Unlocking the Practical Power of AI to Drive Enterprise Innovation with Grainger CTO Jonny LeRoy

On the 45th episode of Enterprise Software Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Jonny LeRoy, CTO of Grainger. Grainger is a Fortune 500 industrial supply company, ensuring seamless operations for a broad range of customers, from hospitals to manufacturing plants and everything in between. With over $16 billion of annual revenue and 26,000 employees, the company provides over 30 million products to support its four and a half million customers. In this conversation, Jonny shares his thoughts on how AI transforms operations at Grainger, quick wins for AI applications in the enterprise, and realistic expectations around today’s AI capabilities.Quick hits from Jonny:On AI’s transformative potential: “We’ve got 2 million SKUs in our Grainger brand and 30 million products across the whole portfolio. AI helps us match the right product to the right customer, and that's where it starts to get really powerful.”On the importance of continuous improvement: “It’s all about solving small problems, one by one. That’s how you unlock AI’s potential—not by waiting for the perfect solution, but by making progress now.”On AI’s ability to improve the customer experience: “A lot of the customer software we're building is to empower, whether it's our merchandising agents or customer intelligence people, to do their work that drives the business, but produces better data. That data then feeds into potential machine learning AI systems. We can put that into motion, get that in front of customers, and improve that data feedback. We understand the direction we're going, and that's not changing. Understand products, understand customers, bring them together super easily.”Recent Book Recommendation: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. PirsigLike what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share specific ways AI changes how work gets done in the enterprise.Find more great insights from technology leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Abnormal Studios.