Historically, restaurants are slower to embrace innovative new technologies.
You may have played around with generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini (formerly Bard). The value you can get out of this tech is the user’s understanding of how to write decent prompts.
Whether you're new to generative AI or want to level up your prompting game, this guide is for you. We’ll dive into how tools like ChatGPT can provide value for restaurants. And to get you started, we share 20 practical prompts you can use right now.
The role of AI in modern restaurants Imagine a future where predictive analytics anticipate the rush hours. AI-powered voice and chatbots handle reservations seamlessly. Inventory management automatically reduces overall food costs. In truth, AI is making this a reality now.
AI's role in restaurants extends beyond these modern solutions. With more use cases emerging daily, this technology is about to change the industry.need help identifying and sourcing AI solutions that meet their unique needs.
Why ChatGPT for restaurants? ChatGPT is an AI tool capable of understanding and generating text and images via interactive, real-time responses to user prompts. This is just one type of generative AI tool, but principles that apply to ChatGPT apply to others like Google’s Gemini, Midjourney, Grammarly AI, and many more.
ChatGPT distinguishes itself as an adaptable, intelligent assistant on duty 24/7. It's not just its round-the-clock availability that makes it a reliable ally, but also its ability to learn, adapt, and provide consistent solutions to operators' diverse challenges.
Let’s take a look at several benefits tools like ChatGPT can provide restaurants:
Cost-effective : In general, AI in the restaurant should be an extension of your staff. Imagine having a team member who can tackle diverse tasks and responsibilities, from customer service to content creation, all while eliminating human staff errors and fatigue.Enhanced customer experience : Immediacy is the new standard in service, and ChatGPT ensures that inquiries and reservations get prompt responses, leading to customer gratification. At a minimum, you can utilize ChatGPT to rethink and craft better guest experiences .Operational efficiency : ChatGPT can help you solve operational challenges and improve existing processes. From creating staff training guides to quickly drafting replies to customer reviews, this tool can free up a ton of time and cognitive load. Innovative strategies : If you’ve ever sat in a brainstorming session with a large group, you know that a collective effort can change your perspective and force you to think differently. By simply asking a tool like ChatGPT to generate ideas, you can find innovative solutions to problems you might never have thought possible.Generative AI prompts for restaurants Prompt engineering will eventually become a skill many knowledge workers and other professionals must master. For now, we want to give you a bunch of prompts to get you started.
Many of the following are practical, but they’ll also help inspire other ways to prompt generative AI tools . Each prompt will include practical examples, a detailed scenario, and why they work.
Pro tip: It’s essential to think of these prompts as inspiration. The more context you include in your prompts, the better and more detailed the outputs will be. For all of these ideas, try to think about how you might rephrase or improve them for your circumstances.
Customer interaction If you want ideas on improving guest and customer interactions, generative AI tools can help you create accurate responses to queries about menus, reservations, and dietary needs. Additionally, it can reduce the time and effort spent responding to customers on review websites and social platforms.
Respond to online queries and messages Example: Responding to a customer with a complex request involving multiple food allergies.Prompt: "Generate a detailed, empathetic, and informative response to a customer asking if we can accommodate a dinner party with specific dietary restrictions."Why this works: This immediate reassurance can turn a query into a booking, promising a dining experience where guests feel understood and valued. Special attention to dietary needs is no longer a courtesy; it's a differentiator in customer service.Manage reservations Example: A couple celebrating their anniversary seeks to make a reservation, mentioning that they'd love a quiet table.Prompt: "Formulate a series of customized reservation confirmation templates that reflect our restaurant's brand voice and acknowledge our guest's specific preferences."Why this works: Beyond simply managing bookings, the templated yet personalized responses can inject warmth and recognition that may convert first-time guests into loyal patrons.Menu development Every restaurant takes a different approach to updating and improving its menus. If you’re looking for fresh ideas, innovative ingredients, or cuisine styles to experiment with, generative AI can spark your creativity.
