{"slug": "what-ai-chili-s-spends-big-on-wifi-and-tablets-instead-of-tokens", "title": "What AI? Chili's spends big on WiFi and tablets instead of tokens", "summary": "Chili's parent company Brinker International is investing in basic tech upgrades like WiFi systems and 23,000 iPads for ordering instead of chasing AI trends, according to CIO Chris Caldwell. The chain has turned around same-store sales by focusing on food quality, service, and replacing outdated tech, while avoiding flashy AI uses like drive-thru agents or robots. Caldwell said he uses AI tools like Microsoft Copilot for brainstorming but prioritizes foundational improvements over new LLMs.", "body_md": "# What AI? Chili's spends big on WiFi and tablets instead of tokens\n\n[Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com)\n\nChris Caldwell, CIO of Brinker, focuses on upgrading Chili's tech infrastructure instead of AI, enhancing service and financial performance.\n\n- Brinker International-owned\n[Chili's has turned around](https://www.businessinsider.com/chilis-got-gen-z-attention-social-media-restaurant-meal-deals-2025-1)its sales over the last few years. - It's invested in basic tech instead of AI, Brinker's chief information officer said.\n- The chain has focused on new ordering tablets and WiFi systems, Chris Caldwell said.\n\nChris Caldwell is more focused on tablets these days than [AI tokens](https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-chair-predicts-companies-stop-worrying-ai-tokens-price-2026-7).\n\nThe chief information officer of Chili's parent company, Brinker International, has spent his 2½ years in the role figuring out how to overhaul WiFi systems at restaurants and replace thousands of handheld devices that waitstaff use to take customers' orders, he told Business Insider.\n\nMany restaurants are adding AI to their operations. At [Starbucks and Burger King](https://www.businessinsider.com/artificial-intelligence-digital-coworkers-restaurants-staff-starbucks-burger-king-chipotle-2026-5), for instance, AI agents are listening to drive-thru orders and fetching recipes for baristas.\n\nChili's, meanwhile, has largely stayed away from such uses. Instead, it's turned around its same-store sales in part by focusing on food quality, service, and, in Caldwell's case, replacing outdated tech systems.\n\n\"I'm not chasing AI to go, 'Guys, [Anthropic](/glossary/anthropic) just released a new [LLM](/glossary/llm), and we need to use it because it's cool,'\" he said.\n\n## From singing robots to new iPads\n\nBefore Caldwell arrived in 2024, Chili's was experimenting with lots of flashy technology, such as [robots that could bus tables](https://www.businessinsider.com/chilis-is-testing-drones-robots-to-save-on-delivery-fees-2022-5) and sing Happy Birthday to diners.\n\nAs Caldwell talked to his new colleagues, though, he got the impression that Chili's needed to invest in more basic tech upgrades. Some restaurants didn't have enough ordering tablets, he said. When a tablet was available, Chili's system didn't reliably send customers' orders to the kitchen, resulting in slower service.\n\n\"The first thing I heard was that we're doing a lot of state-of-the-art things, but the foundational systems were really having some challenges,\" he said.\n\nTo fix these problems, Caldwell and colleagues invested in fixes such as 23,000 iPads for taking orders. It's also redesigning the software on those tablets to make taking orders as easy as using any other app — and help** **new employees train faster, he said.\n\nUnder Caldwell, Chili's has also replaced WiFi access points in all 1,200 of its US restaurants and made sure each had enough bandwidth so that ordering and other in-store operations weren't slowed down, he said.\n\n## Caldwell uses AI to brainstorm\n\nIt's not that Caldwell and Chili's are avoiding AI altogether.\n\nCorporate employees at Brinker have access to Microsoft's [Copilot](/compare/github-copilot-vs-cursor) — a tool that's made them \"more efficient on a day-to-day basis,\" Caldwell said.\n\nFor example,** **Caldwell said that he bounces ideas off of AI. He described a conversation with the [chatbot](/glossary/chatbot) that helped him** **think through the implications of using payment devices stationed at Chili's tables instead of having customers flag down waitstaff to pay.\n\n\"I had probably a 30-minute brainstorming session with AI this morning just to make sure I'm thinking about that holistically,\" he said.\n\nBrinker is also looking at about half a dozen uses of AI that could be more directly integrated into restaurant operations, such as estimating when customers' online orders will be ready for pick-up.\n\n\"Does it make life easier for our teams or customers?\" he said. \"That's the lens that we're using, for the most part.\"\n\n*Have a tip? Contact this reporter at *__abitter@businessinsider.com__* or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; *here's our __guide to sharing information securely__*.*\n\n[Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com/chilis-focuses-tech-upgrades-over-ai-improve-service-2026-7)\n\nGet AI news in your inbox\n\nDaily digest of what matters in AI.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/what-ai-chili-s-spends-big-on-wifi-and-tablets-instead-of-tokens", "canonical_source": "https://www.machinebrief.com/news/what-ai-chilis-spends-big-on-wifi-and-tablets-instead-of-tok-rbbx", "published_at": "2026-07-25 09:33:01+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-25 10:57:25.781596+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-tools", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Brinker International", "Chili's", "Chris Caldwell", "Microsoft", "Copilot"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/what-ai-chili-s-spends-big-on-wifi-and-tablets-instead-of-tokens", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/what-ai-chili-s-spends-big-on-wifi-and-tablets-instead-of-tokens.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/what-ai-chili-s-spends-big-on-wifi-and-tablets-instead-of-tokens.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/what-ai-chili-s-spends-big-on-wifi-and-tablets-instead-of-tokens.jsonld"}}