Artificial intelligence is a hot topic, and many businesses are realising the vast potential that AI can have on their operations – from cost-saving measures to boosting efficiency.
While AI might seem like a relatively new phenomenon, thanks to its recent surge in our collective consciousness, artificial intelligence has steadily permeated our lives for several years.
From Google Maps estimating how long your journey will take based on traffic or public transport delays to smart home speakers like Alexa and Netflix recommending the perfect show – AI has been aiding our day-to-day activities for longer than you might have first thought.
What is artificial intelligence?
Before we dive into how artificial intelligence can help your restaurant, let’s first explore what AI actually is.
Artificial intelligence, also known as AI, is a form of machine learning that aims to recreate human intelligence, allowing the tech (such as an app or website) to perform tasks that typically require human cognition.
AI can perform a wide range of human-like tasks, such as problem-solving, learning, reasoning, understanding spoken language, recognising patterns, and making decisions. AI systems can also analyse data, adapt to new information, and improve performance over time without explicit programming.
For restaurants, AI can predict your customer preferences, streamline your inventory management, assist in creating personalised menus and more, which we’ll dive into later.
Examples of artificial intelligence
AI can enhance efficiency, accuracy, and convenience across various industries, including restaurant and hospitality businesses. Here are some real-world examples of AI in action:
- Image and speech recognition: AI-powered systems can accurately identify objects in images and transcribe spoken words into text. For instance, self-driving cars use AI to recognise pedestrians, traffic signals, and other vehicles from camera inputs.
- Recommendations: Platforms like Netflix and Amazon use AI algorithms to analyse your viewing or shopping history and suggest content or products that match your preferences.
- Customer service: AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can understand and respond to human language. Many companies now use chatbots on their websites to help with customer support and enquiries.
4 ways AI can help your restaurant
Artificial intelligence has immense potential to transform how we live, work, and interact with the world around us. For restaurants, AI provides an opportunity to streamline your operations, boost efficiency and enhance the customer experience.
If you’re looking to incorporate AI into your business, here are four ideas to get started.
- Elevate your marketing
- Reduce food waste
- Smarter staff scheduling
- Enhance the online customer experience
1. Elevate your marketing
These days, having a website or social media presence is essential, and 90% of guests say they research a restaurant online before dining.
For many people, your website or social media will be the first interaction a customer will have with your restaurant – it’s where they look when they want to make a reservation, check out your menu, or find out if you have any upcoming events or specials.
While having a digital presence is crucial, creating content and managing your channels can be extremely time-consuming. This is where AI steps in.
How can AI help?
For restauranteurs looking to elevate their marketing and online presence, be that creating social media posts, marketing emails or blog posts for your website, AI is the perfect marketing sidekick to help you save time and reach new customers.
Enter ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is an AI-driven natural language processing tool that creates content for you based on specific requests. It’s an excellent resource for businesses strapped for time or lacking a dedicated marketing team to manage their content.
Creating prompts in ChatGPT
When using ChatGPT, the key to success is using specific prompts and refining them if you don’t get the desired output on the first go.
Here’s an example of a test we did using ChatGPT to create social media content.
We asked:
“Please write a 150-175 character Instagram caption about a new seasonal spring menu featuring locally sourced ingredients that is launching at a restaurant on 7th September.”
Here’s the response we got:
🌸 Savor the flavours of spring with our fresh, locally sourced ingredients! Introducing our new seasonal menu, blooming on September 7th. 🍃🍽️ #SpringEats #LocalDelights
Refining your prompts
While this caption is great for an Instagram post or a tweet, you might want something a little longer and more descriptive for Facebook or a marketing email.
With this in mind, we added an additional prompt to ChatGPT.
We said:
“Please write a longer social media description.”
ChatGPT then provided the following:
🌼 Embrace the Vibrant Tastes of Spring! 🌼
🍃 Get ready to indulge in a culinary journey like no other as we unveil our brand-new seasonal spring menu, carefully curated with love and bursting with the flavours of the season. 🌱🍽️
🌿 From farm to table, our commitment to using locally sourced ingredients shines through in every dish. Imagine savouring the crispness of freshly picked greens, the sweetness of just-harvested fruits, and the richness of artisanal cheeses – all expertly combined to create an unforgettable dining experience. 🧀🥬🍓
🌸 Join us on September 7th as we invite you to immerse yourself in the essence of spring. Whether you’re a dedicated foodie or simply seeking a delightful escape, our new menu promises to delight your senses and transport you to the heart of the season. 🌞🌷
Save the date, mark your calendars, and prepare your taste buds for an exquisite journey through the bounties of spring. 🗓️✨ Don’t miss out on this culinary celebration! See you at our tables soon. 🍷🍴
#SpringMenuLaunch #LocalFlavors #CulinaryJourney #SeasonalDelights
While this might not perfectly align with your brand, tone of voice or menu items, it provides a great base for your marketing content and can be tweaked to better reflect your business.
Tip: You can also use AI to generate mouthwatering descriptions for each of your menu items, saving time that can be invested elsewhere in the business.
A word of caution
ChatGPT isn’t foolproof, and you should always use it with a degree of caution. It sometimes creates content with inaccurate information and uses American spellings, so all content must be reviewed and fact-checked before publication.