Seasonal menu suggestions Example: You need a fresh menu to celebrate the autumn season. Envision introducing an autumn menu. ChatGPT integrates current food trends, client data, and seasonal availability to craft an enticing menu that balances innovation with comfort food, appealing to a broad customer base.Prompt: "Produce a creative brief for a seasonal menu that aligns with the latest foodie trends and includes items with wide appeal to our diverse clientele."Why this works: By incorporating current food trends and seasonal ingredients, you can craft an enticing menu that will encourage customers to return frequently to explore new offerings.Cost-effective recipe alternatives Example: Your restaurant's truffle pizza, a fan favorite, is becoming less profitable due to rising supply costs. Prompt: "Suggest cost-effective substitutes for [expensive ingredients] in our [signature dish]."Why this works: Restaurants often struggle with volatile ingredient prices. ChatGPT can suggest cost-effective alternatives to help identify fresh solutions to grow your restaurant sales without compromising quality.Marketing and promotions Generative AI tools can significantly enhance a restaurant's marketing efforts by automating content creation, such as social media posts, promotional emails, and personalized offers.
Social media content creation Example: You’re debuting a new pasta dish inspired by your executive chef's travels in Thailand.Prompt: "Design captivating social media posts that weave a narrative around our culinary journey, the provenance of our ingredients, and the inspiration behind our dishes."Why this works: Generative AI tools can create social posts detailing the dish's journey from conception to the plate. You can also use these tools to create engaging visuals. By making the dining experience more than a meal, guests can connect more deeply with your restaurant’s brand.Email marketing campaigns Example: You want to promote a new vegan-friendly menu with email. Prompt: "Create an email marketing sequence that teases the arrival of [our new menu], sharing glimpses of the creation process and luring guests to try the new dishes."Why this works: By capitalizing on the intrigue element, restaurants can pique curiosity and motivate loyal guests to taste the new menu.Feedback analysis If you’re in the habit of compiling guest feedback , consider how ChatGPT can analyze it to provide actionable insights. This enables you to optimize menu offerings, staffing levels , and service quality for enhanced efficiency and profitability.
Customer review summary Example: Some online reviews suggest customers love the ambiance but feel the service could be faster.Prompt: "Separate the essential feedback from the following online reviews and identify common trends and actionable insights."Why this works: First, try to compile feedback across review sites and other review collection methods. You can paste these reviews into ChatGPT to identify patterns. This enables you to find opportunities for staff training and operational efficiency optimizations.Menu feedback collection Example: After introducing a new fusion cuisine dish, you’d love to receive unbiased feedback from guests.Prompt: "Build a detailed customer survey to measure the liking of our new dishes and gather qualitative insights."Why this works: Instead of creating a survey yourself, ChatGPT can draft one for you that invites guests to share their impressions and make suggestions. The iterative review of feedback allows for optimizing the menu based on direct guest preferences.Review response generator Example: You get a ton of positive and constructive reviews, and you want to respond to as many as you can. Prompt: "Generate professional and empathetic responses to the following [positive or negative] online reviews."Why this works: Responding to reviews aids in reputation management by showing customers your dedication to their experience. Consider utilizing ChatGPT to create a review response template or generate unique responses to individual reviews. Operational efficiency Restaurant operators can leverage ChatGPT to streamline their operations by devising new workflows and creating better processes such as order taking, reservation management, and customer inquiries. This can help reduce staff workload and minimize human error.
Inventory management Example: Your busy restaurant needs a better system for tracking high-turnover ingredients to allow for better restocking practices. Prompt: "Develop an efficient inventory tracking system customized to our operational style and cuisine type."Why this works: Precision in inventory management helps circumvent wastage, save costs, and reduce the environmental footprint. Inventory management is complex, so consider purchasing software incorporating AI technology as a better use case than generative AI. Shift scheduling Example: You’re pretty good at scheduling your staff, but you feel there’s room for improvement. For a 24/7 diner with peak rushes during meal hours, Prompt: "Design a staff rota system that considers employee satisfaction alongside operational demands."Why this works: Using suitable prompts can help construct an equitable shift plan that evenly distributes work and considers each staff member's preferences and strengths. An optimal shift schedule can lift staff morale, reduce turnover and burnout, and ensure world-class service for guests.Training and onboarding Turnover is a real challenge for restaurants. As labor costs increase, giving your employees a proper training and onboarding experience can result in greater job satisfaction and maintain consistent service standards.
