Chipotle, Jason's Deli, Ampex Brands talk AI role in customer experience

A increasing number of restaurants are embracing artificial intelligence technology and, for many, the goals are tapping customer data to drive stronger customer engagement as well as back-of-house efficiency.

But it can be challenging to determine how to deploy AI technology, where to deploy it and establish return-on-investment goals.

Those questions were the focal point of a panel talk at the recent annual three-day Fast Casual Executive Summit.

The summit is one of several industry events organized by Networld Media Group, the parent company of Fastcasual, Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb. The media company's next event is the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit being held March 20-23, 2023, in Coral Gables, Florida.

The panel, "AI: Getting Up Close and Personal with Your Customers," was sponsored by Skellam AI, which develops AI systems to solve business problems. The session was moderated by Stacey Kane, a restaurant marketing consultant.

Panel participants were Eric Easton CFO at Ampex Brands; Logan Hull, director of digital restaurant experience and managing director of robotics at Chipotle Mexican Grill; Gracie Prasanson, VP of sales for Jason's Deli and Arun Veettil, founder and chief architect at Skellam AI.

Many drivers spurring AI

Brands are embracing AI from different perspectives and deploying various types of projects, according to Kane. And brand size doesn't matter, explained Veettil, when it comes to utilizing AI-based technology.

For a brand, there just has to be a minimum set of data being collected in order to understand the customer at a personalized level.

"It's not a function of how many customers, it's how much data you have and how confident you can be about customer purchase habits based on the data," Veettil said. "Once you have the data collected and structured, you're ready to go even if you're at a one-shop company. You're good to go to engage the customer."

How trust plays into AI innovation

Successful AI and technology innovation is deeply connected to developing internal cross functional trust — where business units are part of the innovation process.

That's the key to success at Chipotle with the recently debuted Chippy, a chip-making robot.

"Chipotle is leveraging AI in a couple of different ways," said Hull, explaining her team is focused on finding efficiencies via AI and technology when it comes to crew members. Gaining efficiencies allows staff to focus on delivering great guest experiences.

"That's where we are dipping into a new realm with the robotics space," said Hull.

At Chipotle innovation doesn't take place in a siloed environment.

"When we're talking about fostering a culture of innovation it is definitely helpful to have support, like I do, of a leadership team that recognizes and values the role that technology and innovation plays in the broader strategy of your company's growth," said Hull who advises brands to build a cross-functional strategy when it comes to technology innovation.

"When we think about Chippy, for example, the first and foremost challenge was can this thing make great chips. Not just great chips, but great Chipotle chips," she said, adding the robotic effort involved the culinary team within the brand as their feedback was invaluable.

"You can't have a culture of innovation without a culture of cross-functional trust."

Tapping AI to reach, engage customers

At Ampex Brands the AI focus is hitting several targets, according to Easton.

This past summer Ampex acquired Au Bon Pain and its 171 stores and franchising rights to 131 locations. The company franchises over 400 store locations of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, 7-Eleven and Long John Silver's. In September Au Bon Pain debuted a store design that promotes convenience and off-premise dining.

One AI focal point is using AI to determine how to provide Au Bon Pain customers what they want and when they want it given the company's non-traditional locations and a tightly controlled customer base.

"[At Au Bon Pain] we have a different type of customer lifecycle so we have to find ways to get people to buy things more frequently and determine how we offer the right selection at the right time so people don't get tired of the food we serve every day," said Easton, adding that "using data to solve that problem was important to us."

The company is also relying on data to improve scheduling and fulfillment.

"So how do we use the data that we have to be better at all things? Trying to improve productivity drove us to AI and machine learnings," said Easton.

AI and the loyalty connection

Using AI for data collection is proving beneficial for Jason's Deli and the brand's quest to boost loyalty and drive customer engagement.

"For us it's all about getting our customer data and being able to act on it," said Prasanson. Initially the company only had data relating to online catering customers and offered loyalty rewards to online customers.

"So we looked at that and said how do we capture the information for all of the channels and utilize it and make it actionable," she said. The company then teamed up with loyalty provider Punchh.

"They have an AI piece in that system that we're very excited about using," she said, adding the company is also evaluating the use of AI voice given and solving challenges such as the labor shortage.