The hospitality industry for food and drink is a broad field underrepresented by the world of data. I recently had the opportunity to speak with business leaders of a UK restaurant chain and discuss the core opportunities for enhancing service through artificial intelligence.
The core of this discussion centred on :
Can we augment booking systems - there are always walk-ins to the restaurants and sometimes we don't know anything about these guests. Can we detect faces, patterns in payment or other features to recognise our anonymous best guests?
Can we understand our geography better - from opening new stores to understanding menu preferences across many geographies - can we do better with data?
Can we improve the supply chain and logistics of food so our restaurants always have the freshest and best quality ingredients in the right quantities for varying demand (ice cream on a hot day in Autumn)
The answer to each of these questions was a resounding yes. The restaurants of the future are data active and intelligent.
