Mark This! Episode 36: Hospitality IQ 2
Host: Heather Dotchel, Corporate Communications
Guests: Peter Czimback and Kate Balliet of Aramark Emerge
Heather Dotchel: It is time to Mark This, a podcast in which we peel back the corporate curtain to reveal the cool and innovative people programs and projects that are happening all over Aramark's varied lines of business. I'm Heather Dotchel. As a member of Aramark's communications team, I see and hear amazing things that are happening across our company every day. These remarkable initiatives happen because we have remarkable people behind them, building opportunity, building innovation, and building community. In December of 2024, we introduced Aramark's Hospitality IQ platform and explored the role of generative and conversational AI and its ability to enhance the guest experience, empower its operators and further drive client business objectives.
We touched upon the benefits of Mosaic, our supply chain AI and Culinary Co-Pilot, our menu-driven AI as well as Connected, which is our behind the scenes ecosystem of systems and reporting that talk to each other. Today we are going to update our current status with tech innovation in general, but dive a bit deeper into these and other up and coming capabilities with Peter Czimback and Kate Balliet for Aramark Emerge. So our last update was nine months ago when Hospitality IQ was publicly launched, which is light years in technology evolution and AI refinement. Peter, where are we in this space now and how did we get here?
Peter Czimback: Well, yeah, it's great point. Digital's role has evolved. It's no longer about point of sale alone. It's no longer about things in the background. Digital is at the front of everything people do in very different ways, but by the way from how you live your life in gaming and stuff like that to digital experiences that we have within Aramark, you think of how long things have taken place, but really they've moved relatively fast and what was really benefited us, especially someone like myself that grew up in this business, I started a long time ago as a trainee in the company and really learned that there's many ways that people want to be engaged.
So we have to really think about that approach at a different way. Be fearless, right? What we haven't done, let's try it. If it works, let's evolve it. Let's kind of never forget who we are as a company and really what we've thinking about that approach and taking it because things are evolving so fast, it allows us to be first. It allows us to be the leader amongst the competitors and it allows us to constantly be that innovator. Everyone's an innovator at Aramark. As I said, someone grew up in this place. We want to enable that because we have to. It's going to continue to move fast.
Heather Dotchel: Kate, one thing that you are amazing at is explaining how this tech and innovation space is really about people. People is a recurring theme always within mark this without intention, but can you let our listeners know how we view this as a human story?
Kate Balliet: Absolutely. So I think it's very understandable that folks can feel that all the rapid pace and change that's coming through is disruptive and we agree that it is, but we think that really the disruption is positive for our teams so that we're able to sort of partner our human and AI together. When tech first came out on the scenes as personal use, it was tools to get things done and now it's evolving more to be like sidekick that you can use together. So you don't have to think about looking at your pricing sheets and making sure you're updating your spreadsheets and making sure you're submitting them in various different systems. You don't have to worry about how to be on a phone call with suppliers to say, "Where's that chicken shipment?" Instead, a machine can do that for you. So this really allows our operational team to get out of that heads down, back of house operational speed and more into the business of our consumers and figuring out what they want, how they want, when they want it to make sure we're really delivering that experience.
Heather Dotchel: How does stretching our tech strategy and future capabilities benefit our hospitality experts clients customer experience, Peter?
Peter Czimback: That's a great question. Really when you think about it, we have to extend it because we're in a very complex business. We operate tens of thousands of locations and they're all different with two million menu combinations. How do you serve in that complexity? Well, you have to really think about it a very different way, and in this space it's one, I always say you have to forget about the technology. Great thing about the technology is when you understand the experience, it will work. When you get so caught up in it, you tend to get so caught up in it and forget what you're trying to solve for. We look at this business very simply. It all starts with the consumer. Consumer is the center of everything we do. They're our universe making sure they have an amazing experience, whether it's at their office. I said whether it's the large portion of caregivers that don't get to eat during a shift as a dad of a nurse, that matters to me as a dad.
