One of the things I enjoy at GBQ is having an opportunity to sit down with client leadership and our accountants and talk about business. The most productive conversations are when a client’s IT leadership is involved. The intimate relationship we build as we empower growth from an accounting perspective gives us insight that makes these conversations business-focused rather than a bunch of “geek speak.”
Earlier this year, in one of these discovery sessions, an audit client’s CFO invited his team leaders as well as IT leadership for a discovery meeting with his GBQ audit partner and me. As we talked through their business issues and their technology stack, someone said, “Do you think we need an AI guy?
Why Restaurants Are Leaning Into AI
Restaurants are leaning into AI, as are other businesses driven by a need to find solutions that help with tight margins, a tough labor market, and increasingly changing customer expectations.
Deloitte’s State of AI in Restaurants Survey (375 executives across 11 countries, fielded Q4 2024) shows most restaurant leaders plan to increase AI investment to elevate the customer experience, streamline operations, and drive loyalty and supply chain performance. They report strong traction in customer-facing tools (e.g., Chatbots, recommendations, voice ordering, and inventory optimization), with plans for loyalty programs, workforce tools, and pilots in food preparation and product development. According to the study, the pull to adopt stems from visible ROI in faster, more personalized service, margin protection through forecasting and waste reduction, and competitive pressure to modernize, despite readiness gaps in talent and governance that many are now working to close.
Source: Deloitte Insights, “How AI is revolutionizing restaurants,” State of AI in Restaurants Survey. AI in restaurants | Deloitte Insights
As you can imagine, the Deloitte sample leaned heavily toward larger restaurants. Smaller restaurants have the same challenges, of course, if not the resources to build all those things. Is it as simple as hiring an “AI guy”?
The “AI Guy” Trap
Restaurant operators do not need “an AI guy.” They need a clear plan that ties AI to real restaurant problems, built on good data, simple guardrails, and quick wins that staff embrace. And they need to include training and change management to help nurture the staff to embrace these tools.
Operators that start with real measurable business problems, such as (speed of service, order accuracy, food cost, repeat visits), beat those that “pilot a model” with no target outcome.
Before Jumping In: Four SMART Questions To Ask Instead Of “Do We Get An AI Guy?”
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- What will make team members more productive in the tools they already use every shift (POS, KDS, scheduling, and staff communications), and how will that improve speed of service, accuracy, and guest satisfaction?
- Which AI capabilities already exist in current systems (POS, loyalty/CRM, workforce apps), and how can they be safely enabled with clear governance, permissions, and review workflows?
- Which business problems matter most right now, and do they require AI or automation, or just process improvement, and should they be built or bought?
- Where do home‑office teams need help being more productive on core business issues, marketing, HR, finance, accounting, facilities, and IT?
Only one of those questions uses “AI” because the answer to the other three questions may not include AI. Improved training, change management, automation, data architecture, or office suite licensing may solve problems without bringing AI into the mix.
That said, AI does have a role to play in certain business problems. What are your problems?
GBQ’s AI Readiness Framework, Tailored For Operators
GBQ Business Technology Solutions has built a practical framework to make AI work within real constraints: starting with business problems, fixing data basics, mapping what’s already in the stack to solve the problem outright or provide the platform for AI, preparing people and process, adding governance, and rolling out a 90‑day pilot with clear KPIs.
GBQ’s framework, applied through a workshop with you and your leadership, will address topics like these depending on your circumstances:
- Business problem clarity: Define outcomes like reducing drive‑thru times by 10 seconds, cutting waste by 2 points, or lifting loyalty redemptions by 15%, then pick use cases that move those numbers.
- Data quality and plumbing: Connect POS, inventory, labor, and loyalty; clean duplicates; align consent and retention so models and automations do not “learn” from bad data.
- Tech stack assessment: Inventory embedded features in existing vendors before buying new; many operators already pay for AI they are not using.
- People and process: Train managers and crews, define how AI fits into standard operating procedures, and create fast feedback loops to catch mistakes and improve prompts or rules.
- Governance and risk: Set lightweight rules for use, approval, data handling, and incident response – enough to be safe without slowing the line.
- Pilot and scale: Time‑box pilots to 90 days, measure weekly, and decide to scale, iterate, or sunset – no endless experiments.
What GBQ’s AI & Automation Readiness Workshop Delivers
For restaurants, the workshop is a fast, hands‑on way to get from curiosity to action using the tools already in place, with outputs leadership can share across the brand.
- Current ecosystem assessment: A clear map of which existing platforms include AI or automation and where they can be safely enabled.
- Opportunity map: A prioritized list of use cases tied to workflows (for example, voice ordering, demand forecasting, labor optimization, loyalty targeting), ranked by impact and feasibility.
- AI roadmap: Concrete steps with owners, timelines, and key performance indicators to get from a pilot to a sustainable rollout.
- Executive summary deck: Board‑ready deliverables for internal alignment and approvals.
Get Started In Five Steps
- Pick one or two high‑impact pilots with baselines and 90‑day goals (think drive‑thru voice or demand forecasting).
- Confirm data feeds from POS, inventory, labor, and loyalty; fix the obvious quality issues up front.
- Validate integrations and service level agreements; insist on export paths to avoid lock‑in.
- Stand up lightweight governance: who approves, who monitors, how to roll back, what to log.
- Train managers and frontline teams with job‑specific standard operating procedures, quick guides, and an escalation path; review KPIs weekly.
GBQ’s Business Technology Solutions solves business problems with people, processes, and technology. Much of the AI buzz is hype. We cut through it, assess readiness, and help clients adopt AI and automation in ways that create measurable business value. Reach out to me or your GBQ accounting partner to schedule a discovery meeting.
By Doug Davidson, CISA, Director, Business Technology Services
