From Zero to Superhero: An AI Partnership Story

Growth often feels like a threat to culture — as organizations scale, the “soul” of the brand can get lost in the noise. What if technology didn’t dilute your culture, but actually acted as its most powerful guardian?

In this session, Jim Rich shares the story of an energizing professional reinvention after a 38-year hospitality career as VP of Training at California Pizza Kitchen and Mendocino Farms. Jim will show you how he stopped asking “Can AI do this?” and started asking “What can we create together?” — and how that shift produced training and development work that’s faster, more personal, and more aligned with brand voice than ever before.

Every project Jim shares—from custom superhero imagery built on team strengths to prompting techniques that preserve brand voice—is ultimately a story about protecting and scaling culture through AI.

This isn’t about broad industry shifts. It’s about how imagination and curiosity — combined with prompting better — can turn an L&D professional into a superhero by taking their talent and creativity somewhere it’s never been before.