Local fried chicken chain Ahmad’s Fried Chicken has undergone a major rebrand, relaunching as Ahmad’s HotChicken; though it’s drawing attention less for the new name than for its claim of appointing an “AI CEO”. Certainly not the first rodeo for AI chatbots to be involved in important decision-making.
Ahmad’s HotChicken Now Has An “AI CEO”
In a post on various social media channels, the restaurant chain said it is among the first fast food brands in Malaysia to “employ” an AI CEO to help manage operations, marketing, and conduct analyses for faster, more effective strategic decisions. In its statement written in Malay, the brand claimed that AI technology enables it to work faster, make data-based decisions, and improve customer experience as part of its push to build “a fast food brand of the future.”
The brand also reworked its menu selection, though some users pointed out in the comments that some of the graphics used for the new menu items appears to be AI-generated. (The image of Signature Mac & Cheese Ahmad’s conspicuously lacked any branding, for example.) We suppose the “pictures are for illustration purposes only” disclaimer is going to do quite the heavy lifting here.
Despite Ahmad’s claims of AI appointed as CEO, it is unlikely that a large language model will have unfettered access to the entire company, and the statement’s wording does suggest that AI is assisting (the statement clearly stated “membantu“, meaning “to help” in Malay) the real humans actually responsible for the company itself.
Pokdepinion: Bold move, I’ll give them that.
