FSTEC 2024 Recap: How to Empower Managers and Drive Profitability with AI
By FSTEC 2024, one of the largest industry conferences exploring the intersection of technology and the foodservice industry was hosted this past September in Grapevine, Texas.
Software vendors, technologists, and innovators of all kinds bring their solutions together to create exposure for the technologies reshaping the foodservice industry. They are joined by restaurant operators eager to explore new solutions, learn from the experts, and solve challenges.
Among the most compelling topics was the role AI will play in the coming years as the industry explores new use cases and applications for this transformative technology. Fourth CEO, Clinton Anderson, hosted the definitive session on the subject, “Put Profit on the Menu: AI for Restaurant Operations”, in which he and his panel shared strategies to reduce operational costs, increase efficiency, and drive profitability using artificial intelligence.
Let’s take a look at how AI is being used today and some of the key insights from Clinton’s session.
The Growing Role of AI in Restaurant Operations
For a long time, AI was discussed as an emerging or incoming technology, but that period has passed. AI is no longer a trend. It is here now, and restaurant operators are finding new ways to improve their processes and seize a competitive edge.
AI is now an essential component for operational efficiency helping to optimize decision making, empower managers, and improve profitability overall. Some of the ways in which Fourth’s customers are using AI today include:
- Demand forecasting
- Inventory management
- Shift optimization
- Reducing cost per hire
- Workforce management
Key Insights from the Panel: Empowering Management Teams
Clinton was joined in his session by two industry leaders from national brands, Jerry Philips, VP of Technology at Whataburger and Drew Brodnax, Director of Finance at Brinker International, which owns Chili’s Bar & Grill. Together, they focused their discussion on how AI can revolutionize restaurant operations, provide real-time insights for multi-location management, and boost profitability and efficiency.
A central theme of the session was that AI is here to empower management teams, not replace them. AI can do so through three key functions:
- Real-Time Decision Making: One of AIs most valuable abilities is to analyze large datasets in real-time to deliver insights that even an experienced operator would not be able to derive on their own. This empowers management to use their expertise with more reliable data. This not only increases the effectiveness of the management team, but it also reduces the manual workload in making those decisions.
- Optimizing Labor Deployment: AI can be a huge asset in optimizing your labor costs in two key ways: ensuring compliance with all labor laws and increasing the accuracy of demand forecasts.
Smart scheduling tools helps operators build compliant schedules by building guardrails into the application. A schedule that violates a labor law, such as Fair Workweek regulations, will be flagged and unable to be submitted to the team until the issue is resolved.
Meanwhile, AI can deliver a highly accurate demand forecast by analyzing mountains of historical data and accounting for other factors that influence demand like holidays, potential foot traffic, and community events. This enables management to staff the precise number of employees to match the demand for a given shift.
- Above-Store Insights for In-Store Action: When managing the operations of multiple locations, understanding what makes one store more successful and efficient is the pathway to greater profitability across the chain. AI can report on correlations in the data that indicate what decisions, processes, or attributes of one store yielded the best results. From there, management can make informed decisions based off this real-time data.
The full session of “Put Profit on the Menu: AI for Restaurant Operations” is available on-demand. Watch the full video recording.
Top Takeaways from FSTEC 2024
Across the rest of the conference, we saw many of the themes in Clinton’s presentation echoed. But, more broadly, the biggest takeaways from FSTEC 2024 include:
- Embrace Change
The one constant in technology is change. Keep an open mind about new innovations like AI and consider how these solutions can bring value to your operation. - Human-AI Collaboration
AI is best viewed as a partner in enhancing your service delivery rather than a wholesale replacement for positions and functions. Your team still has a critical role in operating the technology and delivering the hospitality that restaurant technology cannot. - Tech is Now Essential
Restaurant technology investments are no longer optional. They have permeated the market to the point that analog processes simply cannot compete. To meet consumer expectations, you must incorporate technological solutions. - Custom Solutions for Unique Needs
Every restaurant is different and faces its own set of challenges. When exploring restaurant technology solutions, prioritize vendors that are open about their ability to customize their solution to your restaurant. Many operators find themselves at a crossroads where they need to either invest in developing their own solution or partnering with a provider. The provider prepared to tailor their solution to your needs delivers the greatest value for a lower investment. - Prioritize Simplicity
Technology is supposed to make our lives easier. It’s supposed to be an enabler instead of a barrier. Look for solutions that simplify tasks, remove steps in processes, and save time. AI adoption across the hospitality industry is inevitable, and it will become table stakes for a competitive restaurant in the future. The game today is being first to leverage a brand new use case that will drive efficiency in a way your competitors have not yet achieved.
The Future Is Now: AI in Restaurant Operations
AI is a transformative technology that is just now hitting the mainstream. It is critical to invest in the technology today, because it is sure to become a vital tool in the future of restaurant operations. We encourage our customers and partners in the hospitality industry to embrace the unfolding potential of AI to drive smarter decision-making and operational efficiency.
Watch the recording of Clinton’s full panel session and contact us to learn more about how AI can impact your restaurant.