The Front Runners | AI for the real economy

The fundamentals stay. Everything else gets rebuilt.

Electricity changed little until factories were redesigned around it. AI works the same way. The gains come from rebuilding the company, not adding a tool.

A few companies are already doing it.

Workers at long wooden benches in the Simpson's Gloves factory, Richmond, around 1930 — Simpson's Gloves factory, Richmond, c. 1930.

Most have not started.

AI is at work in tech and finance. The real economy is still waiting.

Enterprises

1 in 2

Large firms in tech and professional services.

Real economy

1 in 10

Businesses that feed, build and move things.

The gap is widest where the work is physical.

Source: US Census Bureau, Business Trends and Outlook Survey AI Supplement, 2026.

Season 1 The Front Runners

Season 1: Restaurants

The leaders of the most popular restaurant brands, on how they are rebuilding with AI.

Now recording

The conversation

Boardrooms. Restaurants. Silicon Valley.

Bikesh Kumar

Your host

Bikesh Kumar has run the business and built the technology. Now he sits down with the leaders doing both.

AI Maturity Index

A quarterly ranking of companies, published by The Front Runners.

First edition: restaurants.

1Manual
2Assisted
3Connected
4Delegated
5Autonomous

Learn from the leaders
already doing it.

Every week, one leader shares how they use AI to run their business, and how you can try it.