It also matters to me for everyone who needs to have a great care and experience or even at a stadium. You don't want to be waiting in line. You want to be go watching your favorite football team. For me, I got to be watching my Philadelphia Eagles, go Birds, and go watch that game and not be waiting in line. I've got to take four minutes down for a beer to 30 seconds to do those things and that really matters. Now you add that complexity, you've got to make it very simple. For our associates, I would say one of the themes, Kate, and I've said for years, "I'm looking for one more moment to say good morning." That's technology's role for me. If I can do that as somebody again who grew up in this space who was in that role, I want one more moment to say good morning.
And I want to be able to say those things to them. And for our clients it's really solving for the things that are not really around food. It could be around returning to office. Again, it could be 30% of caregivers don't get to eat during a shift. It can be about growing the attendance of your team, enrollment in the university. All of those things are you say are not related, you could say to a food-specific conversation, but they do. Where's the right place to put the autonomous store and have computer vision check out in those places for 24/7 and so on. So really kind of keeping that consumer operator client just ingrained and obsessed in our minds is really what helps us stretch.
Heather Dotchel: Go Birds. Kate, anything to add?
Kate Balliet: I mean, I think what Peter said about the ease in the hospitality we're trying to introduce and the experiences also really feeds into the way we think about the technology behind them. So when we're thinking about our clients who over the past 20, 30 years may have amassed tons of different disparate pieces of technology and then we come to partner with them, our goal is never to say, "Get rid of everything you have and start to go in this one path." Because what we know about technology is that what we have now might not exist in five years or maybe even five months, honestly. So our goal is to say how do we create this flexible ecosystem that whatever you have, however you want to do business, we can work with you. And we focus a lot on building those connections between establish solutions that are out there in the market, but where they don't exist, our teams work to create to fill those gaps.
So one example is our team with our Aramark Connected, which is our global consumer experience brand. It sort of connects all the dots in that experience Peter talked about, they took a look at it and said, "Okay, it is really wonderful that we can work with all these different technologies, but it is really hard for the operator to manage." In the before times before the tools existed, our operators in a headquarters cafe might have to go to their retail grab and go and put one example of every product on their shelf into a bag so they could take into the back office, take it out of the bag and key it into the system so that we could get our prices updated. That as you can imagine, was really tedious for folks to have to do as we did pricing and inventory on a regular basis.
This tool allowed us to then connect all the dots between all of our systems, so our points of sale, our digital signage, our downstream reporting so that with one click of a button you could update your prices on your new chips flavor or you could decommission the granola bar brand that you're no longer selling. And just introducing that in the past year alone has given back 80,000 hours of productive time as well as allowed us to make thousands of updates daily in seconds. So really powerful stuff that allows us to be super flexible given the breadth of technology that we can encounter in our different client sites.
Heather Dotchel: Okay, so let me make sure that I understand you. In a year, 80,000 productive hours have been saved.
Peter Czimback: Year to date.
Heather Dotchel: Year to date.
Peter Czimback: Year to date. That 80,000 productive hours goes to the thing where Kate talks about unit economics, right? It's that change. That's the change that we're getting. Now we've created more productivity and if you create those multiples of productivity, you want more of that.
Heather Dotchel: What's the coolest thing we're working on, Peter?
Peter Czimback: Well, I always say all the years in Aramark, I think what makes this place amazing as someone who's had 20 plus years in here is I mentioned earlier there's a fearlessness of this place. There is a great energy that allows you to be creative. And I said myself, I've been fortunate and really blessed to serve for this long and be part of these first experiences that we've done and Aramark's done more first than many companies would ever do in a lifetime. And I think that's really amazing. And I think about the helping architect this AI strategy around buy, make, sell with our team at Avendra has been amazing because it's one, it was working with a friend who I've known for a long time and be able to bring those things around. Buy, make, sell to life was amazing and how it really builds to creating the things we want to do around that consumer experience.
