Unlocking the Future: My Road to AI-Driven Innovation

Let’s Take a Step Back!

When I first started my career, building products was not on my bingo card. Like many who moved to New York without an internship in the city, the likelihood of landing a dream job was slim. I started off doing small junior project coordinator work—essentially an assistant to everyone. Then came Meetup, a curated networking event for professionals. I attended these meetings weekly, hoping to meet others and understand their career journeys.

At the time, the tech industry was booming, with significant investments pouring into app development from Silicon Valley. Inspired, I even attempted to build my own app. It didn’t work out, mostly because I lacked experience, but I took it as a learning opportunity and dedicated myself to entering the field. Over five years, I worked across the entire product lifecycle, including development, marketing, R&D, quality assurance, and strategy. I was fortunate to collaborate with notable clients such as L’Oreal, FanDuel, Kustomer, Modelez Inc., Biosteel, and St. Joseph’s Health.

Everything Changed in 2020

When COVID-19 hit, I transitioned into business strategy consulting. In 2021, I came across a drone company coordinating COVID test kit deliveries to hospitals in the D.C. and Virginia areas. The concept fascinated me, and I joined their team. As the pandemic subsided, the company pivoted to other services, including drone delivery for Walmart and drone surveillance for ADT. As the company’s Senior Program Manager, I worked on proof-of-concept projects exploring these applications.

DroneUp Destination Box : https://www.droneup.com/news/introducing-the-droneup-ecosystem

Our ultimate OKR (Organizational Key Result) was straightforward: develop an infrastructure similar to Amazon's kiosks, where drones would drop packages, and customers could retrieve them using a QR code. Additionally, we explored in-house drone deliveries within a two-mile radius. This was my first deep dive into AI, computer vision, and machine learning, which we leveraged for motion detection to ensure safe deliveries.

The Era of Generative AI & Large Language Models

On November 30, 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT-3.5 to the public. Initially, I didn’t experiment with it until early 2023, but once I did, I recognized that this was the future of humanity. We had unlocked a revolution larger than the dot-com boom. Understanding the potential of LLMs (Large Language Models), I dedicated my free time to learning, experimenting with different AI models, analyzing results, and solving hypothetical problems. This motivated me to shift my career focus towards AI-driven innovation.

Transforming a Fast-Casual Restaurant into a Tech-Forward Company

AI is playing a major role in reshaping businesses, including the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industry. But how do you transform a traditional fast-casual restaurant into a tech-forward company? Here are the key steps:

Create a Free Experimentation Environment

Allow employees to voluntarily test LLMs at their own pace.

Encourage “small wins” to demonstrate AI’s potential without pressure to achieve perfection.

Develop AI Assistants for Repetitive Tasks

Implement AI to support, not replace, employees.

Keep human decision-making at the forefront while leveraging AI for efficiency.

Acknowledge AI's imperfections and hallucinations to maintain trust and transparency.

Launch Industry-First AI Innovations

To showcase our commitment to AI, we introduced Salad AI, a first-of-its-kind feature in the QSR industry.

Customers input dietary and flavor preferences, and AI generates custom salad recipes.

This feature is just the beginning, as we aim to refine and expand our AI-driven strategy.

AI in My Daily Life

Beyond work, AI is deeply integrated into my daily routine. One particular way I have found it useful is in caring for my beautiful Labrador puppy, Lisbon. From training assistance to health monitoring and creating custom schedules, AI has become an essential tool in ensuring Lisbon's well-being. In my next blog, I’ll share how AI is transforming pet care and making life easier for pet owners like myself.