Business World Stunned That a Restaurant Chain Is Doing Well Without Mindlessly Embracing AI

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Not immediately jumping on the AI bandwagon like everyone else is? It says something that Chili’s doing this— yes, the casual dining chain with the big red pepper logo — is being seen as shrewd decision making and not just common sense.

Chris Caldwell, the chief information officer at Chili’s owner Brinker International, emphasized in recent interviews how the company wasn’t “all in” on AI, and is instead focused on overhauling its tech in more practical ways.

“I’m not chasing AI to go, ‘Guys, Anthropic just released a new LLM, and we need to use it because it’s cool,’” he told Business Insider.

The ethos: any tech being deployed should be improving food service and atmosphere. Sound like a dig at AI, anyone?

Caldwell’s overhauls have been pretty mundane compared to the almost sci-fi sounding rhetoric coming out of the tech industry, which promises businesses that embracing its AI tools will magically optimize operations, supercharge productivity, and woo customers. He did stuff like buying thousands of new iPads to replace locations’ aging tablets, overhauled the chain’s WiFi network, bought a new laptop for every location’s manager, and implemented a new payment system.

He also ditched the company’s impractical experiments with using robot servers that began before he joined in 2024.

“If a robot’s getting in the way and not helping us deliver a great guest experience, we’re going to get rid of them,” Caldwell told the Wall Street Journal (did we mention that he’s clearly on a media blitz?)

Sara Senatore, senior restaurants analyst with Bank of America, sounded stunned at just how well Chili’s AI-agnostic tech overhaul has worked.

“The Chili’s turnaround has been nothing short of remarkable,” Senatore told the WSJ.

Needless to say, it’s bizarre that this is seen as newsworthy. Did anyone expect Chili’s to be on the cutting-edge of deploying AI in a business setting? 

Then again, plenty of restaurants have been swept up in the AI hype. Taco Bell was on the receiving end of loads of backlash for deploying a shoddy AI-powered drive-thru system. Starbucks scrapped an AI inventory management tool after it kept miscounting and mislabeling items. And one disgruntled Pizza Hut franchisee has sued the chain because the AI-powered kitchen management system that the chain mandated locations use allegedly caused it to lose over $100 million.

Forrester retail analyst Sucharita Kodali, calling for sanity in this age of AI boosterism, said she hasn’t seen any game-changing uses of generative AI in restaurants yet. Eateries instead “need to focus on the things that actually drive their business, like making sure they have good operations,” she told the WSJ.

More on AI: Sam Altman Says Even the Power of AI Will Never Lead to a Shorter Work Week

The post Business World Stunned That a Restaurant Chain Is Doing Well Without Mindlessly Embracing AI appeared first on Futurism.

IN the summer of 2019, I was seated in the wine cellar of a walled Medieval town high above the Dordogne Valley of France, not far from Sarlat-la-Canéda, making phone calls, writing reports. I have given this story in other places and it appears as though you’re about to hear it again. Rob Skiba is a name you that you might be familiar with. Though he had made a name for himself as a Nephilim researcher, more recently Rob had taken a dive into the deep end of the pool via flat earth research. The recorded interviews I conducted between he and Rick Hummer, a fellow flat earth investigator and close friend of his, was published while still occupying that very wine cellar. Read all about it. Chicago Is Not a Mirage.

Word quickly spread. Within a few short weeks, dozens of flat earth researchers began accepting my invite for a private interview, if not a series of interviews. From a 17th-century tower built by King Louis XIV, and with a stunning view of the Alps, I sat down with Robbie Davidson, founder of the Flat Earth International Conferences, conducting multiple sessions. While staying in Dumfries, Scotland, David Weiss agreed to take part in the interviews, as did Bob Knodel of Globebusters. There were others. But when I asked the interviewees to discuss the moments that shaped their lives, among the many PSYOPs, false flag attacks, and hoaxes that were discussed, only these men committed commentary to the false 9/11 narrative.

The resulting recordings ballooned into The Unexpected Cosmology, a book which became a website and was even intended as an anthology. And of course, the following discourse was originally a chapter. It was Walt Disney who stated, “Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.” Those sentiments remain applicable here as well. American Sensationalism: The 9/11 Interviews was always intended to be expanded upon with the inclusion of new researchers. So I’m sorry to say the project became stagnant during the Covid-19 psychodrama. I took a break to tackle other projects. We lost Rob Skiba. Rob offered hours of private conversation regarding his life but we never got around to the big one. 9/11. It was in the cards. Sadly, Bob Knodel died soon afterwards. Voices are being squeezed from an entire generation. Gnosis passes with them.

In the aftermath, the FE community became fractured. People began going their separate ways. Robbie Davidson, among a noted few others who were interviewed for the project, got up and left the movement altogether. It is not my intent to erase his or the contributions of others if only brief. They came, they went, their testimonies remain.

The original vision may have hit roadblocks but it is not forgotten. I expanded this paper a few years later to include testimony from author Pauly Hart, a dear friend of mine. I had wanted to continue that trend every year thereafter but you know how it goes. For the 25th anniversary of the attack I have redirected my efforts to its first large scale expansion, including Andrew Hoy and Darrin Geisinger into the mix. Perhaps others will lend their experiences to the recorder in time.

The following is their report.

Watch the Interviews