5 Ways to Effectively Use AI for Restaurants

The restaurant industry has been seeing upgrades not just in terms of the food but also the kind of tech restaurateurs have been using. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is slowly becoming the go-to tool for restaurants, no matter their size or scale. While some businesses have been using it as their all-rounder marketing strategist, the restaurants currently turning heads have inculcated them for automations as well.

For the longest time, people have had misconceptions about the way AI would take over businesses. In the current context, it's more about how they support restaurant owners and not replace the human element of the industry. People are still a crucial part of the workings; that's why the tech is built to ease operations for employees and not the other way round. Systemizing processes and automations are some of the key areas business owners have been using AI. Tools like AI for forecasting and recommendations, scheduling, and voice ordering are some of the other popular areas.

Even when it comes to using AI at scale, smaller restaurant startups are not expected to adopt the technology instantly. The idea is to be vigilant about how it's impacting the Canadian restaurant industry and the trends to look out for. You aren't expected to choose between humans and technology but find the balance between the two.

Why Should You Use AI for Restaurants?

Tech is getting more and more adept at understanding humans and buyer psychology. It also has the ability to analyze, define, and apply data in real time so you can keep up with trends. Whether it's outsourcing analytics or marketing with the right amount of data, it can produce results quickly. In today's age when time is everything, with the use of AI, you can improve your turnaround time across departments.

In the last year, 1 in 4 businesses in Canada with over 100 employees use AI. And unlike other intimidating tech products, this one is easier to access. When it comes to Canadian restaurants, AI's major usage has been in the areas of data analytics, text analytics, virtual agents, or chatbots.

Today's consumers need you to understand and pre-empt their needs before they even enter your establishment. AI tools help you navigate those needs and create experiences that would ensure your customers keep returning to you. Here are some consumer statistics you should be aware of before you start investing in AI.

• 65% of quick-service consumers agreed that they preferred to order more food if it came with a bundled offer or a value meal. (Source)

• 40% of consumers are expecting more opportunities for spontaneous dining and experiential experiences in 2026. (Source)

• If the food is great, Canadian customers are willing to spend ~28 minutes in a queue as a walk-in. (Source)

• Gen Z consumers hold a lion's share when it comes to spending on eating out. (Source)

• There's an uptick in special occasion dining for 2026. Events like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and Father's Day especially have seen an increase year-on-year. (Source)

• There's a clear increase in the usage of online payment methods in Canadian restaurants. 51% of restaurants now use contactless payments, and 21% accept mobile payments. (Toast)

This means restaurant owners aren't outsourcing the core human tasks to AI. They're just facilitating smoother processes and quicker output. If you're still a newer restaurant startup, a good idea would be to stay on the look out for tools that you can actually adopt; not the ones that the big players in the market are using currently.

Top 5 Ways to Use AI for Restaurants

From marketing to order management, AI has been adapted for all kinds of tasks for your restaurant. Depending on your budget and team, you can implement it to create processes or train your staff. Here's how to harness AI in your restaurant and what some of the country's top operators are doing already.

1. Automate marketing campaigns

The current hospitality and other industries are influenced by marketing across offline and online channels. Everywhere you go, social media has made its way into the minds of your potential customers. So it is impossible to not pay heed to digital trends and marketing when a large portion of your audience spends their time there. When it comes to small businesses, they don't have the luxury of hiring a full in-house marketing team.

Now, with the advent of AI, there's a gap that's been reduced and made complete marketing campaigns possible with a single prompt. While the output you receive from AI still has to be polished, it gives smaller restaurant startups the chance to shine across platforms. They don't need to be adept at all the creative skills or have a content powerhouse under them; AI automations can support them while they're building from scratch.

That's where tools like Toast Marketing come in. They help restaurants build data-driven guest lists, write high-converting emails, and automatically send the right message at the right time. Toast's new AI-powered Marketing Assistant can even detect slow days and launch targeted cross-channel campaigns (email, SMS, social) to help boost traffic, no manual work required.

According to the Toast Consumer Preferences Survey 2025, 42% of Canadian diners say promotions influence where they choose to eat out, and 39% say personalized offers make them more likely to return. In fact, 27% of Canadian customers aim to use AI platforms like ChatGPT or Perplexity to discover newer restaurants and make reservations in 2026 (Source). All this to say, you've got to be present where your customers are. They need to know you're on your toes trying to find the best ways to support them.

As a starting point, you could create automated campaigns for birthdays, first visits, and VIP rewards. Let AI do the heavy lifting when it comes to writing the copy or sending it at just the right time. Just remember to check whether the messaging is up to your brand values and communication standards.

2. Optimize schedules and manage labour costs

In the current era of food and hospitality, labour is one of the biggest challenges for the Canadian hospitality industry. There is a clear imbalance between the expectations and the costs for the labour requirement in the industry. It doesn't mean processes have to be slowed down. The staff needs tangible support that can actually improve the quality of the processes within the establishment.

