{"slug": "business-world-stunned-that-a-restaurant-chain-is-doing-well-without-mindlessly", "title": "Business World Stunned That a Restaurant Chain Is Doing Well Without Mindlessly Embracing AI", "summary": "Chili's, owned by Brinker International, is thriving by avoiding a full embrace of AI, focusing instead on practical tech upgrades like new iPads, WiFi, and payment systems. CIO Chris Caldwell said the company is not chasing AI for its own sake, and he removed robot servers that hindered guest experience. Bank of America analyst Sara Senatore called the turnaround 'nothing short of remarkable,' while Forrester's Sucharita Kodali noted that restaurants should focus on operations rather than generative AI.", "body_md": "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.\n\nChris 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.\n\n“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](https://www.businessinsider.com/chilis-focuses-tech-upgrades-over-ai-improve-service-2026-7).\n\nThe ethos: any tech being deployed should be improving food service and atmosphere. Sound like a dig at AI, anyone?\n\nCaldwell’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.\n\nHe also ditched the company’s impractical experiments with using robot servers that began before he joined in 2024.\n\n“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](https://www.wsj.com/cio-journal/why-chilis-isnt-going-all-in-on-ai-bddef245) (did we mention that he’s clearly on a media blitz?)\n\nSara Senatore, senior restaurants analyst with Bank of America, sounded stunned at just how well Chili’s AI-agnostic tech overhaul has worked.\n\n“The Chili’s turnaround has been nothing short of remarkable,” Senatore told the *WSJ*.\n\nNeedless 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?\n\nThen again, plenty of restaurants have been swept up in the AI hype. Taco Bell was [on the receiving end of loads of backlash](https://futurism.com/taco-bells-ai-drive-thru) for deploying a shoddy AI-powered drive-thru system. Starbucks [scrapped an AI inventory management tool after it kept miscounting and mislabeling items](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/starbucks-scraps-disastrous-ai-tool). And one disgruntled Pizza Hut franchisee [has sued the chain](https://futurism.com/future-society/pizza-hut-ai-disaster) because the AI-powered kitchen management system that the chain mandated locations use allegedly caused it to lose over $100 million.\n\nForrester 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*.\n\n**More on AI:** *Sam Altman Says Even the Power of AI Will Never Lead to a Shorter Work Week*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/business-world-stunned-that-a-restaurant-chain-is-doing-well-without-mindlessly", "canonical_source": "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/chilis-restaurant-ai", "published_at": "2026-08-04 19:50:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-04 19:51:49.524092+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Chili's", "Brinker International", "Chris Caldwell", "Sara Senatore", "Bank of America", "Sucharita Kodali", "Forrester", "Taco Bell"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/business-world-stunned-that-a-restaurant-chain-is-doing-well-without-mindlessly", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/business-world-stunned-that-a-restaurant-chain-is-doing-well-without-mindlessly.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/business-world-stunned-that-a-restaurant-chain-is-doing-well-without-mindlessly.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/business-world-stunned-that-a-restaurant-chain-is-doing-well-without-mindlessly.jsonld"}}