Tell Me What You Want
What you really, really want
There’s an ask of you at the end of this piece to contribute an idea or 2. Please consider taking 2-3 minutes to do it- thanks!
I am a full subscriber to Ethan Mollick’s ‘bring it to the table for everything’ theory of AI. He says it’s the best way to learn what it’s good at and what it’s not. I have been doing this for over a year in our restaurants and I have consistently been surprised by how effective it can be to just ask for what you want. For example, if you want an idea for a menu item with cardoons, ask for it and be as specific as you want. Want to know why payroll was off last week- upload clock in and payroll reports from the last couple weeks and ask ‘what were the main drivers for increases in payroll week-over-week?’
Here’s the thing though- for the cardoon example, it’s that simple. For the payroll example you need to prompt the AI (large language model- LLM) in the right way or else you’ll get junk or, worse, confident/believable answers that are totally wrong. Getting this right is called prompt engineering. Over time, many AI thinkers like Mollick believe prompting will be less important as the LLMs get better at inferring intent. We’re not there yet.
But it starts with knowing what you want and that’s where I am hoping to get some help from this community. I am hoping you can contribute to a library of questions you’d want to ask as a restaurant operator, employee, manager or guest. There are things I might ask of my Point of Sale or reservation system. As a guest it might be things you’re hesitant to ask your server for whatever reason. Here’s a few from my list of dream questions for inspiration:
As an Operator: I want to give Lucia a $1.50 raise but need to make it profit neutral. What are some ways I might do this through pricing and cost savings?
As a Chef: My teams getting crushed with prep- how might I adjust my menu to lighten the prep load without compromising my vision for the restaurant?
As a Guest: I’m allergic to nightshades and allium, what can I have on your menu with minimal changes?
As a Server: We’re a pooled house and it’d be great if we could grow our sections a little to increase our earnings. I know the management and ownership won’t be on board if they feel like the guest experience will suffer. Help me make a thoughtful case.
As an Operator: I have to plan for a major HVAC repair heading into next winter (about 6 months from now) and want to generate $25,000 of the $50,000 cost through incremental price increases. What’s the best way to do this without it really being noticeable to guests?
This is a link to a quick survey (1-2 minutes) to add your questions. My hope is to get as many as possible and then pick some to work on creating prompts and eventually tools to do them. Contact information is optional but appreciated so I can follow up.
Zigazig ah!