AI used by Chick-fil-A
- Miguel Virgen, PhD Student in Business
- Sep 2, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 26
The private for-profit company I decided to research and write about is Chick-fil-A. Although they do not offer any stock options to the public and they are a family owned private company and are still widely recognized as successful in the fast food industry that is also using AI tools in their operations. “One of Chick-fil-A's key implementations was the use of AI to determine the freshness of hot food items” (Zaytsev, 2023). Chick-fil-A, Inc. is a fast-food restaurant chain that has been recognized for its chicken sandwiches and convenient quick service. Chick-fil-A, Inc. According to the chains website, Chick-fil-A was founded in 1946 by S. Truett Cathy with their headquarters being located in Atlanta, Georgia. Although Chick-fil-A is a private fast food chain that does not have funding from the benefit of offering stock options to the public, they seem to be doing fairly well as they not only have over 2,800 restaurants around the U.S. but also have established a presence in Canada and Puerto Rico and continue to expand internationally (Chick-fil-A Website, 2024). Other than chicken sandwiches, the Chick-fil-A’s menu is also compromised of salads, nuggets, and breakfast options.
The fast food chain has an interesting business model as they utilize franchising to offer entrepreneurs the opportunity to own their own fast food restaurant with a proven success record and existing customer base from their brand recognition. Although they have a limited selection on their menu they seem to be one of the largest and most successful fast food restaurant chains in the U.S. as their customers continue to give positive reviews on surveys and they remain on customers minds when they think about a place to go for a chicken sandwich.
It was interesting to learn how AI is not just being utilized in professions such as healthcare, finance, engineering but also in fast food chains. It can be advantageous using technology to remind staff when it is time to discard food since as humans we can sometimes make mistakes and overlook food expiration dates or there may be an error when staff receives a new load of food and do not properly move the food so that the new arrival gets used after the current holding food inventory. Hence, utilizing the first-in-first-out method. “The company utilized AI to address quality and safety concerns, particularly in monitoring food freshness and detecting potential cases of foodborne illnesses.” (Zaytsev, 2023)
“the senior lead machine learning engineer, alongside other ML engineers, play strategic role in helping orchestrate the overall ML pipeline, making sure it’s resilient, reproducible, and scalable in order to ultimately optimize the data science lifecycle. At Chick-fil-A, ML engineers interface with business experts, data scientists and systems analysts.” (Dhinakaran, 2022). The restaurant chain takes pride in hiring staff members to be part of a dynamic team that is naturally curious with the desire to improve the restaurants operations through AI applications. Chick-fil-A is aware of the major impact AI will have in the future and is working hard to stay ahead of its competition by building smarter restaurants enhanced with technology to give its customers the best experience.
The company incorporates AI in their voice ordering machines, making this type of primary sub-field as Natural Language Processing. The function of their AI voice ordering machines provides a seamless transaction as customers drive into drive-thrus to place their orders to AI assistance rather than taking the labor away from real humans. In nontechnical terms, the AI used in drive-thrus is able to understand voice commands and send those details over to the staff in the kitchen where the order is then prepared and the machine can tell the customers what their total dollar amount is so they can make a payment.
Another AI primary sub-field that Chick-fil-A incorporates is Machine Learning (ML) through their analysis for inventory management. The function for ML in the fast food chain is to analyze past sales performance data in order to foresee the predicted demand for certain types of menu items. Hence, using AI to assist the restaurant in ordering the proper amount of food to keep in inventory to last until the next truck shipment arrives without ordering too much or too little food as food is a perishable item and precision is in inventory management is essential.
Chick-fil-A uses AI to its advantage in business operations to leverage technology in making the customer experience even better and efficient and reducing wait times. Chick-fil-A also leverages AI to be more accurate in there logistics operations when it comes to ordering food as will as discarding food that has gone bad to avoid food borne illness. Their voice ordering systems combined with logistics technology adds to the restaurants competitive advantage as they continue to scale and grow their company.
Zaytsev, A. (2023, October 7). Case Study: How Chick-fil-A is Pioneering AI in the Restaurant Industry. AIX | AI Expert Network.
https://aiexpert.network/case-study-how-chick-fil-a-is-pioneering-ai-in-the-restaurant-industry/#:~:text=One%20of%20Chick%2Dfil%2DA's,it's%20time%20to%20discard%20items.
Chick-fil-A Company Info. (2024). Chick-fil-A.
Dhinakaran, A. (2022, March 2). Chick-Fil-A’s Korri Jones: Rise of the ML engineer. Forbes.
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