It was amazing because it was so bold. I remember telling it to companies, some of the largest AI companies in the world that this is one I'm going to do. Several of them started turned around, said, "You're crazy." Others said, "This is exactly why you should do it. You're thinking the right way and do it." And I think that's been fun. That's been amazing to see us grow and be that way. I think what really is exciting is how we continue down that road, that kind of where we're going to go and AI's role and different things I'm sure Kate can talk about, but I also love the things around the frictionless experience. Several years ago we really started marching down the things around connected. For me it was always around I wanted to move and what I basically said, "I want to move from checkout to check-in."
We know a lot about what people do. We have the data that's there. We have the best associates in the world and why not? If you know all these things, why shouldn't you greet Peter and say, "Peter, I'm going to have that large Americano waiting for you." And you have that attention to them. And if I know that and I know what Peter always gets, I can pre-order and say, "Hey, go grab a seat and I'll bring it over to you." By the way also now have those extra moments. One more moment to say good morning. As I said, one more moment to say, "Peter doesn't look like he's in the best mood today. Maybe his train was late or whatever because he did get his Americano later than usual. Peter, I'll get your Americano goal before you ready as since this seems like you're a little behind schedule, but boy, you have to try this great new bar."
And you always think about this. [inaudible 00:11:28] have saying that to me, "Boy, what a smile you can put on someone's face because I checked you in and I learned those things about you and I can create more moments for you.
Heather Dotchel: What's your favorite innovation at the moment, Kate?
Kate Balliet: I'm really loving the endless possibilities of automation in this space. There's really no one innovation I'm thinking of. What's really cool about the technology that we're seeing today is the fact that anyone can be involved. Everyone can be an innovator like we've talked about. You don't have to be a tech nerd to get into this space. And we work with Chef Tom and the headquarters cafe innovation and he works in many areas, but one of those areas is our hydroponic farms where folks are growing the food that we're using to make the recipes that we serve in our corporate cafeteria. And he says basically all you have to do to be able to be a gardener or a farmer in this world is be able to use an app which we all have so much access and experience with over the last 20 years that it really makes it super possible.
And if I'm thinking about some of the cool innovations I've seen out in the field, the most important thing is throughput. You want to make sure that the family who wants to sit and leisurely catch up on their day with a meal or the rock climber who's got 20 minutes to grab food and get out to the hike can have the equal experience that they like to achieve. So we've talked things about like computer vision self-checkout, and the ability to grab and go and skip that line, we've talked about back of the house food preparation. So you really get that pizza teed up and ready cooked 20% quicker than you would normally. And we have other automation, smart coolers and frictionless stores and a bunch of ideas that'll allow us to really deliver that experience to the national park area. Another thing I thought was really cool along the lines of what Peter mentioned about the buy, make, sell is the work our student nutrition team is doing.
One of our big priorities for K through 12 students is making sure that our menus and recipes have explicit nutrition, dietary and allergen information to make sure that any student can opt in to that lunch every day. And so they're really customizing their ability to serve menus and not focus so much on honing their menu into a KPI target, but more thinking about how do I get really creative about what I want to serve these kids in a way that they can eat and it matches their dietary needs.
And then lastly, some of the work that our facilities team has been doing is really exciting where they've really gone into IoT, internet of things and robotics automation in a way that's really transformed the way we do business. So if you think about the need to clean big spaces like classroom buildings or offices or a patient room, there's both the hallway and the main area as well as the rooms and the ability to partner cleaning robotics with you to UV clean a room or send a robot down the hall while you're able to take care of some other tasks, allow you to get twice as much done with half the time.
They've also really invested in a lot of sensor technology for water and energy and temperature and that's helped us reduce emissions as well as significant amounts of cost avoidance. One example that comes to mind is that they had worked with a high school in Oregon where it had been holiday break and they got an alert that there was a leak detected. And just knowing that during that time where no one else would've been in the building helped save tens of thousands of dollars in damage that would've occurred if they hadn't been aware to replace that gym floor. So many things going on and what I think the running theme here is that the technology available and the experiences you create can be as creative and tailored to the line of business or the experience that you're looking to fulfill.
