Charles Wilke

I help small and mid-sized businesses make practical, grounded use of this emerging technology. I do this with less hype, more traction, and a clear sense of what actually matters for our best work to effortlessly flow from us.

In my day-to-day, I'm the architect of Toast IQ's soul — senior product designer and proud parent of Toast's first steps into this brave new world. That work keeps me embedded in the real, daily friction of bringing AI into a product people actually use. It's where the theory meets the traction of real-world business operations.

Through Fellow Vector, I partner with organizations to translate AI from an abstract trend into a usable capability. That might mean shaping content strategies, designing AI-assisted workflows, building custom tools, or leading workshops that help teams understand how these systems can support their real goals.

The approach is collaborative and human-centered — technology should amplify clarity, creativity, and confidence, not replace them.

How I got here

I came to this work through a lot of different doors. Games at Insomniac. Content and product at GoDaddy. Projection design for theatrical productions — Jersey Boys, Alice in Wonderland, shows where the visual language had to carry emotional weight in the dark. Writing. Music. A Substack where I've been thinking out loud about what AI actually means for people who make things for a living.

What connects all of it is a stubborn interest in the gap between adequate and meaningful. A belief that the tools we use should help us close that gap, not widen it. That's the lens I bring to every engagement.

Let's skip the trite "what can AI do" conversation, and jump right into "what does good work look like here, and how do we use what's available to get there?"