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I spent a few days at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago recording live conversations with restaurant operators, founders, marketers, technologists and leaders from all over the industry for my Restaurants Grow Podcast.

And I learned a lot that you are going to want to hear about ...

First off, I’m incredibly grateful to the Show for bringing me out there to do it and even more grateful to these incredible people for sharing their thoughts.

And after all the conversations, demos, products and walking roughly 700 miles through McCormick Place… one thing became really clear to me:

We are in a seismic shift of labor, costs and AI-driven solutions that has most operators stuck in constant whack-a-mole mode between what’s currently on fire, what we’re trying to stop from ignition and proactively learning how to fireproof the business before the next problem hits.

Here’s the recap!

Is There an AI to Manage All of My AI?

It feels like there’s an AI solution for almost everything right now. Every platform has AI, every tool promises optimization and a lot of them are starting to overlap. Operators are trying to figure out what actually creates value, what integrates cleanly into the business and what’s just more noise competing for attention. Amanda Kahalehoe said something during our conversation that really stuck with me:

“Operators are being hit from every direction with AI.” - Amanda Kahalehoe, COO, Vicious Biscuit

The challenge now is figuring out what’s genuinely going to help and how to actually use it

What’s Working in AI Right Now?

The operators getting the most value from AI right now are using it to remove friction, save time and simplify repetitive operational tasks.

Practical use cases:

  • AI phone answering and order taking

  • AI-assisted scheduling and labor forecasting

  • AI onboarding and training systems

  • AI knowledge bases for recipes, ingredients and operational procedures

  • AI-powered guest behavior and retention analysis

  • AI-assisted marketing workflows and campaign ideation

  • AI reporting and faster operational analysis

  • AI tools that reduce repetitive admin work and give operators time back

“We’re increasing average order value by 18% because we answer every single call.” — Christian Wiens , Founder & CEO, Loman.AI

“If I have clean data, being able to get to that data to make better business decisions is the way that I see it.” — Jeremy Julian , Co-Founder, CBS NorthStar

Personalization Starts With Understanding

Restaurants are starting to better understand guest behavior patterns. The smartest operators are paying closer attention to onboarding journeys, visit frequency, product affinity and what actually creates repeat behavior. AI and modern data tools are making it easier to spot those patterns faster and act on them quicker, all with the goal of getting closer to true one-to-one personalized marketing.

If you can identify patterns of habituality, including which products and actions create repeat behavior, you can use that information to power the right message to the right guest at the right time.

“We track your journeys with us from visit one through five. We call that onboarding.”— 🥪 Deric Rosenbaum, President, Groucho’s Deli

“We’re marketing based on what people have tried and what they haven’t tried.” — Alex Jano , VP of Marketing, Bubbakoo’s Burritos

Labor: Where AI Is Working Right Now

Successful restaurants are already leveraging and deploying AI to better train, manage and retain labor. The best operators are using AI to support teams, improve consistency and reduce operational friction.

“We’re looking at how we use our systems to help cashiers and cooks navigate while balancing both our dining room load and our drive-through load in a way where both sets of guests are happy.” — John Lucas , Vice President of Brand and Franchise Development, Farmer Boys

Here are some of the ways AI is helping right now:

  • AI-powered onboarding and training systems

  • AI scheduling and labor forecasting

  • AI phone answering and order taking

  • AI knowledge bases for recipes and operational procedures

  • AI tools that reduce repetitive administrative work

  • AI-assisted reporting and operational analysis

  • AI systems that help leaner teams operate more efficiently

“AI is being very helpful right now for routine tasks, automating minutia that then amplifies and allows hospitality folks to be hospitable.” — Anthony Presley Founder, TimeForge and Chief Product Officer, CBS NorthStar

Successful Restaurants Are Focusing on Focusing

The smartest operators are identifying, prioritizing and improving the areas that create the biggest operational impact for their business.

The best leaders are asking:

  • Does this save time?

  • Does this improve the guest experience?

  • Does this improve the team member experience?

  • Does this help profitability?

  • Does this solve a real problem without creating new ones?

"I think that every restaurant owner on the planet only has one issue and it's money. And once you solve that, everything else seems to work itself out because you can throw that money at the solutions."— Josh Kopel , Restaurateur & Hospitality Strategist

If you were at the National Restaurant Association Show, what insights or inspiration did you leave with?

And if you want to go deeper on all of this right now, listen to the replay of the full live broadcast.

There’s a lot more depth, nuance and perspective from these incredible operators, founders, marketers and technologists than I could fit into one article.

And make sure you put the Show on your calendar.

The 2027 National Restaurant Association Show takes place May 22–25, 2027 at McCormick Place in Chicago.

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Need help building or speeding up your restaurant marketing system?

Send me an email at [email protected]

WHAT DOES REV DO?

✓ I help restaurants build guest marketing programs

✓ I help hospitality tech companies with lead generation and content marketing

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