95% of restaurant managers say AI rota scheduling is effective, study finds

Artificial intelligence (AI) scheduling tools delivered on their promises for 95% of UK restaurant managers using them, research from Toast found.

However, 73% of managers said employees had raised concerns about fairness, hours or flexibility. 

57% of managers believed employees felt mostly positive about shifts being generated by software rather than a person.

Employee resistance was named as the biggest barrier to wider AI adoption by 7% of managers, while 8% cited concerns about the impact on jobs. 

This compared with 13% who pointed to data privacy and security.

Among managers using AI to build rotas, 34% said the main benefit was spending less time on scheduling. 

29% reported lower labour costs, while 23% saw fewer scheduling conflicts and errors.

The tools saved at least three hours of management administration each week for 91% of users, while 43% saved six hours or more.