Start in the back office
The temptation is to start with a guest-facing chatbot. Don't. The fastest, safest wins are behind the scenes:
- Supplier invoices — read automatically and posted for approval, cutting hours of Monday-morning keying.
- Weekly trading summaries — sales, labour and wastage pulled together with the anomalies flagged.
- Rota support — drafting rotas against forecast covers and flagging labour cost against sales.
- Allergen and menu documentation — consistent descriptions, staff briefing sheets and spec sheets drafted from recipes (always checked by a human).
Then help your guests
- Review responses drafted in your voice for Google and TripAdvisor — approved by a manager before posting.
- Event and group enquiries answered quickly with availability and packages.
- Website assistant for opening times, menus, dog-friendliness, parking and accessibility.
Marketing in minutes
Seasonal menus, quiz nights, live music, Sunday lunch — AI turns a few bullet points into social posts, newsletter copy and website updates. Give it examples of your best past posts so it learns your tone.
Get the foundations right
None of this works if the tills go down on a Saturday. Before investing in AI, make sure:
- Tills and card machines are on a separate network from guest Wi‑Fi
- Your main connection has a 4G/5G backup
- Every manager account has MFA
- Your phone lines and alarms are ready for the January 2027 landline switch-off
