Have you ever wondered what it would be like to use AI in a restaurant?
The restaurant industry is constantly evolving, and AI is at the heart of the latest wave of innovation. Powerful Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are no longer reserved for tech companies; they’re becoming valuable tools across industries, including food and beverage.
So, how exactly can ChatGPT support restaurants and F&B concepts? What role can it play in daily operations, marketing, guest service, and data analysis?
In this article, we’ll explore 10 creative ways restaurants can use ChatGPT to streamline operations and elevate the dining experience. We'll also share practical prompt examples to spark your ideas and get you started right away!
Efficient reservation and waitlist management
One of the most impactful ways restaurants can use ChatGPT is to streamline reservations and manage guest waitlists.
By integrating ChatGPT into your existing reservation system (via third-party platforms or custom APIs), you can automate availability checks, send booking confirmations and reminders, and even manage real-time waitlist updates.
This helps reduce guest wait times, improve table turnover, and minimize no-shows, creating a smoother dining experience.
One of the most popular reservation management-ChatGPT integrations is OpenTable.
Prompt examples:
I’m looking for a restaurant that serves seafood, chicken, and pasta dishes in New York/Dubai. What would you recommend?
Book a table for 4 for dinner on Monday at 8 pm. We’d like indoor seating with a good view.
Further reading: 11 Reasons Why You Need a Restaurant Reservation Management System
Personalized menu ideas, recommendations, and upselling
Guests are always looking for personalized dining experiences. ChatGPT can support your team with intelligent menu suggestions that drive revenue and delight guests.
From recommending high-margin desserts to crafting personalized menus based on guest preferences, ChatGPT can help you increase important restaurant metrics such as average check size.
You can also use it to increase upselling and cross-selling opportunities.
While deeper personalization requires integration with your CRM or POS, even standalone, ChatGPT is a powerful tool for upselling and training your team to do it better.
Prompt examples:
Suggest wines that pair well with the grilled salmon.
What are the most popular desserts after a seafood lunch/dinner?
What are popular desserts with a high profit margin for a restaurant?
Automated customer service & FAQs with ChatGPT for Restaurants
You can use a ChatGPT-powered chatbot to reduce your staff’s workload by answering common guest queries and frequently asked questions (FAQs). It can respond to questions about hours of operation, available locations, contact information, or even basic menu information, among others.
You can also use it to communicate your reservation, cancellation, and no-show policies.
By acting as a 24/7 virtual assistant, ChatGPT helps you deliver faster responses and better customer service.
If your restaurant has a website, you can add a ChatGPT-powered chatbot to instantly answer guest questions, promote seasonal specials, guide users to your reservation link and even help you gather common questions into a structured FAQ page, all while helping you increase online direct bookings.
Prompt examples:
What are your opening hours on public holidays?
Does [restaurant name] have gluten-free menu items/pasta options?
Does [restaurant name] have a no-show policy?
How can I make a reservation at [restaurant name]?
Can I get a link to [restaurant name’s] menu?
ChatGPT for restaurants: Marketing and content creation
One of the most popular ways restaurant operators are using ChatGPT and other LLMs is with marketing and content creation.
It can help you create engaging copy for various marketing channels including social media, SMS, email, and others.
From helping you create your restaurant’s marketing strategy to helping you create personalized WhatsApp messages, personalized restaurant email campaigns among others. The ideas and opportunities are endless.
ChatGPT will help you save time, speed up marketing content creation, ensure a consistent brand voice, and generate fresh content ideas.
However, when using ChatGPT for restaurant content creation, we highly recommend reviewing the content for clarity and tonality.
Prompt examples:
Create a social media post (or several social media posts) about an upcoming menu featuring [add dish names]. The posts will be used for Instagram.
Create a social post promoting a special fixed-price menu offering of [add offer details.]
Write 3 Instagram captions for our new summer cocktail menu.
Creative menu development and description generation
Another creative way to use ChatGPT in your restaurant is for developing menu items and crafting compelling descriptions.
Menu descriptions need to be concise and enticing for guests. It’s a tricky formula.
You can use ChatGPT to help chefs brainstorm new dishes and craft appealing descriptions. It can also provide menu item ideas based on ingredients, cuisines, dietary trends or restrictions.
