{"id":1480,"date":"2024-09-23T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=1480"},"modified":"2024-09-25T07:14:07","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T07:14:07","slug":"ceos-reveal-how-theyre-using-ai-to-transform-their-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=1480","title":{"rendered":"CEOs reveal how they\u2019re using AI to transform their businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jim Fish, CEO of waste management company WM, says the future of his industry can be succinctly summarized in an observation shared by his teenage daughter: None of her classmates aspire to become a truck driver.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cOur biggest challenge\u2014and we are using technology to address it\u2014is labor,\u201d says Fish, who shared the anecdote during a virtual session hosted by Fortune<\/em> in partnership with consulting firm BCG<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WM has been undergoing a pretty major transformation over the past several years. It rebranded itself from Waste Management to WM in a push to align more with sustainability aspirations. WM has said it plans to invest more than $2.8 billion from 2022 through 2026 on the company\u2019s recycling and renewable natural gas business, including more than $1.4 billion to bolster WM\u2019s recycling infrastructure, while also expanding capacity in markets where it didn\u2019t have a big presence, like Texas, Tennessee, and Florida.<\/p>\n

But a big initiative at WM involves reducing the company\u2019s labor burden. Finding employees to drive trucks and operate heavy equipment can be a challenge\u2014and very expensive, Fish says. The average salary for a WM trash truck driver is approaching $100,000, according to Fish, and can sail to close to $200,000 in regions like San Francisco where the cost of living is high.<\/p>\n

As a result, WM is rebuilding plants and leaning on technologies that can reduce the number of employees that are needed, for jobs that the future workforce doesn\u2019t necessarily want anyway. WM says it doesn\u2019t plan to cut jobs, but expects to see headcount reduced over time through attrition.<\/p>\n

Fish was just one of many CEOs who shared during the virtual conversation that they were constantly rethinking how to transform their businesses to maintain an edge. As emerging technologies like generative AI advance quickly, companies across all sectors are expected to increase productivity, remake their operations, and constantly evaluate how they stand versus competitors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But BCG\u2019s Sharon Marcil, a managing director and senior partner, says many leaders should also keep customer feedback top of mind, too. \u201cIf you lose sight of that, you can be transforming, but not necessarily in the right direction,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Seeking opportunities and solutions<\/h2>\n

The mix of competitors that nonprofit Goodwill Industries International is contending with includes an increasing number of for-profit businesses. \u201cWe just need to really raise the bar and compete against very well-funded corporate competitors,\u201d says Goodwill CEO Steve Preston at the virtual session.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit is focusing on both building out brick-and-mortar locations while also expanding the company\u2019s online presence. That\u2019s resulting in an increasingly complex ecosystem to connect new buyers and sellers of recycled goods, but also a lot of new opportunities to hunt for growth.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on the heels of a recent \u201ctrusted to transform\u201d themed investor day presentation, CEO Antonio Pietri of Aspen Technology says the software company\u2019s customers are looking for solutions to help them as they decarbonize and transform their energy sources away from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe then have to transform ourselves to be able to be uniquely positioned along the transformation,\u201d says Pietri. The company\u2019s employee count has swelled as a result of an $11 billion merger<\/a> with Emerson Electric\u2019s software units, a deal that closed in 2022.<\/p>\n

To help clients achieve their multi-year energy transition goals, Pietri says there\u2019s a greater expectation for Aspen and others to think expansively about the use of AI to make engineering, physics, chemistry, and math more intelligent and predictable.<\/p>\n

Transforming with AI<\/h2>\n

Many CEOs are on the same page as Pietri, focusing big on AI initiatives. Earlier this year, Docusign unveiled<\/a> an AI-powered \u201cintelligence agreement management\u201d platform, which offers customers the ability to centralize all their vendor agreements and use AI to help track which contracts are up for renewal, the ones that may be out of compliance with a company\u2019s internal standards, and generate insights into how vendors are performing over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing tremendous early intakes,\u201d says Docusign CEO Allan Thygesen of the offering that launched in May.<\/p>\n

AI is also an important tool that can help make buildings more efficient, says Dave Regnery, CEO of Trane Technologies, which sells heating, air conditioning, and ventilation systems. He points out that average commercial building can waste up to 30% of the energy it consumes. With that in mind, Trane has been using structured data for years to rethink building design. Generative AI can also help tap into unstructured data, which can include multimedia content, emails, audio files, and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you augment that with unstructured data, that\u2019s where the opportunity really happens,\u201d Regnery says.<\/p>\n

And Steve Hasker, CEO of business services and news provider Thomson Reuters, says his intention is to ensure that all of the company\u2019s employees are using generative AI every day. He\u2019s injected generative AI into the products that Thomson Reuters sells to legal, tax, and accounting clients, but adds that journalists have embraced the technology, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Having experienced other major technology advancements including the advent of the personal computer, mobile, social media, and cloud computing, Hasker thinks the latest new technology innovation wave will be the most impactful.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerative AI is going to be bigger than any one of those, in terms of its disruptive power,\u201d says Hasker.<\/p>\n

Correction, September 25, 2024:\u00a0<\/em>A previous version of this article misstated the number WM is spending to address sustainability initiatives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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