Fortune senior writer Lila MacLellan here, filling in for Alyson and eager to share some thoughts from our second Fortune COO Summit, which was held in a steamy (106 degrees!) Scottsdale, Ariz., this week.
The swift rise of game-changing artificial intelligence was the defining theme of this year’s conference, but it shared the spotlight with another pressing concern for second-in-command executives: corporate culture. Both on stage and in private conversations, leaders from Fortune 500 C-suites expressed excitement about where AI is taking businesses, along with some healthy trepidation about managing that change.
Some examples of AI that upped the crowd’s adrenaline levels: Attendees heard from Chipotle (No. 372) CEO Scott Boatwright, the fast food company’s COO until last August, who said that AI will allow the company to open a new location every 24 hours this year. Diane Brady, executive editorial director of Fortune Live Media, interviewed her chatty digital twin. And, in one morning session, Babak Hodjat, CTO of AI at Cognizant (No. 217), demonstrated how companies can use networks of AI agents to create nimble workflows, turning a process that formerly took days into a hours-long task. (At last year’s summit, the AI agent concept was still fuzzy to most people, Hodjat noted. This year, we watched transfixed as AI agents chatted with each other in real time to solve a hypothetical problem at the dating app company Hinge.)
During the summit’s penultimate conversation, Jason Gowans, Levi’s chief digital and technology officer, explained how the denim retailer just this week began piloting an AI sales app that teaches in-store employees about denim fits and “why they should care about selvedge,” while Mason Smoot, chief restaurant officer at McDonald’s (No. 165), described an AI hiring tool, McHire, and some forthcoming AI that will make customizing your McDonald’s order easier.
Just keep in mind, some bells and whistles are fine, said Fortune correspondent Phil Wahba, who was moderating that panel, but consumers simply want their orders to work. “You don’t have to make it the Star Wars of retail,” he said.
So it went throughout the conference: The razzle-dazzle of new technology was tempered with words of caution about implementing AI without alienating staff or customers. As more than one COO explained to me, CEOs may be out there talking up generative AI with the board and investors, but it will be COOs overseeing AI’s successful adoption on a granular level.
There were no obvious answers to any of the questions that arose. COOs seemed to agree that there was no universal playbook for the shift we’re seeing. But Gowans and Smoot also shared anecdotes about company-created apps that needed to be redesigned when they discovered the tech wasn’t well aligned with the needs and pain points of employees and consumers. The lesson: As AI remakes businesses, COOs will have to flex their operational expertise: “We’ve had to go back,” said Smoot, “make some improvements, and continually look at it.” —Lila MacLellan
