Applebee’s and IHOP Plan To Introduce AI in Restaurants

The company behind Applebee’s and IHOP plans to use AI in its restaurants and behind the scenes to streamline operations and encourage repeat customers. Dine Brands is adding AI-infused tech support for all of its franchisees, as well as an AI-powered “personalization engine” that helps restaurants offer customized deals to diners, said Chief Information Officer Justin Skelton. The Pasadena, Calif.-based company, which also owns Fuzzy’s Taco Shop and has over 3,500 restaurants across its brands, is taking a “practical” approach to AI by focusing on areas that can drive sales, Skelton said.

Streamlining tech support for Dine Brands’ more than 300 franchisees is important because issues like a broken printer take valuable time away from actually managing restaurants, Skelton said. Dine Brands’ AI tool, which was built with Amazon’s Q generative AI assistant, allows the company’s field technology services staff to query its knowledge base for tech help using plain English, rather than needing to manually search for answers.