In 2026, it’s hard to have a conversation about marketing without talking about AI.
AI-powered marketing solutions are getting more and more popular because of how effective they can be in delivering results — and the restaurant industry is no exception.
In this blog, we’re talking about how to use AI for restaurant marketing, from the benefits AI can offer you and your team to five distinct ways you can incorporate AI into your marketing efforts.
Let’s dive in!
The benefits of AI for restaurant marketing
Restaurant owners and operators are incredibly busy people, wearing a million different hats and juggling just as many competing tasks daily.
With such a jam-packed schedule, it can be easy for things like restaurant marketing to fall through the cracks — and that’s where AI comes in.
It can be a huge help to lean on AI for restaurant marketing, especially if you’ve got a small team, a lean marketing budget, or both.
Using AI for restaurant marketing can help you:
- Save time — AI can speed up the process for things like content creation and customer support, freeing you and your team up to focus on things that need a more human touch.
- Save money — AI can help you save money on outsourced marketing, especially since a lot of platforms have free trials or basic memberships that are perfect for smaller budgets.
- Save your energy — When you lean on AI for restaurant marketing, you have more energy (and mental bandwidth) to support your team and give your customers a top-notch experience.
But remember: Using AI for restaurant marketing is a good way to take some things off your already-full plate and boost efficiencies, but it’s not intended to replace your human staff.
It’s a tool, not a 1:1 replacement!
- For more on the benefits of restaurant AI (and insights from some really cool partnerships), check out this blog!
5 ways to use AI for restaurant marketing
Now that you know how AI can help your restaurant’s marketing efforts, here are five ways you can start using AI for restaurant marketing today.
1 — Content creation
The first way to use AI for restaurant marketing is for content creation.
You can lean on AI for a lot of content creation needs, from writing first drafts of social media captions and planning out blogs to generating content ideas and
AI can also help with higher-level content tasks like refining your brand messaging, which is how Asian Mint owner Nikky Phinyawatana started using AI at her restaurant.
“We serve food, but we need to stay up to date in every single part of running a business,” said Phinyawatana in an interview. “We are really honing in on using AI in our operation. We started using it [first] in our marketing messaging, [and now I task my team] to start figuring out new technology and systems.”
2 — Video creation
Video creation is another way you can use AI for restaurant marketing.
AI can help you generate video scripts for TikToks or Instagram Reels, edit your videos and add captions, or even pull out transcripts for YouTube videos or longer-form content.
Some restaurants, like Teriyaki Madness, have even experimented with generative AI for video creation and ad campaigns.
Teriyaki Madness created “a fully AI-generated ad campaign” through a partnership with Genre.ai, using generative AI to craft everything from the “actors and environments to the voiceovers and visual effects.”
3 — Customer engagement
Customer engagement presents another opportunity to use AI for restaurant marketing.
There are tons of AI-powered options to streamline the customer support process, like chatbots that answer FAQs instantly, or automated replies to customer reviews and inquiries.
Big restaurants like Pizza Hut have also experimented with AI-powered engagement.
During their March Madness sponsorship last year, Pizza Hut launched Hutty, an interactive chat experience supported by Meta AI. Users could chat with Hutty for game commentary, reactions to “buzzer-beater moments,” and even coupon codes that only Hutty could share.
- Check out this blog to see how AI has also been used for faster, better drive-thru service!
4 — Analytics and insights
Another way to use AI for restaurant marketing is for analytics and insights.
AI tools can help you analyze and better understand data from your POS, campaign performance, sales data, and even customer perception and review trends.
Hardee’s franchisee Boddie-Noell Enterprises, for example, uses AI analytics every day.
“[We] obtain roughly 39 to 40 million records of [transactional data] every day,” said David Gardner, Director of Analytics at Boddie-Noell. “We use [AI] to evaluate things like food costs, demand of menu items, efficiency, payroll and revenue.”
5 — Customer retention
Our final suggestion on using AI for restaurant marketing is for customer retention.
Loyalty or membership programs are a tried-and-true path to customer retention, but AI can take things to the next level with personalized, data-driven rewards and recommendations.
Over the past few years, brands like Wendy’s and Wingstop have experimented with AI loyalty to give them the competitive edge they need to retain customers.
“Our loyalty program will drive a one-to-one experience and unique access to the brand,” said Wingstop CEO Michael Skipworth. “The level of insights we have [plays] a big role.”
How to start using AI for restaurant marketing
If you’re ready to start using AI but aren’t sure where to begin, having the right prompts makes all the difference.
Our ChatGPT Marketing Prompts Guide is designed to help restaurant and cafe owners start using AI quickly and effectively, including:
- Simple tips to help you write stronger, more effective prompts in just one request.
- Copy-and-paste prompts to generate fresh content ideas in seconds.
- Ready-to-use prompts to help you create marketing materials like social posts, promotions, and outreach campaigns faster.
With the right prompts, you can spend less time figuring out what to ask AI — and more time putting great marketing into action.
FAQ
AI can be used in a ton of different ways, from automating orders and improving kitchen efficiencies to simplifying marketing and leveraging data-driven analytics. And, as tech continues to evolve, the ways AI can be used in restaurants will only grow!
Is there an AI tool for marketing?
There isn’t just one AI tool for marketing. There are tons! You can find AI tools for writing, advertising, influencer marketing, customer support, short-form videos… you name the area of marketing you need help with, and an AI tool probably exists!