Heather Dotchel: Peter, when we check in with this team over the next year, which we will because it's cool, what will be our areas of innovation, can you give us a preview of what we might start going into detail about?
Peter Czimback: So those things around agentic and conversational are going to continue to grow, might start to see it face more consumers and let us engage with them directly. I think you'll also to point around autonomous technology, we're going to find that role. It may not be fully autonomous stores to autonomous cafes, but it might in the right area. I think you're also going to see that idea that I talked about as identity becomes more pervasive with biometrics and things that we're doing. Going back to the idea from moving from checkout to check-in and the value that we can create by having that upfront engagement with the consumer, knowing them, engaging with them in a great way because I already have their information and by the way, I even have their things like payment done so I can have a different moment and create a different type of affinity in a space.
So I really think those two areas we're going to see a lot of growth within us continuing to move forward. And anything else in tech, you have to be ready for the, you never know. I say like the, "You never know what's going to pop up," and we're going to go, "You know what, that's a great idea. We've got to get into it." And that's the part around what our organization and really the 200,000 plus Aramark employees, everybody's an innovator. It was something that I kept with me for a long time ago that someone said to me that I firmly believe when we created and emerge, we want to be this way. Every great idea needs to come out and we want to be ready for those things. So I think the things we know about it are going to be exciting. The things we don't know is going to be amazing. And again, that fearless attitude of this organization is what's going to propel us to get there and get there quick. So I think the checking in the next 12 months is going to be super fun.
Heather Dotchel: All right, let's bring this back full circle. We started talking about tech, but why it's really a people story. We've had some concrete examples here with how it works. Let's talk about how this is experience driven and how AI is about experience and not about tech.
Peter Czimback: The thing around AI is there's always this perception that it's actually a piece of technology. The reality is when you kind of boil this down, AI is just an accumulation of years of experiences that a consumer has that an associate has that it's not like the... Yes, algorithms and all that kind of stuff really is just pulling together years of experiences. I always think of AI as taking some of the best associates and managers we have, and I'm trying to scale that experience of them. We bring reference to when talk about one more moment to say good morning is built off when I come to our headquarters and I grab coffee, it is always about me going to see Ms. Cheryl, for 20 years has been the best part of my life at this place because there's not a moment where she can't brighten my day.
And when we think about AI's role is it's not trying to come up with a different way Cheryl does her job. I'm actually trying to figure out how to take that love and that emotion and that joy and give it to other people. And you do it in a lot of different ways. Maybe it's just giving them it's access to more information so they're free to have those moments or giving them the right locations. Again, using AI to say, "This may be the best role for you because you're more outgoing or maybe you love certain culinary skills because I knew that from learning from who you are through all the venues of data that's available." And I think really when you look at goes to the point of AI is really about taking all the smarts of everybody, and by the way, you the consumer too. And saying, "When I come to this ball my baseball game and I'm going to bring the family, they know things about us, order history, what we do. We know the stats of how the team's doing, especially our Philadelphia Phillies," right?
Heather Dotchel: Go [inaudible 00:19:20].
Peter Czimback: Exactly. So you want to have those... We know all that things. So we want to curate the experience of how we engage with them, how the shopping is. It's going to be the leaning more towards the playoff type of stuff. We know what they're going and want you to be excited. This is AI's role. I use the nerdy term that those listening want to know, say the word ontology or instantly really smart in conversation so then no one actually knows what you mean. But it's really a culmination of a lot of information that's put together to elicit a decision. And that's not necessarily saying a technology widget. That's all the fun things of Kate and others in our team or people around the world and all the Aramark associates done together. And that's kind of really fun than I think the learning of what AI really is, just scaling the best of everything so we can make your lives a whole lot easier. You can have more fun, do all the things that you want to do.
Heather Dotchel: Want to know more about how Aramark leverages AI and its Hospitality IQ platform to serve the needs of our partners? Visit our newsroom on aramark.com to access more information. Peter and Kate, thank you for sharing our people-centered technology and to our listeners of Mark This, thanks as always to all of you.
