Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Real Stories of AI Implementation

By Kevin Dickard, Senior Manager of Customer Success at SOCi

If I had to summarize the key takeaway from Reimagine in one thought, it’s this: AI isn’t the strategy, it’s the accelerator.

As keynote speaker Gary Vaynerchuk mentioned, “you won’t be replaced by AI, but will be replaced by someone who does.” This idea set the tone for one of the most practical conversations of our event: our main-stage panel, Where the Rubber Meets the Road.

I’m Kevin Dickard, and I had the privilege of moderating a candid discussion that truly belonged to the leaders sitting beside me. Danika Brown from The Goddard School, Sean Stevens from Nothing Bundt Cakes, and Kelli Turner from Anchor Pacifica Management Co. weren’t just talking about AI; they’re already using it to solve real problems, empower teams, and accelerate results in their organizations.

These stories formed a collective playbook: honest about the challenges, clear about what works, and grounded in the real-world ROI they’re seeing today. Here’s what they shared. 

The First Hurdle: Accelerating Buy-In

For all three panelists, the journey didn’t begin with AI itself. It began with a clear business problem they were trying to solve.

Kelli Turner, who oversees marketing for 35 properties as a “department of one,” faced a challenge familiar to lean teams: capacity. She needed a way to scale her output without scaling her headcount. 

“I’m a department of one, so I positioned SOCi as my assistant. When I showed my leadership how it would save a significant amount of my time – allowing me to focus on high-level strategy – it wasn’t a ‘nice to have,’ it was a ‘need to have.'”

Sean Stevens, who leads brand-level social strategy for hundreds of Nothing Bundt Cakes franchise locations, had a different starting point: trust. Franchisees were asking for help, and the question internally became whether the corporate team should absorb the cost.

“For us, the business case was a relationship win. Saying ‘yes’ to our franchisees who were asking for these tools instantly leveled up trust. That qualitative gain was the first, and most important, return on investment, and it has paid off in spades.”

How They Use the Accelerator: What AI Changes in the Daily Workflow

Once buy-in was secured, the real work began: integrating AI into the day-to-day. Each panelist shared how their teams use SOCi’s tools as force multipliers, enhancing the quality and consistency of their execution. 

For Danika Brown, who leads brand reputation for The Goddard School system, the daily workflow revolves around trust. In childcare, a single misstep can undermine years of credibility. Her approach centers on improving response times while preserving oversight where it matters most.

“In childcare, trust is everything. We can’t get a negative review wrong. With Genius Reviews, we built a system to automate and bulk-approve all positive reviews while still elevating sensitive negative reviews for human review. It’s efficiency and oversight.”

For Kelli Turner, the unlock comes from how the tools work together. Managing multifamily communities means eerie insight, whether from reviews, social posts, or scheduling, can fuel another part of the marketing strategy. 

“The platform synergy is the real unlock. I’ll see a positive review in Genius Reviews mentioning how great a manager is, and I’ll immediately use that insight to create a ‘Meet the Team’ post in Genius Social. The data from one tool directly fuels the strategy for another.”

Across the panel, the pattern was clear: AI wasn’t replacing work. It was reorganizing it by turning scattered tasks into connected workflows, creating greater consistency and more opportunities for strategy.

What Changed: Real ROI, Not Theoretical Promise

The conversation naturally shifted from workflows to outcomes, and it was there that the impact became unmistakable. Each panelist had reached a moment where AI stopped being a pilot or an experiment and started producing measurable, repeatable ROI.

For Sean Stevens, that moment came through amplifying local voices. With hundreds of franchise locations, the brand had long believed in the value of local social pages, and now they could quantify it. 

“This isn’t just about talk. We’ve added 700,000 followers to the brand because of these local social pages. We can now show new bakeries that when they use Genius Social during their opening, their engagement and reach is exponentially higher. The proof is right there.”

His insight captured the broader theme: when franchisees are empowered with the right tools, the brand doesn’t just scale content, it scales community. 

Danika Brown brought the ROI conversation back to brand integrity and efficiency. For a system as large and quality-focused as The Goddard School, future-proofing isn’t optional. Her team is using AI to create a more unified, self-service ecosystem across locations.

“The ultimate goal is a centralized, self-service portal. We know that when national and local marketing come together, that’s the secret sauce. Giving franchisees an easy-to-use tool that empowers them, while keeping them on brand, is the key unlock for us.”

Her perspective underscored a key insight: ROI isn’t always a single number. Sometimes it’s the long-term value of consistency, accuracy, and system-wide alignment. 

Across childcare, restaurants, and real estate, the ROI didn’t emerge from novelty. It emerged from solving real problems faster, with less friction, and with more clarity.

The Final Word: How to Start Using the Accelerator

To close the session, the panelists offered a simple, practical roadmap for anyone beginning their AI journey. Their advice came directly from what worked inside their own organizations.

Start with the problem, not the technology.

Each leader emphasized that AI adoption succeeds when it’s anchored to a real business challenge, such as capacity, trust, consistency, or local engagement.

Quantify the ROI of time. 

For lean teams especially, time is the most precise measure of value. Giving people back the space to focus on strategy became one of the strongest business cases across the panel.

Train your AI intentionally.

As Danika noted, rolling out AI agents requires the same discipline as onboarding a new team member. “An agent is only as good as the information you feed it.

Roll out in waves and build internal trust.

Whether supporting franchisees or managing dozens of properties, each panelist started small, proved value quickly, and then expanded.

By the end of the discussion, one theme was unmistakable: AI isn’t a magic want; it’s the accelerator that separates teams that execute with confidence from those that fall behind.