Prompt examples:
Generate ideas for gluten free desserts for an [Italian/Cuisine type] restaurant.
Create a description for a new vegan burger made with black beans and avocado
How can we recreate the [Oreo Madness] dessert for diabetics?
Describe this [menu item] for restaurant guests. It includes [add ingredients.]
Guest feedback and analysis
Use ChatGPT to efficiently manage customer reviews and feedback across platforms. You can also use it to analyze sentiment in reviews and identify recurring themes for improvement.
Ask ChatGPT to draft polite and professional responses to guest reviews via popular restaurant review websites.
This will help you improve your online reputation, increase responsiveness, address customer concerns quickly, and collect valuable insights to improve service quality and offerings.
Prompt examples:
Draft a polite response to a Yelp review complaining about slow service during peak hours.
Draft a response to the following customer review [add review]. Make the guest feel welcome to revisit [restaurant name] in the future.
Further reading: Automated Restaurant Guest Surveys: All You Need to Know
Offer multilingual support for guests
Break down language barriers to serve a broader customer base. Ask ChatGPT to provide instant translation for inquiries and responses, making your restaurant accessible to non-native speakers.
This strategy allows your restaurant to expand its customer reach, offer an inclusive dining experience, and enhance global appeal.
Prompt examples:
Translate 'Welcome to our restaurant! How can I assist you?' into French, Spanish, and Arabic.
Translate our Arabic menu into English.
*Note, with translation, try to get a native speaker to review the result to avoid mistakes, mistranslations, and pitfalls.
Further reading: 15 Tips for managing multi-location restaurants
Improve internal staff training
Staff training is important. They help you ensure seamless operations between your front-of-house and back-of-house, reduce friction, and enhance the guest satisfaction.
You can train ChatGPT on your restaurant policies, menus, recipes, and emergency procedures, serving as an instant reference for staff questions.
You can then use ChatGPT to create an accessible resource for employee queries and training. Staff can also use your restaurant’s ChatGPT account to access the information in the employee handbook.
This ensures faster staff onboarding, ensures everyone receives the same information, and reduces reliance on managers for basic queries.
Prompt examples:
Explain the ingredients in our classic Margherita pizza to a new server.
Clarify front-of-house duties in [restaurant name] for new waiters/team members.
Further reading: Top Restaurant Terms and Lingo for the F&B Industry in 2025
Writing restaurant policies
Earlier, we mentioned how ChatGPT can act as a chatbot to communicate your restaurant policies. But what if those policies aren’t clearly written yet?
You can use ChatGPT to help you draft or refine essential policies, such as collecting reservation deposits, cancellation or no-show fees and more. This ensures your messaging is clear, professional, and easy for both staff and guests to understand.
Having well-framed policies in place not only reduces confusion but also builds trust and protects your business.
Prompt examples:
Create a restaurant no-show policy indicating that guests can cancel without incurring fees up to 48 hours before their reservation.
Create a restaurant cancellation policy that includes [mention requirements or policies].
Data-driven business insights
Analyze operational data to make informed business decisions. Let ChatGPT sift through sales data, customer preferences, and seasonal trends to identify popular dishes, or identify areas for operational improvement.
This can help you optimize inventory, enhance pricing strategies, and improve business operations based on consumer behavior. It can support your menu engineering and design efforts, suggest popular food pairings, among others.
Prompt examples:
Analyze our sales data from the last quarter and identify our top 5 most profitable dishes.
Based on the sales data from the past 3 months, what are the most popular food and beverage combinations?
Using the above data, what are the most popular beverages ordered (apart from water)?
Wrapping it up
ChatGPT can be a powerful solution for restaurants, bars, and even entertainment venues. Helping you streamline operational efficiency and management and supporting your growth in your local restaurant industry.
That said, AI tools aren’t meant to replace your team members or human interaction, both of which are critical in the hospitality and restaurant industries.
However, they are designed to support and augment your team. Using AI tools like ChatGPT can help your staff focus on high-value human-focused operations like personal connections and guest relationships.
Review the above prompt examples and experiment with ChatGPT for your restaurant. Don’t want to use ChatGPT, you can use other LLMs like Gemini, Perplexity or Claude.
Nada Sobhi
Operations
