Editor’s Note: This article is part of Food On Demand’s Summer Series, where the editorial team explores a different topic each month. August’s focus is Tech
Ryan Jones, Vice President of TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants, which operates owns and operates Olga’s Kitchen
Lessons.
AI and new technology continue to reshape restaurant operations. Two restaurant technology leaders say success isn’t about adopting every new tool. It’s about solving business problems, simplifying operations and supporting employees.
Food On Demand asked Chris Harrison, chief technology officer at Another Broken Egg Cafe, and Ryan P. Jones, vice president and brand leader at Olga’s Kitchen, to share the technology lessons that continue to guide their decisions.
Technology should solve business problems
One conversation early in Harrison’s career changed how he thinks about technology.
“If you can’t translate all those ones and zeros into dollars and cents and create a business impact around that technology, it’ll never get off the ground,” Harrison said. “That actually influences every interaction I have with my leadership team, with my vendor partners. We’re not building tech just for tech’s sake. We’re building it for the business’s sake.”
Jones shared a similar approach, measuring technology by the value it creates.
Chris Harrison, Chief Technology Officer at Another Broken Egg Cafe
“The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that technology only creates value if it makes life easier for our team members or better for our guests,” Jones said. “I’ve seen restaurants chase the newest platform or the latest trend, only to create more complexity in the operation. Today, I evaluate every technology decision through a simple lens. Does it make the experience simpler, faster or more consistent? If it doesn’t, it probably isn’t worth doing. Technology should support great hospitality, not replace it.”
Tech stack should be connected
Both leaders said operators should focus on making sure their tech stack is connected before adding more software.
For Harrison, one of the biggest challenges is the disconnect between systems.
“We have too many systems; the operators in the store have to log into 15 different things to get to the piece of information that they need,” Harrison said. “My piece of advice … is simplify. It’s all about simplicity. Let’s get back to the core systems that you need to actually serve those guests, prepare the best food in the market and sell it. Then we can add on … the value-add pieces that actually bring more (and) better decision-making tools to bear. But at the end of the day, focus on the core of the tech stack and get the right foundation pieces in place.”
Jones argued integration matters more than adding another platform.
“My advice is to build an ecosystem, not a collection of tools,” Jones said. “One of the biggest mistakes operators make is buying best-in-class solutions that don’t communicate with each other. The real value comes when your POS, loyalty, online ordering, CRM, delivery partners, marketing and analytics all work together to create one connected guest experience. … A smaller, connected tech stack will almost always outperform a larger, disconnected one.”
Start with the business need
Both leaders said AI works best when it solves a specific business need.
Harrison suggested restaurants should identify a need before choosing the tool to address it.
“It’s just making sure that the need is identified first before you actually go try to select the tool,” Harrison said. “If you go tool-first, you wind up with a bunch of stuff that gets partially integrated (or) doesn’t get the value that you were sold on the way in. So, start with the use case and then look for the right tool to fit it.”
At Olga’s Kitchen, Jones said AI is already being used across marketing, analytics and internal operations.
“We’re already seeing meaningful impact across several areas of the business,” Jones said. “On the marketing side, we’re using AI to deliver personalized offers based on guest behavior instead of sending the same promotion to everyone. That allows us to drive more incremental visits while protecting margins. AI is also helping us analyze guest data much faster, identify trends we might have otherwise missed and make smarter decisions around marketing investment and guest engagement.”
He said AI has become a productivity tool for employees.
“Internally, AI has become a productivity tool,” Jones said. “It helps us develop communications, analyze performance, build presentations, and accelerate planning. It allows our team to spend less time creating information and more time acting on it. Most importantly, we’re using AI to help our people make better decisions, not to replace the human element that makes hospitality special.”
AI should improve decision making
Looking ahead, both leaders see AI’s biggest opportunity in helping operators make better decisions.
For Harrison, that starts with quality data.
“It is (about) productivity, but decision making (is critical) —making sure that the data that any of the AI tools or the AI infrastructure that a brand puts in place (is) looking at the right data so that it’s not feeding garbage into the executives and the operation management decision-making processes,” he said. “Once you get to that point, (the next steps are) just making sure that it is providing those insights super aligned to the business’s needs.”
Jones expected AI use cases for restaurant operations to become even more proactive.
“I think we’re moving from systems that tell us what happened to systems that tell us what to do next,” Jones said. “Restaurants generate an incredible amount of data, but operators don’t need more dashboards. They need better decisions. AI will increasingly connect sales, labor, inventory, guest behavior, weather, local events, marketing, and loyalty to proactively recommend actions before problems occur.”
He said the technology will ultimately give restaurant leaders more time to focus on employees and guests.
“Operationally, I believe AI will become a true assistant for restaurant leaders by identifying opportunities, surfacing risks, automating administrative work and giving managers more time to focus on their teams and guests,” Jones said. …”The future of AI isn’t replacing hospitality. It’s giving operators more time to deliver it.”
