I went to the New York Restaurant Show, Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit, Bar & Restaurant Expo and the Restaurant Leadership Conference… and everyone is talking about AI.
I walked across Manhattan the other day and saw AI-generated images on independent restaurants and food trucks on nearly every corner. You can’t miss them.
I went to my coffee shop (Caffe Barbaro) this morning and they were talking about AI. OK, I made that up. We actually talked about growing basil plants while sipping espresso.
But AI digress.
Everyone has access to AI tools. Every software vendor claims to have the magic AI button. Restaurant owners and operators are curious.
It doesn’t matter if you’re using an all-purpose tool like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, or an industry-specific platform. If it doesn’t understand your business, you, or your goals, you will struggle to use it successfully.
The premise “garbage in, garbage out” could not be more relevant here.
These tools need context. Who you are, what you do, and why it matters.
That’s why I wrote the he AI Playbook for Restaurants for operators to help show you the foundation you need to train these agents to actually assist. You can download that here
In the meantime, here are the two quick foundational frameworks that will help you leverage these tools better.
1. THOUGHT PARTNERS
AI will not solve your problems for you. But with the right framework, it will help you think through your ideas faster, backed by data.
Using AI to help you think through your ideas faster is the right mindset.
Take whatever agent you would like and start by teaching it about your business.
Have it analyze what it already knows about your brand using data available on the internet. Ask what people are saying about you. Upload your brand documents or About section. Tell it who you are, who you want to be, and what success looks like.
You are onboarding it to your brand.
This is the key step to using AI successfully. This is the core framework in the book.
This is what my Gemini assistant thinks it looks like
2. SENTIMENT ANALYSIS
Once, and only after, you’ve taken step one above, then do a deep dive on what guests are saying about your restaurant.
Inherently, Gemini will be better at this than ChatGPT or Claude because Gemini is owned by Google, which is where the majority of your reviews live, but any of the tools will work.
Copy and paste the text from your last 50–100 reviews (Google, Yelp, and internal feedback) into a single document or spreadsheet.
Prompt: "Analyze these restaurant reviews. Give me a bulleted list of the top 3 things guests love and the top 3 recurring complaints. Also, identify if there are specific patterns regarding service speed, food temperature, or atmosphere.”
You now know what’s working and what needs work.
You can use that to enhance and uplift operations, to know what to promote next on your social media or an email, and what to potentially do more of with your menu or service.
There’s a whole lot more you can do here, but these two steps are foundational.
Would you like some more playbooks and frameworks for AI or even just to get your restaurant marketing questions answered?
Join me at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago. It’s where restaurants go to learn, network, and discover what’s working and how to elevate their business.
I’ll be on stage twice Saturday, May 16 to kick off the show with two panels that will fast-forward your marketing efforts:
with Troy Hooper and Julie Wade, CFE
I’ll also be recording episodes of The Restaurants Grow Podcast live from the show floor. If you’re building something interesting in this space, send me a DM.
🎟 Use code REV26 to save $26 on your badge
If you’re going, let me know.
PS. Don’t forget to download the e-book to get started today.
Do you have any questions? Send me an email: [email protected]
— Rev Ciancio
WHAT DOES REV DO?
I help restaurants build guest marketing programs.
I help hospitality tech companies with lead generation and content marketing.
