Hunger for AI? An application that seems to work...

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/audio/hungry-for-learning-wendys-will-croushorn/

Hungry for Learning: Wendy’s Will Croushorn

On today’s episode of the Me, Myself, and AI podcast, Wendy’s product manager Will Croushorn joins host Sam Ransbotham 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.

Perspective.

https://www.bespacific.com/ai-use-at-work-rises/

AI Use at Work Rises

Gallup: “The percentage of U.S. employees who reported using AI at work at least a few times a year increased from 40% to 45% between the second and third quarters of 2025. Frequent use (a few times a week or more) grew from 19% to 23%, while daily use moved less, ticking up from 8% to 10% during the same period. The latest Gallup Workforce results are based on a nationally representative survey of 23,068 U.S. adults employed full- and part-time conducted by web Aug. 5-19 using the Gallup Panel. U.S. employees working in knowledge-based jobs, such as technology or professional services, were more likely to use AI than those in frontline positions. Seventy-six percent of employees in technology or information systems, 58% in finance, and 57% in professional services used AI in their role a few times a year or more. In contrast, within industries with higher rates of frontline employees, 33% of employees in retail, 37% in healthcare and 38% in manufacturing reported using AI at work at the same frequency.

Workforce Divided Over Level of Organizational AI Adoption – In Q3 2025, 37% of employees said their organization has implemented AI technology to improve productivity, efficiency and quality. Forty percent said their organization had not, and 23% said they did not know. The percentage of those who said they did not know was lower than the percentage who reported using AI at work at least a few times in the past year, but higher than the percentage who reported using it frequently. This gap suggests that a portion of employees used personal AI tools or otherwise used AI without awareness of their organization’s AI strategy.

Employees in individual contributor roles (26%) were more likely than managers (16%) and leaders (7%) to say they did not know whether their organization had implemented AI technology. Part-time employees, those working on-site, and employees in frontline roles or industries also reported higher uncertainty. Employees who are further from organizational decision-making have been less aware of AI implementation. A previous version of this question did not offer a “don’t know” response, which effectively encouraged respondents to make their best guess. Under that format, the share of employees who believed their organization had implemented AI rose from 33% in May 2024 to 44% in May 2025, while the share saying their organization had not implemented AI fell from 67% to 56%. In the latest survey, Gallup added a “don’t know” option to capture uncertainty about AI adoption. Because respondents could indicate a lack of knowledge, the Q3 2025 results are not directly comparable to earlier measurements. The fact that 23% chose “don’t know” highlighted substantial variation in how well information about AI adoption was reaching employees…”

Perspective.

https://hai.stanford.edu/news/stanford-ai-experts-predict-what-will-happen-in-2026

Stanford AI Experts Predict What Will Happen in 2026

After years of fast expansion and billion-dollar bets, 2026 may mark the moment artificial intelligence confronts its actual utility. In their predictions for the next year, Stanford faculty across computer science, medicine, law, and economics converge on a striking theme: The era of AI evangelism is giving way to an era of AI evaluation. Whether it’s standardized benchmarks for legal reasoning, real-time dashboards tracking labor displacement, or clinical frameworks for vetting the flood of medical AI startups, the coming year demands rigor over hype. The question is no longer “Can AI do this?” but “How well, at what cost, and for whom?”

Learn more about what Stanford HAI faculty expect in the new year.