Lunch on the Go - Now with AI - Customer Catalytics

By JP Snow, Principal & Founder at Customer Catalytics, April 9, 2025

Yesterday I was at a client site with barely any time for lunch, so I raided the on-the-go rations I keep in my bag. As I gathered the wrappers afterward, I thought of a way to streamline my evening data entry.

I used to track nutrition with MyFitnessPal, but recently switched to a dedicated project in Claude. Typing in foods is faster than searching a database in an app, but even that feels like work. So I snapped this quick picture of my meal to see how well AI tools could itemize what I ate.

As part of my ongoing evaluation of AI tools, I’m constantly testing both Claude and ChatGPT head-to-head. In this case, they both worked well enough but ChatGPT got it exactly right, giving me this precise list, exactly as shown:

Banana (peels visible)
Orange (peels visible)
CHOMPS Original Turkey Stick (wrapper shown)
LÄRABAR – Apple Pie flavor (wrapper visible)
Gin Gins chewy ginger candy (wrapper visible)
Natural Grocers Organic Sunflower Seeds (empty packet visible)

I could say my nutrition was “powered by AI” if I wanted to sound impressive, but that could mean almost anything. There’s a simple question that helps cut through the hype.

Ask “What Gets Automated?”

Marketers slap “AI” on everything these days, hoping the buzz will make their products seem powerful and cutting edge. My recommended litmus test is to ask “What gets automated?”

In my lunch example, what got automated was the detailed identification and itemization of each food item from a simple photo – nothing less, nothing more.

This question helps you:

Identify the real value – Is the automation saving time, improving accuracy, or giving new insights?
Cut through marketing fluff – Test whether the AI actually performs a clear, useful task
Judge implementation quality – The automation should work consistently and intuitively

You can read my full original article on this at: customercatalytics.com/navigate-ais-customer-impact-with-one-key-question/.

This Story Also Reveals Where Customer Experience Is Heading

My lunch photo experiment offers a glimpse of how customers will soon approach your products and services:

The easiest experience becomes the new expectation. I’ve gone from carefully searching a database, to typing, to simply taking a photo. That photo interface is now my baseline expectation. Your customers will make similar leaps, and whoever makes data entry easiest will win their loyalty.

Self-coaching will replace niche apps. My Claude project doesn’t just log my food—it has started coaching me based on what I log, such as by pointing out how I could have eaten vegetables before carbs to minimize the insulin spike. As the stories spread about how Gen AI apps work, your customers will build personal AI coaches for everything from shopping to financial decisions, analyzing patterns and making suggestions that once required specialized apps or human experts.

I’m an early adopter, but these user expectations and behaviors are coming fast. They have major implications for anyone who builds apps or includes interfaces or advice within their product offerings.

Your Turn

If you’re a business decision maker, cutting through AI hype means asking “What gets automated?” every time you hear the term. For your own industry, what specific tasks should be automated next? And how will you respond when customers bring their own AI tools to the relationship?

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Thanks for reading. Leaders work with me to get faster growth through data and scale. My approach is built on what works: Data Decides. Insights Inform. Moments Matter. Systems Sustain. Talent Transforms.

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