16 Ways Restaurants Use AI Tools and ChatGPT to Work Faster and Smarter

You've probably seen many reports about how businesses are changing and adapting to new AI tools, particularly ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and image AI tools like Midjourney. 

To help your restaurant capitalize on new AI tools, start learning different ways tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney can help with running a restaurant.

You might be thinking about different ways to get started with AI restaurant tools, and the earlier you start experimenting and understanding how to get the most out of them, the more impactful to your restaurant they will be. 

Here are 16 uses for AI and ChatGPT at your restaurant to get the ideas flowing.

16 ways restaurants use AI tools and ChatGPT

1. Create new menu ideas

Put together original menu ideas that will help attract customers and keep them coming back for more. With ChatGPT, you can generate a bunch of innovative menu ideas by providing AI with some basic input about your restaurant. 

Add this AI prompt: “Provide a few menu ideas for a restaurant that serves [insert country or type of cuisine] Food, and create unique combinations and creative menu item names.

Pro tip: Mention the type of food you serve in your prompt, including ingredients or flavors you wish to incorporate, and then let it work its magic. ChatGPT can even suggest creative twists on traditional dishes and help you discover new trends.

2. Generate survey questions

Gather customer feedback to retain customers and differentiate your restaurant from other venues in your city. With ChatGPT you can help streamline the process of crafting survey questions based on your goals. 

Add this AI prompt: “Create a list of 10 questions for a survey that will be used to collect feedback from restaurant guests.”

Pro tip: Our example below features more of a general survey, but you should mention specific areas you wish to get feedback on in your prompt and see what it comes up with.

Access our prompt here.

3. Create responses for negative reviews

Provide consistent and thoughtful replies to online reviews to show your customers that their opinions matter and that you care about their experience.

With ChatGPT you can write engaging and empathetic responses, addressing both positive and negative feedback.

Add this AI prompt: “Suggest a short response to the following restaurant review, making sure it sounds polite and professional, and offering a few solutions to the guest’s issue:

[Insert the guest’s online complaint here]

Access our prompt here.

4. Quickly generate social media posts 

Whether you need an intriguing caption for an Instagram photo, a catchy tagline for a promotion, or a witty tweet to engage your followers, ChatGPT can suggest content that will optimize your social media marketing efforts.

Add this AI prompt: “Create a caption for a post for my restaurant’s “Cookery” business profile on Instagram. The post features an image of our latest Italian dish ‘pasta with meatballs’ which is part of our limited menu. Make it creative and provide a CTA for hungry customers. 

Pro tip: Make sure to break down the copy suggested by ChatGPT to fit the format for Instagram. For example, instead of pasting the copy in a paragraph format, have an eye-catching top line, and spacing between sentences.

Access our prompt here. 

5. Create email marketing headlines

Email marketing is extremely powerful, especially if restaurants are looking to create brand awareness and increase their ROI. Plus, a recent study revealed 83% of global consumers prefer emails when receiving communications from businesses. But, what if you don’t have time to come up with eye-catching headlines that stand out from the masses? Use ChatGPT to create email marketing headlines.  

Add this AI prompt: Create an email marketing headline for my latest campaign for loyal customers of my restaurant. Offer them a discount for loyalty. 

Pro tip: Provide the model with details about your target audience, the objective of the email, and any specific messaging or keywords you'd like to incorporate. 

Remember to consider factors like personalization, urgency, benefits, and creativity to create engaging email marketing headlines that resonate with your audience and don’t sound off.

To help you speed up the process, access our prompt here. 

6. Set up your Google business profile  

When it comes to making your restaurant more discoverable online, you need to set up a Google business profile. To help you get started a lot faster, the AIRPM plugin simplifies the process of creating Google Business profile content by using AI. 

By integrating the plugin, businesses access a wide range of functionalities and features, such as utilizing the plugin's library of over 2,600 pre-trained language models to generate engaging and informative content specifically tailored for their Google Business profiles. 

Pro tip: These articles are optimized for search engines and SEO, helping to improve online visibility and attract potential customers. The plugin ensures the content is plagiarism-free and high-quality, unlike the basic version of ChatGPT.

Click here to get started. 

7. Put together sommelier recommendations 

Not sure what wine goes with your top dishes? The sommelier.bot enhances the customer experience by providing personalized wine recommendations for any occasion. 