ChatGPT is a great place to generate marketing content for your business, but AI doesn’t know your business like you do. Always proofread and edit the content to add a human touch before posting to your channels.
2. Reduce food waste
Food waste is a major issue within the restaurant industry, and taking steps to reduce the amount of waste your business creates will be better for your bottom line and the planet.
Australia produces more than 7.6 million tonnes of food waste each year, enough to fill the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) 9 times. This food waste costs the Australian economy $36.6 billion, despite 70% of it being edible, and is responsible for releasing 17.5 million tonnes of CO2 each year.
The hospitality and food service industry contributes considerably to Australia’s overall food waste, with a recent study finding that a whopping 65% of food is wasted in the hospitality industry – costing businesses thousands of dollars each year.
How can AI help?
You might not realise it, but the chances are you’re already using some form of artificial intelligence in your inventory management. For example, an all-in-one POS system with advanced inventory management tools often use machine learning to empower restaurants to optimise their inventory management, cut costs and reduce food waste.
With smart inventory tools, it’s easy to ensure you’re always purchasing the right quantities as the system analyses your historical data and makes purchasing suggestions based on the number of diners per shift and the given time period.
As the system is always analysing and learning from new sales data, it automatically tweaks its recommendations, ensuring you’re never left short of inventory or stuck with too much.
Advanced inventory management systems also include automatic replenishment tools, so restaurateurs don’t have to worry about manually managing their purchase orders. The system recognises when your inventory is running low and will automatically generate a new purchase order ready for replenishment.
AI Forecasting is another powerful tool in reducing food waste. Many digital inventory solutions use past sales data to establish an optimal forecasted stock level, drastically reducing the risk of food going to waste. As a result, restaurateurs order only what they need, lose less money, and preserve their margins.
3. Smarter staff scheduling
Your employees’ happiness is integral to running a successful restaurant. However, high staff turnover has always been a tricky issue for hospitality businesses. Working back-to-back shifts, being run off their feet or having too many staff scheduled on a quiet shift can all result in an unhappy workforce.
Sky-high employee wages are another major issue that impacts hospitality venues – particularly on weekends and public holidays when it’s mandatory to pay staff 225%-250% of their base hourly rate.
To remedy these issues, using artificial intelligence for staff scheduling can help improve employee satisfaction and optimise staffing costs.
How can AI help?
Similar to your inventory management, you may already be utilising AI for your staff scheduling without being aware of it.
There are several smart team management tools that use sales data to forecast demand, letting you build staff rotas based on how busy you’ll be at any given time. These platforms use powerful machine learning algorithms that create rotas based on the weather, footfall, events, and location-specific trends.
Using AI to help plan and manage your rota guarantees you’ll always schedule the right amount of staff per shift, ensuring optimal productivity and cutting down on unnecessary wages during quiet shifts.
Some platforms also let you automatically schedule shifts according to qualifications, licences, and certifications, ensuring staff never work shifts they aren’t qualified for.
4. Enhance the online customer experience
The customer service sector embraces artificial intelligence through AI chatbots. You’ve likely already spoken to a chatbot on a website when you have a question and don’t want to go through email or phone.
As we mentioned earlier, your website is often a fundamental first touch point for potential customers.
With 73% of customers saying service and experience are key factors in their purchasing decisions, ensuring their experience is exceptional from the first time they encounter you online is crucial in encouraging them to visit you in person.
How can AI help?
An AI-powered chatbot on your website can handle reservations, answer FAQs, check the progress of takeaway orders and even recommend food or wine pairings. A chatbot acts as a virtual assistant and interacts with website visitors like a human, responding with text or voice answers to questions.
Your restaurant website can utilise chatbots to reduce the time you spend manually answering queries, and instant replies will undoubtedly improve customer satisfaction.
A great example of how AI is being utilised in the restaurant industry is OpenTable’s recent trial partnership with ChatGPT via a chatbot plugin. The chatbot provides restaurant recommendations on OpenTable, responding to customer queries, such as the best brunch spot to visit in a city.
Another benefit of integrating your restaurant’s website with a chatbot is that you can offer customer service 24/7 without asking employees to work overtime. This always-on customer service approach reduces the time a customer is left waiting, improving the overall experience.
What does the future of AI mean for restaurants?
Artificial intelligence is in its infancy; however, it’s rapidly evolving and infiltrating many parts of our daily lives. As AI grows in its capabilities, the benefits for the restaurant industry will be boundless – from enhancing marketing to saving time, automating tasks and managing customer service – we’re only at the beginning of AI’s story.
While it’s hard to predict exactly what the future holds for AI and restaurants, there are some exciting, trailblazing projects kicking off in the industry.
The first AI-generated pop-up restaurant opened in Sydney for a week in July 2023. The restaurant’s concept was generated using ChatGPT and Canva’s AI image generator and helped to create the blueprint for the restaurant’s menu, lighting and interior design.
The benefits of artificial intelligence for the restaurant industry are clear, from the ability to reach new customers to saving time on tasks and reducing food waste.
As with all forms of technology, a human touch will still be required in certain situations. Artificial intelligence isn’t about getting rid of employees; it’s about letting staff focus on the tasks that require more human interaction and less time on the repetitive tasks.
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