Enterprise Architecture in the Age of AI—with Fred Hennige (Jack in the Box)

If everyone in your organization wants AI, but half of them can't explain what for—where do you start?

In this episode of Futureproof, Xano CEO Prakash Chandran sits down with Fred Hennige, Director of Enterprise Architecture at Jack in the Box, to explore what enterprise architecture actually looks like inside a fast-growing restaurant company navigating AI adoption. Fred shares lessons from building EA practices at three very different organizations (Jack in the Box, Starbucks, and Alaska Airlines) and explains why the discipline must start with business outcomes, not technology inventories. Together, they unpack how AI is showing up across the organization today, why cross-functional AI value is harder to unlock than personal productivity, and how to govern AI adoption without over-indexing on hype. 

Topics covered include:

• Business-first EA over technology-first EA: Why starting from business outcomes and process alignment yields better results than cataloging application inventories.
• EA across three industries: How enterprise architecture looks radically different at a growing brand, a mature global operation, and a safety-critical airline—and what each taught Fred about the discipline.
• AI adoption at different maturity levels: Why some teams are already creating value with AI while others are still learning to spell it—and how to stack-rank where to invest.
• Cross-functional AI is the hard part: Why personal productivity gains come first, but the real challenge is unlocking AI value across departments and business functions.
• The AI uncanny valley: Why AI output still requires human synthesis, and why using your own voice matters more than copying and pasting what a model returns.

Episode ID: 19469167-enterprise-architecture-in-the-age-of-ai-with-fred-hennige-jack-in-the-box

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