Artificial intelligence is making its way into restaurant kitchens and back offices as operators look for ways to save time and improve efficiency.<\/p>\n
For Shy Bird co-owner Eli Feldman, the goal was never to replace workers.<\/p>\n
“At a very high level, it was, how do we amplify the work that the people are doing in the restaurants while also making it a little easier?” Feldman said.<\/p>\n
Restaurant operators often work with tight margins while spending hours on administrative tasks. Feldman believes AI can help.<\/p>\n
His answer is Colette, an AI-powered platform designed to help restaurants manage operations, improve communication and increase profitability.<\/p>\n
“Our team plus AI is going to be way better than just AI by itself, and hopefully incrementally better than just our team by themselves,” Feldman added.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNew AI tools from Google could change how parents manage their day, aiming to making mornings a lot less hectic.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
He said the technology can assist with tasks such as menu planning while leaving final decisions to chefs and managers.<\/p>\n
“We can ask Colette, ‘Hey, we want to do a summery watermelon and strawberry salad. What are we currently bringing in house that might make sense so we don\u2019t have to add more complexity by bringing more items in?’\u201d<\/p>\n
The platform can also forecast sales. Feldman said Colette recently projected daily sales of $12,500, then asked restaurant staff to weigh in, which he considers a very important component. The team estimated sales would reach $15,500, and the restaurant ultimately exceeded that figure.<\/p>\n
“Colette knows everything except what we know. It doesn\u2019t know the kilts that are walking through Fenway and the energy of Brookline Avenue right now,” he said.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tScotland won its first 2026 World Cup game at Boston Stadium on Saturday night, and thousands of the team’s supporters marched to Fenway Park on Sunday.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
About three dozen restaurants across the country currently use Colette, including locations operated by the Coda Restaurant Group in Boston and Cambridge.<\/p>\n
“In the short term, it\u2019s trying to tick off small 15-, 20-minute tasks,” said Ted Hawkins, managing partner of the Coda Restaurant Group.<\/p>\n
Hawkins said he does not view AI as a replacement for restaurant employees. Instead, he sees it as a tool that can reduce administrative burdens and help staff focus on guests.<\/p>\n
“If we can help make that back-office life a little bit more tenable, it can only make our product that we serve to guests that much better,” Hawkins said.<\/p>\n
Colette launched about two months ago, but Feldman believes the platform could eventually transform how restaurants operate. He envisions restaurants building their own AI agents and sharing them with others through the platform.<\/p>\n
“I do believe this is the most important industry in this country. We employ one in 10people in this country,\u201d he said. \u201cIf a lot of people are going to rely on this industry for their livelihood, we gotta figure out how to make it a little more profitable so it can provide for those people,” Feldman said.<\/p>\n
The platform’s name comes from Colette Tatou, the r\u00f4tisseur chef in Pixar’s “Ratatouille” who helps keep the kitchen running smoothly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Artificial intelligence is making its way into restaurant kitchens and back offices as operators look for ways to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,181,3046],"class_list":["post-77729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-boston","tag-food-drink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}