Not immediately jumping on the AI bandwagon like everyone else is? It says something that Chili’s doing this— yes, the casual dining chain with the big red pepper logo — is being seen as shrewd decision making and not just common sense.
Chris Caldwell, the chief information officer at Chili’s owner Brinker International, emphasized in recent interviews how the company wasn’t “all in” on AI, and is instead focused on overhauling its tech in more practical ways.
“I’m not chasing AI to go, ‘Guys, Anthropic just released a new LLM, and we need to use it because it’s cool,'” he told Business Insider.
The ethos: any tech being deployed should be improving food service and atmosphere. Sound like a dig at AI, anyone?
Caldwell’s overhauls have been pretty mundane compared to the almost sci-fi sounding rhetoric coming out of the tech industry, which promises businesses that embracing its AI tools will magically optimize operations, supercharge productivity, and woo customers. He did stuff like buying thousands of new iPads to replace locations’ aging tablets, overhauled the chain’s WiFi network, bought a new laptop for every location’s manager, and implemented a new payment system.
He also ditched the company’s impractical experiments with using robot servers that began before he joined in 2024.
“If a robot’s getting in the way and not helping us deliver a great guest experience, we’re going to get rid of them,” Caldwell told the Wall Street Journal (did we mention that he’s clearly on a media blitz?)
Sara Senatore, senior restaurants analyst with Bank of America, sounded stunned at just how well Chili’s AI-agnostic tech overhaul has worked.
“The Chili’s turnaround has been nothing short of remarkable,” Senatore told the WSJ.
Needless to say, it’s bizarre that this is seen as newsworthy. Did anyone expect Chili’s to be on the cutting-edge of deploying AI in a business setting?
Then again, plenty of restaurants have been swept up in the AI hype. Taco Bell was on the receiving end of loads of backlash for deploying a shoddy AI-powered drive-thru system. Starbucks scrapped an AI inventory management tool after it kept miscounting and mislabeling items. And one disgruntled Pizza Hut franchisee has sued the chain because the AI-powered kitchen management system that the chain mandated locations use allegedly caused it to lose over $100 million.
Forrester retail analyst Sucharita Kodali, calling for sanity in this age of AI boosterism, said she hasn’t seen any game-changing uses of generative AI in restaurants yet. Eateries instead “need to focus on the things that actually drive their business, like making sure they have good operations,” she told the WSJ.
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