AI’s influence on the restaurant industry is going all the way to the top.
The CAIO — that’s chief AI officer — is starting to pop up in restaurant C-suites as companies get more serious about AI.
McDonald’s became, as far as we can tell, the first restaurant chain with a CAIO when it hired Das Dasgupta as its global chief data analytics and AI officer last year.
Then last week, Wingstop announced that it too would be hiring a CAIO, though it did not say who. (The company had not responded to our question about this as of publication time.)
CAIOs are becoming more common in the corporate world. According to an IBM survey of 2,300 organizations last year, 26% said they had CAIOs, up from 11% in 2023.
And though the title is still rare in restaurants, that could be changing as companies look to level up on AI.
“Where it lives really depends on the company and what the board thinks and the CEO thinks, whether it's C-level, whether it's across functions,” said Sarah Lockyer, president of Elliot Leadership Institute, the professional development arm of the Elliot Group, an executive search firm. “But it is an extremely quickly growing need and skill set across senior executive levels.”
So what does a CAIO do, exactly? According to IBM’s research, the job boils down to two main objectives: drive AI strategy and accelerate AI adoption.
Most CAIOs control the company’s AI budget (61%) and report directly to the CEO (57%), IBM found. And they tend to be separate from the more familiar roles of CTO and CIO, who may work with the CAIO to carry out plans and ensure that the company’s IT infrastructure is up to the task.
Notably, IBM says that CAIOs tend to be best-suited for companies that are ready to scale AI beyond the testing stage.
“When it’s time to turn pilots into enterprise programs, someone needs to define a clear direction and keep teams focused on shared goals,” IBM wrote.
McDonald’s has made AI a key piece of its long-term plans, unveiling an AI-based operating system called ArchIQ in June that will include a test of voice AI in the drive-thru. In a Linkedin post last year, Dasgupta wrote that he will be focused on building a “scalable foundation for AI that helps our people do their best work.”
McDonald’s is one of many restaurant brands making an aggressive push into AI, along with Yum Brands, Starbucks, Burger King, and Inspire Brands, which in 2024 hired Yasir Anwar as its chief technology and AI acceleration officer.
AI holds a lot of promise for restaurants. It could help them be more efficient by automating tasks or quickly crunching numbers. It could also help drive sales via smarter marketing or upsells. According to a report from POS provider Qu, more than half of limited-service brands have invested in AI, and another 32% planned to do so this year or next. So it makes sense that some restaurant companies may be thinking about hiring someone to “own” AI.
“[It’s] really a visible sign of the importance and the strategy that the business is undertaking,” Lockyer said. “But it also internally does allow for the organization to align strategy pretty clearly.”
It also sends a message to shareholders and board members that the company is taking AI seriously, Lockyer noted.
Whether there’s enough CAIO talent to go around is another matter. After all, there are only so many people with enough expertise in both AI and restaurants to take on the role. So restaurants in the market for one may need to get creative.
McDonald’s Dasgupta, for instance, previously spent one year as Starbucks’ chief data and analytics officer. But before that, his experience ranged from Viacom to Amazon to Ernst & Young.
“When you're looking for someone and the main import of their role is AI leadership, that really widens your net on who you have access to and can bring into the organization,” Lockyer said.
Most restaurants are likely in no hurry, as the industry as a whole is far from maturity on AI. According to a survey of 557 restaurants of all sizes by Restaurant Business and Nation’s Restaurant News last year, just 21% were using AI at the time, while 51% said they were interested in using it at some point, and 28% were not interested.
The Qu survey, meanwhile, found that only 9% of chains using AI had seen a meaningful impact from it yet.
And the technology still faces serious questions. Drive-thru AI has yet to catch on at the biggest chains, for instance, and there have been some high-profile reversals on AI initiatives, including Starbucks’ decision to wind down an AI inventory tool earlier this year.
Indeed, Lockyer said many restaurants are still asking more fundamental questions about AI.
“The biggest challenge that executives are facing now is … really change management, and the ability to lead people and teams through transformation,” she said, including where AI fits in the org chart. “That needs to be one of the largest parts of this, and it can be very challenging.”
So, does your restaurant need a CAIO? Chances are, the answer is not yet. But I suspect it won’t be long until we see some other big brands following McDonald’s and Wingstop’s lead.