Exploring AI in My Restaurant—Ask Me Anything!

[OSP1]

My name is Eric, and I’m the owner of Old Scratch Pizza in Dayton, OH, and a Toast Customer Advisory Board member. AI has become a daily tool in our restaurant, helping with everything from employee communication and marketing to streamlining operations and reputation management. Tools like ChatGPT and Claude assist with writing, problem-solving, and automating tasks, saving time and effort.

I also use AI to extract deeper insights from Toast data, giving us answers to questions that were previously unavailable. If you’re curious about AI in restaurant management or reporting, I’m happy to share my experience—ask me anything!

[HearthpizzeriaB]

Hi Eric,
Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions! What level of trust do you put in the validity of AI analysis with programs like ChatGPT? As a followup, what do you do to double check the work of the AI to insure you are making decisions based on correct analysis rather than what from time to time is incorrect information from AI?

Best,

Brian

[OSP1]

Thanks for the question! I think about validation in two areas: data accuracy and factual correctness.

For data—typically spreadsheets and formulas—errors usually stem from how I structured my prompt. The great thing about AI is that it’s a conversation. If the output doesn’t seem right, I ask the system to check its own work or explain its reasoning. If I still see an issue, I refine the prompt and try again. One trick I use is asking, “What prompt can I use to get this result every time?”—this helps create reliable, repeatable queries. We’ve built prompts this way for weekly reporting, like analyzing fulfillment times in Toast.

For factual accuracy—especially research—I like using Perplexity.ai. It provides well-researched answers with direct source links, making it easier to verify information. AI is a great tool, but knowing how to validate its output ensures you’re making informed decisions. Hope that helps!

[Billmutschler]

What are some specific examples of operational tasks you are using AI to improve?

[OSP1]

We’re using AI in lots of ways to make operations and the business more efficient:

Order Fulfillment Analytics – We were having trouble getting a report out of Toast that would let us know how our restaurants compared against each other  in our order fulfillment times. We now export an Order Details report for multiple restaurants, which is a CSV file of over 8,000 lines, and upload it into GhatGPT. With a prompt we developed (let me know if you want to see an example of the prompt), ChatGPT will analyse the data and make a report and graph analyzing our fulfillment times for the prior week. We use this as part of our weekly manager review. I could have never done this without AI.

Marketing & Content Creation – AI speeds up social media, ad copy, and promotional content, keeping our messaging consistent. We have uploaded examples of our writing styles into ChatGPT and Claude, and the programs aid in the first drafts of social media content, email promotions, etc. It also helps us brainstorm ideas for content and promotions.

Survey Analysis & Customer Insights – We often do surveys of our customers and employees (often just with google forms). In the past we would have never been able to have decent analysis. Now we upload the results into AI platforms, and have amazing insights and feedback, including comparisons to industry standards.

Reputation Management - As I mentioned earlier, we have uploaded lots of examples of our writing and brand voice. We use this to quickly create responses to Google and Yelp reviews that are thoughtful and kind. 

Financial Analysis - One of the most interesting things to do is to take your financial data, like your P&L, and upload it into GhatGPT (or Claude, or Gemini, etc). Then, ask "Please perform an analysis of my financial statement. Compare my performance to other restaurants like mine. Make recommendations and actionable tasks for how I can improve problem areas. Ask me any questions necessary to improve your results". You will be amazed by the answers and recommendations! 

HR - We use it to quickly create first drafts of Job Descriptions, performance review forms, or any other HR tool that you might not have. 

Legal - I have even used it to help me negotiate a lease and to write a letter that helped get me out of a contract with a software vendor. 
I hope that helps. There are so many things. If you have a specific use case you are thinking of, let me know and I could point yo in the right direction.