Choosing the right AI tools for your restaurant

Restaurant businesses that use artificial intelligence to enhance their operations are finding it helps address certain challenges, such as labor shortages and rising costs, while also improving efficiency and customer service.

According to the report, AI: How you can use it right now to simplify your restaurant operations and ease pain points, underwritten by DIRECTV for BUSINESS® National Accounts, the technology helps alleviate labor shortages by automating repetitive tasks, which allows staff members to focus on customer interaction. 

AI can also help managers schedule workers more efficiently to reflect restaurants’ busier or slower days, assist in creating traffic builders through marketing promotions like sporting events, or even predict food and supplies purchases more effectively and easily.

While some believe AI may eliminate some industry jobs, others say it could help restaurants battling labor challenges handle more operational tasks with fewer people by freeing up employees from more repetitive tasks to spend more time focusing on guest interaction. Shifting those tasks to AI, including fielding reservations or answering basic questions about the restaurant or its services, is popular with employees as well.

“Instead of thinking of AI as a way to cut jobs and decrease bottom line costs, think of it as a tool to help people do their jobs better and drive topline performance,” says Sam Short, Chief Strategy Officer at restaurant tech company BYOD Inc.

Selecting the right AI tools for your restaurant can be challenging. Because many options exist, it can be hard to find enough time to learn all about them. The report advises operators to start the process by first identifying the problems that need solving and then focusing on the right AI solutions to address them.

The benefits of using AI

Richard Tatem, AVP, commercial engineering at DIRECTV for BUSINESS, says the three biggest areas where AI can provide tangible benefits are:

1. The guest experience: Improve their experience by managing information, focusing on customer engagement and using technology to cull through existing data and identify areas of improvement. 
2. Business and operational efficiencies: Managing staffing levels in both the front- and back-of-the house will allow for a better-run business and satisfied guests.
3. Revenue optimization: You can use AI to look at data insights and determine where to optimize or improve sales through upselling or creating pricing, packaging, or promotional offers. 

AI tools can also help generate job descriptions and polish emails, providing hiring managers with full job descriptions they can post on LinkedIn and to hiring sites in a matter of minutes. This is not insignificant, especially when hiring for multiple positions or locations.”

Furthermore, they can grow sales by developing marketing campaigns, including video promotions, and even build a whole digital marketing campaign.

Choosing the right tools for your operation

So, what AI tools are right for your restaurant business? These six tips will help you make your decision:

1. Determine the problems you’re trying to solve and the outcomes you want to accomplish
2. Choose restaurant-specific tools designed for hospitality or foodservice operations
3. Check integration and ease of use to make sure it talks to your POS, payroll and online ordering systems.
4. Track and measure its ROI and scalability
5. Prioritize data security and compliance
6. Get staff buy-in

When choosing AI tools, there’s a lot to consider, but the reason to deploy the technology is simple. It will reduce the amount of mundane, repetitive tasks your employees handle, and managers will be able to focus more on engaging with guests, a vital end goal.