THE ROBOT IN THE ROOM
Ask most operators what they think about AI right now and you'll get one of two responses. Either genuine curiosity from someone who's been quietly experimenting with it, or a slow exhale and an eye roll from someone who's heard the pitch one too many times.
If you're in the latter camp, we get it.
Not long ago AI felt futuristic. McDonald's was piloting AI drive-thrus. Sweetgreen was building a fully automated kitchen. A handful of forward-thinking operators were using it to get ahead and the rest of the industry was watching from a distance. Then it moved faster than anyone expected. Now almost every platform you're already paying for has native AI built into it. Your POS. Your scheduling tool. Your reservation system. Your inventory platform. All of them. And instead of feeling like an advantage it's started to feel like an obligation.
AI being built into every platform hasn’t made things easier. In a lot of cases, it’s made them more complicated. Take any platform you're currently using, it often offers useful tools, but they may be buried clicks deep inside a dashboard most operators open once a month. Getting from "I have a question about my business" to "I found the report that answers it" means navigating menus, scrolling through generated reports, figuring out which ones specifically apply, and then doing something useful with the information. That's a lot of steps between a busy service.
Then there's the cost. AI-powered features aren't always included in base subscriptions, some platforms charge separately for analytics tiers, smart scheduling, or CRM functionality. For smaller independent restaurants, that's a real financial decision that often gets put on the back burner.
The result is a lot of operators paying for AI they’re not using, inside platforms they’re not fully utilizing, or ignoring tools that could actually help if they were easier to understand.
MAKE AI WORK FOR YOU.
AI fatigue may be real. But checking out entirely isn't the answer, because underneath all the noise the technology is genuinely useful. Before spending another hour digging through dashboards, open ChatGPT or Claude. Treat it like a consultant who doesn’t know your restaurant yet. Give it your seat count, your dayparts, your average check, and the problem you’re trying to solve.
Ask it specific questions:
Does this feature actually make sense for my business
Walk me through the data in a way that makes sense for my operation
Build me a tracking tool in Google Sheets that I can actually use
What you’re doing is turning generic AI into something specific to your business before paying for another feature you may not need. Because we think the best restaurants of the next decade will use AI and you won't know it. The tech will be invisible. The hospitality will not.
AI can tell you which menu items are dragging down your margins. It cannot tell you the reason nobody orders that dish is because your server describes it wrong every time. AI can build a smarter schedule. It cannot account for the energy your floor needs on a Saturday night or the instinct it takes to handle a 15-top walk-in without losing the whole service. AI can personalize a guest experience. It cannot replicate the feeling of a host who genuinely makes someone feel welcome the moment they walk through the door.
The operators getting this right aren't using AI to think less. They're using it to think better, so they can put more energy into the culture, the mentorship, and the hospitality that makes someone want to come back.
No platform fixes a people problem. But the right operator can use these tools to build a team that has fewer of them.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
You don't have to love AI. You just have to be intentional about it. The best guest experiences still happen where the tech is invisible and the hospitality is not. Keep it that way.
See you next quarter.