This is where AI-powered scheduling tools come into play. They help you analyze sales forecasts, historical patterns, and shift preferences to recommend efficient rotas. According to the Toast Voice of the Restaurant Industry Canada report, 33% of Canadian restaurateurs cite employee productivity as a top goal for 2025, while 28% want to use new tech to improve operations. To match up with the current demand, you could use AI scheduling software to cut down overtime costs, avoid understaffing, and give your team more balanced shifts. While this may not be the end all and be all, it's still a way to pacify your patrons and employees.

3. Inventory and wastage management

If you're a mid-sized restaurant, you really cannot afford to have any inventory go to waste. Every expense could've been a meal saved and costs reduced. With AI forecasting and predictive tools, you can monitor trends, understand demand, and even flag unusual patterns that could point to waste or theft. That's especially helpful for multi-location operators or restaurants with complex menus. When you have smarter inventory management tools, you're not just supporting your staff but also making your entire process more sustainable.

Less food goes to waste, and you can still deliver quality food without an added cost. This promotes cost-effective kitchen operations without burdening your staff further. According to the Toast Consumer Preferences Survey 2025, 57% of Canadian diners say they're more likely to support restaurants that show a commitment to sustainability.

If you're interested in starting small and figuring out how you can use AI for inventory management, try integrating your POS with AI-driven inventory tools. They help you track patterns in real-time and simplify ordering. For back of house, this means the orders are systemized and there are lesser chances of orders getting messed up. All the allergens and customizations directly appear in the order receipt, and your staff can take it from there. You still retain the humanness of the establishment while enhancing efficiency.

4. Improve customer service speed

Whether it's front of house or back of house, AI is changing the game everywhere. You don't have to keep scribbled tickets or yell across the restaurant to ensure a smoother flow. There are AI voice ordering and self-ordering kiosks for Gen Z and millennial customers who like taking more control of their orders. Your POS system can update your customers once it's ready. Even if it's a dining experience, they can still get an update on the progress of the food preparation.

Once the customer places an order through your AI systems, it goes directly to the kitchen and gets assigned to the staff member ready to pick up a new order. Nothing gets lost in translation because everything gets recorded: allergies, food customization, servings, etc. Your staff can directly look at those details and work from there. This helps in ensuring a smoother flow and better relations between the teams as well as ensuring they're not spending time over what was ordered vs. the final outcome.

At Gusto in Atlantic Canada, Toast's handheld POS and KDS (Kitchen Display System) helped cut ticket times by 40% and improved table turn by 30%. Let the customer order as soon as they're seated through customer self-service integrations and share an update at every step of the order.

5. Personalize your guest experiences

When you have a pulse on what your customers are loving, it's easier to tailor your services according to them. With AI forecasting and data analytics, you can understand guest preferences and buying behaviour instantly. According to the Toast Consumer Preferences Survey 2025, 39% of Canadian diners say personalized offers make them more likely to return to a restaurant. With AI, you can track who ordered what, when, and how often, then serve up relevant promotions and recommendations.

When you focus on making dining feel like an experience no matter the kind of restaurant establishment you're running, there are more chances of people returning. You can eventually create a customer loyalty program using AI to give more benefits to the customers who shop often from you. Thus, giving them an opportunity to explore more of your offerings. For example, you can use past purchase data and loyalty profiles to personalize digital receipts, menu items, or rewards.

The Way Forward for AI in Restaurants

Now that we've figured out the top ways to use and optimize AI for restaurants, it's also essential to understand that we're focusing on the long game here. An AI-first full-service POS system that handles orders, inventory, payment taking, etc. could speed up processes at your restaurant but human intervention and hand holding will still be needed. We're not at the stage yet where AI won't make any mistakes whatsoever. Which is why it's important to keep an eye out on what your fellow restaurateurs in Canada are up to.

Your usage of AI will change depending on whether you're a quick-service restaurant, a fast-food chain, or a fine-dining restaurant. When you look at the former two, where the focus is on efficiency and turnaround time, you can use AI to actually ease the load for the employees. This means allocating them tasks that truly need the human touch vs. the ones that can be automated. For example, you could outsource a small part of your marketing strategy to AI so it could create something depending on the historical data. But you would still need human intervention for recipe development.

Creating memorable experiences while keeping your costs low is a necessary requirement of the restaurant industry at the moment. In order to avoid any disruptions among employees or patrons, try integrating AI tools where it won't completely negatively affect the workings of your restaurant. The change should help everyone while making it seem like nothing has changed for your customers. And that can only be achieved through trial and error.

Related Resources

• The Impact of AI for Restaurants in Canada

• Best Android POS System in Canada

• How to Create Kitchen Opening and Closing Checklists

• 15 Promotion Ideas for Restaurants in Canada