Your Tool for Eliminating the Front-of-House Staffing Squeeze: AI for Restaurants

Restaurants across the United States are experiencing the pressure of an industry-wide labor shortage. More than 80% of restaurantsreport being short at least one position, and 33%face moderate or extreme labor challenges.

Even though 82% of U.S. restaurant and foodservice businesses areactively hiring, 47% of food and beverage managers still cite staff recruitment, retention and training asprimary challenges. Filling restaurant jobs and retaining workers has become increasingly difficult due to these ongoing industry challenges. It’s not like you can simply hire experienced restaurant employees right off the street, though. The average cost of traininga new restaurant employeeis a hefty $3,646.

Front-of-house (FOH) roles like hosts and bussers are at the epicenter of the restaurant staffing shortage stress. These are high-turnover positions, often part-time or entry-level, that are increasingly difficult to staff.

This staffing gap has ripple effects throughout the guest experience. Missed phone calls lead to lost reservations, and manual waitlist coordination slows down table turns. Staff members get overwhelmed, and customers are left waiting longer or walking out altogether, causing not just a hiring issue but also a revenue problem.

When restaurants are short-staffed, especially at the front of house, the impact goes far beyond employee frustration. Staffing shortages can disrupt the entire organization, affecting everything from daily operations to long-term business goals. It often directly affects your bottom line and results in:

Burned Out Employees

When too few people are doing too much, the burden on individuals increases and staff morale suffers. Overworked employees are more likely to call out, quit unexpectedly or disengage during service. This creates a domino effect that only worsens existing staffing gaps.

Declining Guest Experience

Short-staffing often results in longer wait times, slower table turns and delayed service, from greeting and seating to taking orders and running food. As guests wait longer for basic service, they’re more likely to leave negative reviews, tip poorly or simply not return, as these delays can leave a negative impression on their overall experience.

Limited Operating Hours

There has been a noticeable rise in restaurants reducing their hours due to staffing shortages. Every hour cut from your schedule means lost revenue and fewer opportunities to serve your guests.

Hiring more hosts might seem like the obvious answer, but the results are often less than ideal. Many restaurants rely on traditional practices such as increasing staff numbers or adjusting shift schedules to address staffing shortages, but these methods often fall short. The cost of recruiting, onboarding and managing new staff adds quickly, especially in a high-turnover environment where many hires only stay for weeks or months.

Restaurant managers often find themselves stuck in a reactive loop, constantly hiring and retraining for the same role. Scheduling becomes more complex, labor costs increase and during unpredictable rush periods, even a fully staffed host stand can’t keep pace.

There’s also the inconsistency factor. Every new hire brings a different level of customer service, phone etiquette and understanding of your waitlist system. This lack of standardization can affect everything from guest satisfaction to operational efficiency. To break this cycle, restaurants should invest in smarter, more sustainable solutions that enhance both guest experience and operational performance.

Eighty percent of Americans surveyed say that with the right technology, restaurants can become more efficient and deal with the labor shortage better. Implementing automation allows your staff to streamline tedious, time-consuming tasks and focus more on making sure their customers take center stage. You’re likely to see cost-saving benefits, too, by reducing food waste, improving inventory management and enhancing your ability for employee retention.

Thanks to major advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, restaurants no longer have to rely solely on human labor to manage guest interactions. AI systems can now take over many front-of-house responsibilities, including phone answering, reservations and waitlist management, with speed, accuracy and 24/7 availability.

With AI for restaurants, every call to your eating establishment is answered instantly. There are many ways AI can help front-of-house operations, such as automating reservation management, handling guest inquiries and optimizing table assignments. Guests can make or change reservations, check wait times or get answers to common questions, all without interrupting your on-site team. During peak hours, there are no dropped calls, busy signals or flustered hosts simultaneously juggling five tasks.

AI also ensures your restaurant is always available to guests, even outside of regular business hours. This technology helps you reach more guests by improving communication and making your services accessible at any time.

To help you evaluate whether it’s time to adopt AI at your host stand, here’s a side-by-side comparison. AI can also help manage tables more efficiently, ensuring optimal seating and faster table turns to boost revenue.

Feature	Hiring More Hosts	Using AI Technology
Cost	$2,000–$3,000/month per host	A fraction of the cost
Availability	Only during scheduled shifts	24/7/365 coverage
Response Time	Slows during peak hours	Instant, even during rushes
Consistency	Varies by staff member	Always accurate and polite
Scalability	Requires more hiring/training	Instantly scalable
Guest Experience	Dependent on mood, training	Consistent and controlled
Training Required	Ongoing, with turnover risk	None—fully deployed Day 1

Restaurants that want to thrive in a tight labor market must look beyond traditional hiring. True labor shortage workarounds don’t rely on finding more people. Instead, they count on freeing up the people you already have by automating tasks that don’t require a human touch.

