How HelloFresh Replaced 450 Spreadsheets With Real-Time Decisions

What happens when the biggest breakthrough in AI isn't a flashy new tool, but finally getting rid of 450 spreadsheets?

Recording live from Qlik Connect, I sat down with Ed Dunger from HelloFresh to talk about what operational transformation actually looks like inside one of the world's most complex supply chain environments. Because when your business depends on forecasting demand, managing perishable food, coordinating deliveries, and making sure customers receive the right box at the right time, small inefficiencies quickly become expensive problems.

Ed leads operational technology and analytics enablement across global teams at HelloFresh, covering everything from forecasting through to final-mile logistics. In this conversation, he shares how the company moved away from hundreds of disconnected Google Sheets and manual processes toward a near real-time, data-driven operating model that gives teams faster, clearer, and more reliable decision-making.

We talk about the practical reality of replacing over 450 spreadsheets, building trust in the data, and creating systems that operational teams actually want to use. Ed explains why this was a two to three year journey rather than an overnight transformation, and how early wins, like predicting waste before it happened, helped build confidence across the business.

We also explore how HelloFresh is using predictive AI to improve exception management when deliveries fail. From triggering recovery boxes faster to improving customer communication when something goes wrong, the focus is not on AI for the sake of AI, but on solving real problems that directly affect customer experience.

There is also a valuable lesson here for any business trying to move from experimentation to operational reality. Start small, build trust gradually, and focus on solving one problem well before trying to transform everything at once.

So as more organizations race to adopt AI, are we sometimes overlooking the simple operational fixes that create the biggest impact? And is real transformation less about the technology itself, and more about how people learn to trust it?

Join me for a practical and honest conversation from Qlik Connect, and let me know your thoughts. Are you still managing around old processes, or are you building systems people can truly rely on?

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