How AI and Data Are Transforming Restaurant Management

However, all types of businesses across the UK are making use of AI and data to improve their performance, customer experience and understanding of the market. AI is a technology that is bolted into many types of business, market and vertical applications, including hospitality and restaurants, so you will come across AI sooner or later, if not already.

The Power of AI for Restaurants 

The key aim of restaurant AI features is typically to provide smart insights into inventory and staffing management or make marketing and bookings more personalised. While none of that will hugely boost your takings overnight, small gains in efficiency and reduced costs will help the business improve profits. 

On the marketing and booking side, any feature that makes it easier or a joy for customers to access your digital features and better inform staff about customer needs before they arrive can boost their loyalty. That can improve repeat bookings and spread word of mouth, but still relies on good human interactions, so AI is not taking away jobs or turning staff into robots. 

Whether these tools are used by the trendiest London restaurants, regional chains or individual restaurants, the key is for each owner or manager to make the best use of the AI features available to them, to deliver improvement.    

While restaurant owners might be in love with the foodie dream, AI helps them make better business decision-making, reduces the back office workload to some extent, and can help improve the food and staffing supply chains. 

Restaurant Chains Benefit from AI’s Scale and Speed

The larger the restaurant operation, the better the power of AI’s scale and speed comes into play, acting as an integral part of the industry., Chains that use software as a service (SaaS) tools have an array of AI features to help them compete in cut-throat markets. 

By strategically implementing AI-powered restaurant and supply software, the larger players can streamline operations, boost their customers’ experience, and drive greater success and profitability.

Marketing With AI

Consumers and customers hate lazy marketing, from real bizarre examples like “You live on the South Coast of England, here are some cheap flights from Edinburgh, Scotland!” to “You shopped for milk, what was your experience?” 

AI can look at a customer’s history and tailor marketing messages that link their past experiences to current and future offerings better than typical “free drink or sweet on your birthday” reminders. 

Consider a customer who left a bad review. AI can respond with “We’re sorry you didn’t like that experience, can we make it up to you? With xx% discount off your order?”

While an individual can manage that for a single location, doing it at scale, in response to posts across all the social media platforms is something AI can do better, faster and it will learn which approach works best and replicate and improve on it.

Similarly, AI can notice changes in sales or feedback patterns that the staff might not have time or data access to notice. Consider if a new offer or menu item is suddenly hugely popular. AI can track the source of the trend and enable your business to promote it, while increasing orders so new customers are not left disappointed. 

Even smarter AIs can run strings of marketing messages across similar events, such as our “much-loved new main is almost out of stock today, hurry to get your order in.” And a learning AI can track wider trends in the food and restaurant business and make suggestions about new ideas for kitchen teams or recipe makers. 

In Summary

Many restaurant owners risk overlooking the potential benefits of AI beyond basic booking and website management. 

However, the hospitality and restaurant industry are increasingly using AI to improve their back-office and front-of-house performance, to deliver better customer experience, and market understanding. 

In restaurants, AI offers smart insights into inventory, staffing, and personalised marketing, helping improve efficiency and profitability without replacing human staff. 

AI-powered tools can streamline operations, especially for larger chains using SaaS platforms, to link data platforms together, enabling faster decision-making and better customer engagement. 

Ultimately, AI supports better business decisions, reduces back-office workload, and makes for more flexible produce/menu supply chain management. Whatever the location or how big the business, success lies in how well franchisees, owners and team managers use AI to deliver smarter, more responsive service. All of which can improve business operations, which should result in a better customer experience for happier diners.