Most restaurant chains are now using artificial intelligence or plan to soon, but few have seen it really move the needle yet.
That’s according to a new State of Digital report from tech supplier Qu, which surveyed nearly 170 limited-service brands about their use of AI and other technology.
More than half (51%) of those brands said they are currently investing in AI. Another 22% plan to start this year, and 10% are targeting next year. Seventeen percent said they have no plans to invest in AI.
Restaurants are using AI most frequently for marketing and personalization (53%), predictive analytics (40%) and voice ordering (39%), according to the report. Things like computer vision in the drive-thru and kitchen, meanwhile, are emerging, with 19% and 16% adoption, respectively. And a not-insignificant 13% said they’re using AI for dynamic menu pricing.
But among the approximately 85 chains that are using AI, only a handful (9%) said it’s had a meaningful impact yet. A third reported seeing “emerging value” from AI, while 43% said it’s had limited value so far.
This could partly reflect that brands are simply at different points in their journey with AI. It can take time to scale new tech across many locations, not to mention calculate the benefits.
But the report also suggests that a lack of integration and infrastructure may be hampering AI’s effectiveness. More than a third (37%) of brands surveyed said that fragmented systems and data are preventing them from getting the most out of their tech investments.
Most restaurant chains work with a combination of different tech vendors, and they do not always integrate well, if at all. This can lead to data sets that are disconnected from one another. But AI works best when it has a complete pool of data to draw upon.
For example, a brand might ask AI to come up with a menu-based promotion for customers that haven’t visited in a while. To develop a good offer, it would need access not only to the chain’s customer database but also its inventory to ensure that stores are stocked up for a potential rush.
“To effectively address the challenges surfaced in our 2025 report, restaurants need intelligent systems built on unified data,” Qu CEO Amir Hudda said in a statement. “Without that foundation, AI becomes another tool layered onto disconnected systems rather than a true growth engine.”
Many believe AI will be a transformative technology on the level of the internet or mobile phones, leading to major investments in AI across industries. On the restaurant side, tech suppliers are racing to develop their own AI tools. But for operators, it seems that it may take some time for the hype to translate into results.
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