AI Implementation in the Past Twelve Months Finally, Strasburger asked how companies were incorporating AI into operations within the last year since the group last discussed it in detail. Slater explained that AI is being introduced grad- ually at Family Express: “Every solution we go out and buy is bringing in an AI component,” and staff are encouraged to use tools like ChatGPT to improve efficiency.
conversations at the Y-Not Stop registers, with applications for upselling, loyalty, and customer experience. Both Strasburgers observed the growing impor- tance of AI prompt engineering. Roy noted that “prompt writing is the new petroleum engineer, code writer of the future.” Gauthier concluded, “the ability to ask good questions has never been more important than it is now.” Kressner noted that a COO in the Convenience Foodservice Vision Group (CFVG) had recently invested in training people to write prompts to assist their first foray into AI. Final Reflection The convenience industry is challenged to balance operational consistency with the need to innovate. Key issues like evolving technology, workforce dynamics, changing customer behaviors, and shifting policies are driving both challenges and opportunities. The focus ahead will be on finding practical solutions, perhaps through collaborations with higher education institutions, which protect profitability while positioning the industry for long- term growth.
Hughes described a decentralized AI council at Wallis Companies that developed creative solu- tions, including a multilingual customer-support bot for wholesale fuel customers: “They loaded all of the manuals in that we had so that the customer can type in a question, ‘My tank monitor is doing this,’ and the bot gives back the answer.” Aufleger noted predictive ordering tools emerging in foodservice operations at OnCue, while Gauth- ier reported deploying AI to analyze and trend
I think the ability to ask good questions has never been more important than it is now. Annie Gauthier , CFO/Co-CEO, Y-Not Stop – St. Romain Oil
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