In Episode 61 of the PlanetLaundry Podcast, host Matt DeWolf and Cents CEO Alex Jekowsky dove into the role AI is playing in today’s vended laundry industry. Subscribe in your podcast platform of choice today to never miss an episode. Have a story that needs told or a perspective to share? Contact Matt DeWolf at [email protected]
Listen to the full episode here → https://planetlaundry.podbean.com/e/planetlaundry-podcast-episode-61-ai-is-showing-up-in-laundry-alex-jekowsky-shares-his-insights-video/
On any given day, laundromat owners are juggling countless demands—running reports across five different systems, fielding customer calls during peak hours, and dreaming up ways to fuel growth. For Alex Jekowsky, co-founder and CEO of Cents, the answer isn’t just another software upgrade—it’s leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to transform the business from the inside out.
“You don’t need to use it. You don’t need to use it ever,” Jekowsky said of AI adoption. “But it is such an important thing to just get educated on, even as just an intellectual curiosity, is to just understand it. Because eventually you might realize—man, there’s one thing I’m doing that’s taking me 10 hours… and if you used AI, it could be helpful.”
Turning Problems into Partners: The New Role of AI
For years, technology in laundry meant digitizing transactions or tracking wash-and-fold orders. But AI offers more, shifting the relationship from user to empowered partner. Instead of forcing owners to learn new platforms for every new tool, AI is designed to take on meaningful work in the background—booking deliveries, triaging support tickets, or even drafting marketing messages that actually resonate.
“Technology is meant to enable you and do more,” Jekowsky said. “With AI, the computer can actually take things from what you’re doing and have a relationship with you. Right, and the computer being AI—it can actually take action on your behalf… That is, I think, the biggest shift.”
Rather than selling AI for its own sake, Cents focused on weaving intelligence into everyday operations. “Just a phone, of somebody picking up the phone and answering… is definitely cool,” he said. “But what’s really cool is when it then can take action: it knows how to respond, it knows what your machine price is, it knows if a machine is available, all of the data that lives inside of your system.”
Putting Experience—and the Operator—First
For host Matt DeWolf, the message resonated. “At the end of the day, whatever part of the business we’re in, how can we spend more time doing the thing that we can uniquely add value in?” he asked. “It’s not going to be trying to figure out how to compile the right report based on seven different systems… All of those things, you can’t do that if you’re spinning your wheels.”
DeWolf drew a line from better tech to a better business. “Make it easy on yourself. Make it so you can have some fun,” he said, highlighting how AI should ultimately free up operators’ time for strategy and service—not saddle them with new headaches. “The more that you can be focused on that and you can be human-centered while leveraging AI for technology support to enable a more human-focused approach to your business, I think that’s huge for your business.”
What AI Actually Means for Laundry Room Operations
AI is no magic word—nor is it a single tool. As Jekowsky put it, “AI is not a catch-all; it should not be. But it’s turned into like Kleenex… just the phrase that people say for the thing that does all the fancy things with the computers.”
The real advantage comes when AI is trained on real business data, picking up operator preferences and routine quirks. From tracking customer order statuses to customizing loyalty program recommendations, the entire system learns the habits of each operator and community. “The magic of these things comes in how these systems kind of come together,” DeWolf said. “No AI is ever going to be good unless you’ve trained it up. So, unless it’s done all of that machine learning and figured out how to best serve you… it’s going to be useless.”
Jekowsky agreed. “AI is most powerful when it knows your business,” he said. “Imagine a customer calls asking, ‘Where’s my order?’—and your virtual assistant can instantly access all relevant store data, respond intelligently, and maybe even resolve an issue before it reaches you. That’s not just tech for tech’s sake; that’s real operational support.”
Adoption Advice: Start with Your Pain Points
Jekowsky doesn’t advocate change for its own sake; his advice to other operators is practical. “Just start to think about, what could somebody else do for you? The most interesting and impactful thing today is that now you can have a virtual AI agent tackle a large number of things for you,” he said.
Whether it’s writing marketing copy, drafting an email to potential sellers, or answering the phone after hours, identifying the most time-consuming task is the surest route to productivity gains. “Our job has been to be the best partner—to develop a huge number of products that go to benefit the independent operator. Technology should be your fractional business partner that’s helping you scale.”
Don’t Forget the Human Touch
In an age of bots and automation, Jekowsky and DeWolf agree that nothing can fully replace real connection. “All of these things are going to be crazy valuable tools for you, but it never gets rid of the importance and value of talking to somebody,” he said. “There is no replacement for that.”
As laundromat technology evolves, both Jekowsky and DeWolf see a future where AI-driven efficiencies actually deepen; and don’t replace the personal bonds that define the industry.
“There’s this idea that AI is a magic bullet, or that you have to use it or get left behind,” Jekowsky said. “That’s just not true. You don’t need to chase AI for its own sake—but you should get educated, ask questions, and find out where it can help you do specific things better.”
In practical terms, that means using AI not to replace people, but to amplify their capacity. Cents’ approach threads AI into core features—like “Cents Assist,” which allows for automated customer service on phone and chat, integrated with real-time store data. But operators always control the degree of automation; they can flip between human-backed call centers and AI support as their business demands.
