Ando, the startup aiming to build the world’s first full-stack AI infrastructure for the global hourly workforce, just added some serious muscle to its mission. The company has formed an advisory group packed with leaders from big-brand hospitality, Silicon Valley engineering, labor policy, and national-level political strategy—essentially a who’s who of people who’ve already reshaped industries and now want to rewire frontline work.
The move underscores a bigger trend across the HR tech landscape: frontline labor—long underserved by innovation—is rapidly becoming the next major battleground for AI investment. Retailers, restaurants, logistics firms, and service operators have been grappling with outdated scheduling tools, persistent understaffing, and turnover rates north of 150%. Now, developers like Ando are hunting for the generational fix.
A Board Built for a Workforce Overhaul
The advisory roster reads almost like a masterclass in scaling operations and navigating labor complexity:
-
Niren Chaudhary, former Chairman & CEO of Panera Brands and former president roles at Krispy Kreme and KFC International.
-
Jim Messina, CEO of The Messina Group, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff, and the strategist credited with engineering Obama’s 2012 reelection technology machine.
-
Loni Mahanta, Chief Legal & Corporate Affairs Officer at HopSkipDrive and former VP of Future of Work at Lyft, with deep credentials in labor policy and mobility.
-
Andy Mutz, Global CTO of Customer Experience at Microsoft and veteran of SAP, Salesforce, and several successful startup exits.
-
Adam Sah, early Google engineering leader and AI-focused inventor with multiple patents and experience across three IPOs.
That lineup signals that Ando isn’t just building tools—it’s positioning itself as a systems-level platform that plugs directly into the economics of scheduling, staffing, and operational stability.
Solving a Market Begging for Modernization
If any segment of the labor market is overdue for disruption, it’s the hourly workforce.
Across the U.S., 80 million hourly workers clock roughly 140 billion hours a year, but the infrastructure supporting them is still tied to spreadsheets, group texts, and last-minute scrambles. For employers, that inefficiency is expensive: every departure costs an average of $5,800 in training and replacement, and understaffing regularly costs stores thousands in missed revenue.
For workers, the pain points are equally clear: unpredictable schedules, conflicts with childcare or second jobs, and constant churn.
Ando says its AI platform is engineered to solve exactly that—matching staffing to real-time demand, stabilizing worker schedules, and reducing the stress on managers who today spend hours stitching together coverage manually.
A System “Failing Both Sides”
“Ando exists because this system is failing both sides,” said founder and CEO Paul Wellons. “AI is reshaping every part of operations, but the frontline workforce has been left behind.”
It’s a sentiment echoed across recent industry reports—and a signal that the next wave of workforce automation may not be about replacing people but about finally giving the largest segment of the global labor market tools that actually work.
With its new advisory board, Ando is clearly preparing to step into that void. And given the competitive landscape—where companies like Rippling, UKG, and talent ops startups are all racing to build smarter frontline systems—the timing couldn’t be better.
If Ando can deliver on its promise of “stability for workers and precision for operators,” it could easily become one of the most consequential AI players in the hourly economy.
Join thousands of HR leaders who rely on HRTechEdge for the latest in workforce technology, AI-driven HR solutions, and strategic insights
