Chili's, under CEO Kelli Hochman, is deliberately avoiding an "all-in" approach to AI, instead focusing its technological investments on foundational infrastructure and kitchen automation. The company had previously experimented with robotics, including drone delivery and robot food runners, but found that robots were slower than human servers and did not lead to operational or traffic gains. Hochman stated in an August 24 earnings call that robot testing was being paused due to these inefficiencies.
Instead, Brinker International, Chili's parent company, is directing resources towards upgrading Wi-Fi and implementing customer-facing tablets, according to CIO Chris Caldwell. This strategy aligns with the company's recent success, showing a 4% increase in same-store sales growth, marking its 20th consecutive quarter of growth. This growth is attributed to a focus on fundamentals: quality food, quick service, and clean restaurants.
A key innovation for Chili's is a new high-tech grill capable of cooking and searing a medium steak in 3 minutes, significantly faster than traditional methods. This kitchen automation is projected to save the company $5 million to $6 million annually by reducing the number of steaks returned by customers due to incorrect cooking. This investment in proven, impactful kitchen technology is prioritized over speculative AI applications, which are currently seeing skyrocketing costs for "tokens" in the broader corporate landscape, with some companies exhausting annual AI budgets in months and only 18% of AI coding spend translating to shipped products.