To use the wine pairing feature, you need to download the sommelier.bot add-on, and ask for a recommendation in the chat. ChatGPT will ask several questions to help personalize the recommendation.

View our example below: 

8. Design a new logo

Midjourney is a popular AI-powered image generator that can help bring your creative restaurant visions to life by crafting an original image based on your input. Let’s explore how:

When you provide the AI with some information about your restaurant’s theme, style, and other desired elements, Midjourney can act as a logo maker and suggest various designs that embody your vision. 

To generate a logo for your restaurant add this prompt to Midjourney: /image Pizzeria logo. Simple. Red. Use California bridge

From sleek and modern to rustic and vintage, Midjourney can come up with a range of options to help you find a design that reflects your restaurant’s identity. 

Here's a few suggestions for one of our own prompts:

9. Make new menu item images

Give customers a visual feel of the kind of culinary delights they can expect to see when visiting your restaurant.

Simply provide Midjourney with appropriate descriptions (see our general example below), and the AI will generate realistic and eye-catching images you can use to help promote your restaurant online.

10. Create interior design ideas

Midjourney can assist you in coming up with innovative interior design ideas that align with your restaurant’s theme and concept. All you have to do is provide the AI with details such as your desired color schemes or layout preferences, and Midjourney will suggest creative design concepts.

11. Translate content 

If you’re entering a new market, localizing your content can help you gain the trust of your target audience and guarantee that your messaging makes sense to them. For example, the term "doggie bag" will be perfectly appropriate for takeout in London, but it will be connected with dog excrement disposal in the United States, which is not a connotation we would expect you would want next to your food. Here's how you can get started:

Add this prompt to ChatGPT: Localize the following copy for [Insert country]: [Insert copy].

Pro tip: If possible, ask a local to read over the copy and provide you with feedback. It’s always good to know if you managed to get the grammar and lingo from a different language correct. 

12. Review feedback from guests 

You can apply AI techniques to analyze customer feedback and find patterns, advantages, and places for development. By studying the data, you can make sound decisions to improve the entire customer experience.

How should customer reviews be analyzed? Copy or download reviews from a particular time (for example, reviews from the previous month).

Add this prompt to ChatGPT or Bard: "Examine the feedback from my customers and identify the key patterns and areas for improvement. Here are my opinions: [Your opinions]"

13. Generate menu descriptions  

AI can produce intriguing and unique menu descriptions that emphasize the unique qualities of your food and increase its appeal to potential customers. 

You can do this by applying ChatGPT or other AI tools.

Add this AI prompt: Write a menu description for a menu item called “Pizza”. Keep it to 20 words.

14. Create targeted promotions

You can utilize AI to produce descriptions and graphics for promotions that will draw in new consumers. Create the promotion description using ChatGPT, and the picture using MidJourney. 

15. Build SMS/Email/Push campaigns

AI can play a significant role in assisting you to create and write compelling SMS, email, or push campaigns directed at your customers. Start by asking ChatGPT to craft a captivating SMS, email, or push campaign to update your customer about the most recent activities at your restaurant and exclusive offers. The prompt can also include your VIP dining preference from guest data you generated from your reservation and table management platform. 

Add this AI prompt: Write an SMS of 160 characters for our VIP guests who like to dine at the window, in our non-smoking area. Tell them about our new seafood menu and that they receive an exclusive offer of 50% off.

16. Turn your menu into a food delivery app

RestoGPT is a new AI-powered online ordering storefront builder for restaurants. You can use it to turn your menu into your own food delivery app. All you need to do is enter your restaurant details (name, website, address) and upload your digital menu. Your new storefront will be generated and sent to your email in approximately 2 hours.

Conclusion

In conclusion, ChatGPT and AI for restaurants can be fantastic tools to aid in the marketing of your business, and we have only just begun to explore their potential. AI is here to assist and it's here to stay—whether it's used to create captions for menu items, or restaurant logos. We're excited about how the conversation about ChatGPT, Bard, Midjourney, and AI develops. Watch this space. 

How does AI work in restaurants?

AI in restaurants can be used for various purposes, such as customer interactions, menu suggestions, staff scheduling, marketing automation, and analytics.