AI can generate engaging marketing content for restaurants, such as personalized emails, social media posts, and text messages. Automating emails helps keep guests informed about promotions, events and special offers, increasing engagement and loyalty.

By offloading phone answering, waitlist management and reservation coordination to technology, your front-of-house staff can stay focused on hospitality, from greeting guests and solving on-site problems to ensuring service flows smoothly.

For optimizing front-of-house operations, AI can provide practical tips like limiting menu size to reduce decision fatigue or avoiding seating incomplete parties to increase table turnover rates. AI can also help manage and respond to guest review feedback, improving your online reputation and demonstrating excellent customer service. Guests benefit from shorter wait times, faster service and fewer frustrations, your team’s stress level decreases and your business profits from reduced labor costs and higher throughput.

In today’s restaurant industry, data-driven decision-making is more than just a trend — it’s a vital strategy for maximizing sales and building long-term loyalty. The prevalence of advanced analytics platforms means that restaurants can now account for every aspect of their operations, from inventory management to guest preferences. By leveraging these tools, businesses can identify what drives consumer choices, shape their offerings accordingly and provide great experiences that keep guests coming back.

Consumers are increasingly expecting personalized service, and their preferences are shaping the way restaurants operate. By analyzing data on guest behavior, restaurants can tailor menus, promotions and service styles to maximize satisfaction and increase profitability. This approach not only contributes to a better guest experience but also helps restaurants stay competitive in a rapidly evolving hospitality industry.

As AI becomes more deeply embedded in the restaurant industry, the importance of guest feedback has never been greater. Guest feedback is a critical tool for recognizing what works and what needs improvement, helping restaurants make informed changes that enhance service and increase sales. In the AI era, collecting and analyzing feedback allows restaurants to refine their operations, ensuring that every guest experience reflects the highest standards.

Investing in solutions that capture and interpret guest feedback means restaurants can quickly adapt to changing expectations, address issues before they escalate, and demonstrate a commitment to continuous improvement. This not only helps increase long-term profitability but also builds trust and loyalty among guests. By recognizing the value of guest feedback and integrating it into their decision-making processes, restaurants can ensure that artificial intelligence is used to enhance, rather than replace, the human touch that defines great hospitality.

Online ordering and delivery have become critical components of the modern restaurant industry, and AI is playing a transformative role in managing these operations. By leveraging AI-powered platforms, restaurants can streamline the entire process, from order placement to delivery, reducing errors and providing real-time updates to both staff and guests. This helps minimize wait times, increase efficiency and boost sales.

AI solutions also provide valuable insights into customer preferences and ordering patterns, allowing restaurants to tailor their offerings and marketing efforts for maximum impact. In addition, these platforms can automate routine tasks, optimize delivery routes and ensure that every order is handled with precision.

The most successful restaurants in the industry are those that have embraced change and invested in innovative solutions. By recognizing the importance of AI, data-driven decision-making and guest feedback, these businesses have been able to increase sales, improve guest experiences and build long-term loyalty.

For example, a well-known restaurant chain implemented an AI-powered online ordering and delivery platform, which streamlined operations, reduced errors and led to higher customer satisfaction.

Meanwhile, an independent restaurant invested in a data-driven decision-making platform, gaining valuable insights that allowed them to make informed choices and enhance the overall guest experience. These success stories highlight how leading restaurants are leveraging technology and feedback to stay ahead of the competition, demonstrating that investing in the right solutions is key to long-term growth and profitability in the restaurant industry.

The AI market has grown rapidly, but not all solutions are created equal, especially in the hospitality space. The right AI solution should reflect your restaurant’s unique brand and values, ensuring a personalized guest experience. Generic bots and one-size-fits-all systems can create more problems than they solve. In today’s competitive environment, guests are exposed to a wide range of hospitality options, making it crucial for restaurants to stand out. During peak times such as holidays, AI can help manage increased foot traffic efficiently, ensuring smooth operations and enhanced guest satisfaction.

Revmo AI is built specifically for restaurants. It offers voice AI that sounds natural, understands hospitality-specific workflows and integrates seamlessly with your reservation and POS platforms. With Revmo AI, restaurants gain full coverage of their phone lines, automated scheduling tools, intelligent waitlist management and a real-time communication layer that keeps guests informed without overloading staff.

AI is contributing to improved guest satisfaction and operational efficiency, helping restaurants deliver exceptional service. Revmo AI customers report shorter wait times, faster table turns and a measurable increase in guest satisfaction, all without adding a single new host to the payroll. Are you ready to cover your front-of-house without increasing your headcount? Schedule a demo of Revmo AI to learn how restaurants like yours are using artificial intelligence to stay ahead, serve faster and scale smarter.