New employee onboarding guide Example: It’s been a while since you updated the old one, so you want to create a fresh onboarding guide for new employees.Prompt: "Compose an engaging onboarding manual that encapsulates our restaurant ethos and excellence in customer service."Why this works: Use ChatGPT to draft a guide that educates new recruits about your restaurant's values, service guidelines, and expectations, making the learning process engaging and meaningful. You can tweak it from there to match your standards and include crucial aspects.Customer service training scenarios Example: You want to take your training beyond your manual, so you’re interested in using roleplay exercises during pre-shift meetings .Prompt: "Simulate [#] diverse customer scenarios to hone my restaurant staff's adaptive service skills and guide their approach towards unusual customer requests or issues that might arise."Why this works: The better prepared the staff is, the more effectively they can handle unique scenarios that pop up. Since generative AI excels at coming up with many ideas in no time, aim for a higher number and whittle down your favorites.Health and safety Generative AI can serve as a helpful tool if you’re aiming to enhance health and safety standards. This is possible because things like ChatGPT provide access to modern guidelines and best practices. Always consult local laws and regulations just to be on the safe side.
Health protocol updates Example: When protocols change and local regulations go into effect, it’s crucial to inform your staff as soon as possible about these new rules. Prompt: "Review the current local health and safety protocols for food vendors and restaurants in [City/County/State]. Draft a staff training exercise for staff to learn these new rules. Also, create a document for staff to sign and acknowledge they’ve read the new material."Why this works: Swift adherence to health norms is critical for legal compliance and ensures guests feel safe and comfortable dining at the restaurant.Cleaning schedule creation Example: You need to devise a new cleaning schedule that keeps staff on their toes and ensures adherence to policy and procedures.Prompt: "Create a detailed cleaning regime that goes beyond local health codes and lays out best practices for maintaining a pristine restaurant."Why this works: A sparkling clean restaurant reassures guests about the hygiene standards and raises their overall perception of the establishment's professionalism and care.Financial analysis In our last use case category, restaurants can lean on generative AI to analyze financial data. From sales trends to cost management, specific prompts can yield insights and assist decision-making to enhance profitability.
Cost control strategies Example: Your restaurant is interested in sourcing more using in-season produce or ideas on how to save in purchasing costs with certain ingredients.Prompt: "Propose strategies for my [cuisine style] restaurant that optimize expenses without impacting quality, such as leveraging seasonal produce, bulk buying, proper storage practices, and waste management."Why this works: With thin profit margins, every cent saved can make a difference. Cost-saving strategies help strike a balance between profitability and quality.Break-even analysis Example: Before introducing an exotic but pricey ingredient, you need to determine how many dishes you need to sell to break even.Prompt: "Facilitate a break-even analysis for our new menu to gauge its financial feasibility based on projected sales and ingredient costs."Why this works: Informed decisions based on precise calculations ensure the restaurant avoids unnecessary financial setbacks and remains profitable. This will undoubtedly require some creative tweaking and adjustments. Essentially, you need to spoonfeed every possible aspect into your prompt to get the desired result.Exploring AI use cases with confidence AI has immense potential.
For restaurants, AI's transformative impact becomes more apparent. Whether helping manage inventory, creating captivating promotional content, managing incoming phone calls, or aiding in critical financial analysis, AI presents exciting opportunities.
In our AI in the restaurant industry study, nearly 94% of operators think AI technology will become necessary to remain competitive. However, that same study also revealed that less than one-third currently use AI in their operations.
The time to adopt these solutions is now. By starting with generative AI tools like ChatGPT, you can see the potential first-hand and begin your journey of AI exploration.
Want to see how voice AI can capture more revenue for your restaurant? Book a quick 10-minute demo to learn more about Slang.ai.
