How to use AI in a restaurant: a practical guide to get started.

What does AI do in a restaurant?

AI is useful for the tasks someone on the team repeats every day, the same way. In a restaurant, the most common ones are:

• Answering WhatsApp. Opening hours, address, today’s menu, vegetarian options, whether you take bookings. The AI answers with the information the restaurant has entered and hands the chat to a person when the question goes beyond that.
• Confirming bookings. The day before, the customer gets a message to confirm or cancel. A cancelled table goes back on the list.
• Reading supplier invoices. You take a photo of the invoice and the program fills in the purchases spreadsheet with item, quantity and price. Someone only checks it.
• Asking for a Google review. A few hours after the visit or the delivery, the customer gets the review link.
• Counting foot traffic. An AI camera counts how many people come in per hour and alerts you when the checkout line grows, without identifying anyone.
• Summing up the week. Every Monday, a short text shows what sold most, the slowest day and what changed from the week before.

None of these tasks takes decisions away from the owner or the manager. Someone on the team checks what the AI prepared.

Start today, for free: WhatsApp Business

The WhatsApp Business app is free. Its replies are fixed texts that you write once. That already handles many repeated questions. Everything is in the Tools tab.

1. Fill in the profile. In Tools, Business profile, add the address, opening hours and the menu link.
2. Turn on the greeting. In Greeting message, switch it on and write a short text with your hours and the menu link. According to WhatsApp’s help center, it goes to people who write for the first time or after 14 days without a conversation.
3. Turn on the away message. In Away message, choose Outside of business hours. Say when you open and how to book.
4. Create quick replies. In Quick replies, save the texts you send all the time: address, payment methods, booking rules, delivery fee. You can save up to 50. In a chat, type / and pick the reply.
5. Use labels. Tag chats as Booking, Event or Supplier so you can find them quickly later.

The step-by-step with sample texts is in the article on automatic messages in WhatsApp Business.

Start today, for free: bookings, purchases and reviews

Bookings with Google Calendar

For small restaurants, Google Calendar has the appointment schedule booking page, which works with a personal Google account.

1. On a computer, open Google Calendar, click Create and then Appointment schedule. Google says you cannot create one in the phone app.
2. Give it a name, such as Table booking, and choose the length and the times when you take bookings.
3. In Maximum bookings per day, limit bookings to what the dining room can hold.
4. In the booking form, ask only for what you need. Name and email are already required. Add phone number and party size.
5. Save it and put the link in your WhatsApp booking quick reply.

Google sends a confirmation email and allows up to five email reminders.

Supplier invoices in a spreadsheet

1. Create a spreadsheet in Google Sheets with the columns Date, Supplier, Item, Quantity and Amount.
2. Create a folder in Google Drive called Supplier invoices.
3. When an invoice arrives, open the Google Drive app on your phone, tap + and then Scan. Save it to the folder.
4. Once a week, copy the invoices into the spreadsheet.

With the folder and the spreadsheet in order, reading the invoices can be handed to AI later. See the example of the spreadsheet that fills itself.

Reviews on Google Business Profile

1. On a computer, open your Business Profile. Google says the review QR code can only be created in a computer browser.
2. Click Read reviews and then Get more reviews.
3. Copy the link and save it as a WhatsApp quick reply. Print the QR code and leave it at the counter or on the tables.
4. Ask every customer, without offering anything in return.

More details in the article on Google Business Profile.

What needs care?

• Customer data. Name, phone number and email from a booking are personal data under the LGPD (Law 13.709/2018). Ask only for what you need, keep it somewhere password-protected and do not use the booking list to send promotions unless the customer agreed first. The article on LGPD on WhatsApp covers the precautions in customer chats.
• Reviews in exchange for freebies. Google’s help center says offering free products or discounts in exchange for reviews, rating changes or removal of negative reviews is prohibited. That includes the dessert on the house.
• Allergies and dietary restrictions. The AI can share the ingredients the restaurant has entered. When a customer mentions an allergy, the chat goes to a team member, who checks with the kitchen.
• Cameras in the dining room. Customer images are personal data too. Let people know the place is filmed and use the camera to count and alert, without recognizing faces. Facial recognition uses biometric data, which the law treats as sensitive data. See AI cameras for shops and restaurants.
• Promised results. No tool guarantees more customers or a higher rating. It takes repeated work off the team.

When is it worth going beyond the free tools?

The free app always sends the same text. It does not understand the question, check the calendar or take orders. Some signs show the restaurant needs more:

• WhatsApp piles up unanswered messages at lunchtime;
• bookings arrive through different places and someone copies everything by hand;
• supplier invoices sit in a drawer for weeks;
• you cannot tell which dish brought in the most money this month.

In these cases, AI connected to the official WhatsApp API, the spreadsheet and the restaurant system does the same tasks without fixed texts. Meta charges for the API per delivered message. Details are in restaurant management systems and digital menus and orders on WhatsApp.

To see where to start in your restaurant, take the free checkup. It takes three minutes and points to the three tasks where AI helps first.