamlining inventory management and labor scheduling, or enhancing the customer experience—QSRs can unlock immediate value without being sidetracked by unattainable, long-term goals.
Looking too far ahead can be costly to the time and resources being put into developing the brand’s use of AI. Remember, success will be driven by AI’s practical applications rather than speculative possibilities.
Remaining innovative and competitive requires patience and evaluation in order to set your brand up for long-term growth. By approaching AI with a focus on tangible outcomes, responsible integration, and a commitment to investing in the necessary infrastructure, QSR brands can harness the power of AI without overextending themselves. This is exactly what we’ve set out to do at Marco’s, and are diligently making advancements to our proprietary cloud-based technology with various AI integrations.
Milton Molina joined Marco’s in 2019 and was promoted to SVP of Store Technology in October 2024. He has 25-years of experience in QSR and a vast background that includes Finance, Analytics, Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement and IT. Over the years he has continuously taken on new challenges and has served in a variety of leadership roles with an increase in responsibilities. In his most recent role, he successfully led the implementation of Marco’s propriety order management system in +1,100 stores in just eight months. Prior to joining Marco’s, he worked with Burger King and Pollo Tropical, domestically and in Latin America / Caribbean. Molina has an MBA from Florida International University in Miami, Florida.
