Hungry for Learning: Wendy’s Will Croushorn

Hungry for Learning: Wendy’s Will Croushorn

Author: MIT Sloan Management Review December 16, 2025 Duration: 31:34
On today’s episode, Wendy’s product manager Will Croushorn joins Sam to share how FreshAi, the fast-food restaurant’s voice-based AI ordering system, is reinventing the drive-through experience for millions of customers. From handling 200 billion ways to order a Dave’s Double burger to making fast food more accessible for guests in multiple languages, Will reveals how empathy and innovation will positively impact the future of convenience. Learn how his team turns speech data into insight, builds trust in automation, and can even hide a few Easter eggs in your next order. Read the episode transcript here. That's a wrap on Season 12! We'll back in January with a bonus episode. *Please take our listener survey: mitsmr.com/podcastsurvey It's short — we promise! — and all respondents will receive a free MIT SMR article collection, "Maximizing the Value of Generative AI." Guest bio: Will Croushorn is a product leader at Wendy’s and cocreator of its drive-through voice agent, FreshAi, which handles more than 150,000 orders each day across hundreds of stores throughout the U.S. Recognized by Fast Company as one of the “Next Big Things in Tech,” the artificial intelligence platform shows that AI can deliver measurable impact at enterprise scale. Croushorn’s career has been shaped by relentless curiosity: He started a school in northern Iraq, became fluent in Behdini Kurdish, and now advances vision and multimodal AI serve customers in entirely new ways. Me, Myself, and AI is a podcast produced by MIT Sloan Management Review and hosted by Sam Ransbotham. It is engineered by David Lishansky and produced by Allison Ryder. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials. ME, MYSELF, AND AI® is a federally registered trademark of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.

Ever wondered how some organizations manage to turn artificial intelligence from a buzzword into a genuine engine for growth, while others struggle to move beyond the pilot phase? Me, Myself, and AI, a production from MIT Sloan Management Review, goes straight to the source to find out. Instead of theoretical discussions, this podcast features candid conversations with the people who are actually building and implementing AI systems at scale. You'll hear directly from leaders at prominent companies like YouTube, Cisco, and Hugging Face as they recount their journeys-not just the polished successes, but the real-world challenges, strategic decisions, and sometimes surprising lessons learned along the way. Each episode digs into the practicalities of creating measurable business value, cutting through the noise to reveal what effective AI leadership and integration truly look like. It’s a focused exploration for anyone in technology, business, or education who wants to understand the human and operational stories behind the algorithms. Tune in for an unvarnished look at the future being built, one practical application at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Me, Myself, and AI
Podcast Episodes
Monetizing Data With AI: MIT CISR's Barb Wixom [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:31
Barbara Wixom, principal research scientist at MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), draws on 30 years of research in this bonus episode of the Me, Myself, and AI podcast. She believes data monetization i…
Tackling Injuries With AI: The NFL's Jeff Miller [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:37
Jeff Miller moved from a career in government to focus on the health and safety of NFL players. Due to the nature of their sport, they are more prone to injuries, including concussions, than other professional athletes.…
Collective Learning With Generative AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:52
Over the past year, we’ve seen generative AI explode. In this episode, we review insights shared with us from five prior guests — from Microsoft, GitHub, Meta, Partnership on AI, and NASA — and consider what’s changed, w…
Leveling the Playing Field With AI: Special Olympics's Mary Davis [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:28
Mary Davis, CEO of Special Olympics, wants the people she represents to “have a seat at the table” as AI evolves. In this episode of the Me, Myself, and AI podcast, Davis talks about her organization’s mission along with…
Bonus Episode: Lessons From Jobs in the Age of AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:24
On Sept. 4, 2024, Me, Myself, and AI host Sam Ransbotham moderated a panel discussion at a Georgetown University/World Bank event, Jobs in the Age of AI. Afterward, he interviewed keynote speaker Carl Benedikt Frey, Diet…
Sharing AI Mistakes: Partnership on AI’s Rebecca Finlay [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:26
Rebecca Finlay, CEO of Partnership on AI (PAI), believes that artificial intelligence poses risks — and that organizations should learn from one another and help others avoid the same hazards by disclosing the mistakes t…
The Risks of Too Much AI: Fortune’s Jeremy Kahn [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:12
Jeremy Kahn’s investigation into the risks and effects of artificial intelligence are reflected in a new book, Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future. But he has also written extensively about the tech…
Never Too Much AI: Upwork's Andrew Rabinovich [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:37
Andrew Rabinovich began his career in technology working on AI applications for cancer detection. He also spent time at Google, working on early iterations of products like Google Glass. Now at Upwork, as vice president…