It turns out that the turbo-charged technology boost that independent restaurateurs experienced in the pandemic era now looks like a dress rehearsal for the next wave.
Today, my clients ask when the bells and whistles they have read about chains developing will become available at their level.
They’ve paid attention to reports of BJ’s AI-powered scheduling tool – the one that looked at the weather forecast, events in the area, and past sales, and helped managers schedule what they needed, not what they expected.
BJ’s dropped 2 points to the bottom line, my favorite metric.
The agenda for my Restaurant Owners Success Club next month includes an AI expert guest speaker, including a presentation and answering questions from members.
Technology Must Serve People
Two things are very evident to me after spending time at last week’s FSTEC conference.
First, every in-house nerd, software developer, and actual restaurateur agrees that all technology decisions must be made with people in mind – guests and employees.
The idea is that software serves people, not the other way around. No HAL 9000 in the dining room or kitchen.
The second thing is access to these tools by independents looks closer than you think. That AI-powered scheduling platform? First iterations are beginning to be available to you now.
Next, a platform that watches all of your data and tells you what to focus on at which locations will replace that operations director Monday morning ritual of poring over exception reports and spreadsheets to see what occurred in the field.
My clients who have 20 or more units can find an affordable application now; my 5- and 10-unit clients should be up next!
Output Eats Input for Breakfast
When a machine simply hands you the information you need, you can actually immediately act to improve your business for guests and employees.
The input does not bog you down anymore, and you don’t need to spend a ton of time finding the information. Instead, you focus on output.
In my own business, my career-long note-taking habit is over.
What has changed in the past year? My AI note-taker now attends all my meetings and creates a summary.
When the AI-generated summaries first came out, I couldn’t rely on them. But within six months, the quality has improved so they’re completely dependable.
The same thing is going to happen in your restaurants, so start preparing to take advantage of this now.
- Prepare for how your general managers and operations directors will adjust to the new reality. Their jobs will change. Again.
- Designate a person in your company to be in charge of keeping up on these innovations.
- Consider how you redeploy resources to afford these products as they become available.
