AI Can Do Everything… Except This (Why Humans Still Win) With Restaurateur Will Guidara
3/24/20261 hr 6 min
As businesses race toward faster systems, smarter tools, and total automation, something critical is getting lost: human connection. And ironically, the rise of AI is making that gap impossible to ignore.
In this episode, I sit down with returning guest and close friend Will Guidara, former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park, to explore why humanity is becoming the ultimate competitive advantage in the age of AI.
Will helped transform a restaurant into the best in the world, not by reinventing the food being served, but by reinventing the experience around it. He calls this philosophy "...
Clips
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First 90 secondsSimon Sinek· Host0:00
I just need to share it with people- Yes ... that this is how we actually have conversations.
Will Guidara· Guest0:03
[laughs] [laughs] Whether we're being recorded or not.
Simon Sinek· Host0:06
Whether we're being recorded or not. [laughs] Like, this is the way we actually talk. [laughs] We interrupt each other more. [laughs] We're being polite. We- We're trying to, we're trying to interrupt a little bit less. We're trying to interrupt- We're not doing a great job, but- We interrupt each other less, but we actually would have this conversation- 100% ... without cameras.
Will Guidara· Guest0:19
[laughs] 100%.
Simon Sinek· Host0:21
[whimsical music] AI is the hot topic right now. There are so many people talking about all the tools that can help us do things faster, cheaper, more efficiently than ever before. All of this is true, but it's also revealing something interesting, that the more automated our world becomes, the more valuable the human being is becoming. Being thoughtful, paying attention, being genuinely nice to people, making people feel seen and heard. It turns out things like kindness are pretty much AI-proof, which is why I was so excited to welcome my dear friend Will Guidara back to the podcast. Fair warning that if you listen to this podcast, when Will and I get together, it always turns into what somebody once described as a giggle fest. [laughs] Will is pretty incredible. He is the former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park, which was the number one restaurant in the world. He is the executive producer of the TV show The Bear, and he is the bestselling author of The New York Times bestseller Unreasonable Hospitality, of which I am the proud publisher, and I'm also the proud publisher of Will's new book, Unreasonable Hospitality: The Field