Highlights from our AI Panel at Food Services Melbourne, 2025

Food Services was bigger than ever this year, and we were back with Team Tyro on the stand and participating in a panel on AI. A huge shout-out to Tyro for their support and partnership!

With Tyrone (who, impressively, got a job where the company is in his first name) and Bianca Brady from Axify, we dived into all things AI. We covered a lot of ground, so here is a distilled version of our conversation - highlights only.

1. AI will transform hospitality across the back, front and out-of-house (think marketing, delivery, ordering) functions. Zeemart, uses AI to eliminate the burden of processing invoices, purchase orders and more - at the same time using that real-time intelligence to help the best operators better manage cost of goods and optimise menus. Axify is changing the game in reservations and customer care using voice AI to handle customer requests.

2. Make selecting AI-ready solutions a priority - it’s the fastest way to get going. Leading solutions like Zeemart, Liven Engage, and Axify have AI running and are ready to go. You don’t need to build anything. Also look for vendors that are honest about what AI can and can’t do.

3. Target today’s functions staffed by humans that are relatively low friction as a starting point to drive efficiency and reduce costs. Reservations and back-of-house supply chain management are two great examples. Marketing is another. Use Google AI to keep your directory listing and menu pricing up to date and current. Even creating alternate menus might have taken too much time to do - now AI can automatically tag menu items for allergens, dietary preferences (vegan, keto), or sustainability markers.

4. AI doesn’t have to replace humans - it can also improve people management. Bianca gave a great example of where one venue used AI reservations for calls that would have gone to voicemail or been lost. Instead, the venue caught hundreds of reservations it would have otherwise lost. It’s giving valuable time back to teams to do higher impact work. Struggling to manage your staffing schedule? Use AI to predict staffing needs and reduce churn by flagging at-risk employees based on lateness, revenue timing, or shift satisfaction patterns. Or, create AI training programs - it’s very easy - to train frontline teams using generative AI simulations to role-play customer conversations and improve performance.

5. AI is accessible right now - try to look at any task that involves writing, a spreadsheet or creating an image and test AI on it - you will be surprised. Pick any one of the popular tools to get going. Think about tools like Leonardo or Midjourney to optimise menu imagery and presentation. Auto-generate or optimise food imagery for menus and digital platforms to increase clickthrough and conversion.

6. AI isn’t just an application on your computer or in your browser. Axify is blazing the trail for reservations using synthetic voices - phone to make a reservation, and you are talking to AI. AI can also analyse venue video footage to understand staff productivity and food waste. Or, look to a new generation of digital menus that will use AI to understand who is in front of them to present tailored offers and information, and even tweak the menu based on what is capturing attention.

7. AI can be highly personalised and branded. It can tap data to know who customers are and remember dining preferences. It can relate to you conversationally. It can be programmed to respond in ways that are on Brand. Think of AI as another team member, not just a tool.

8. AI isn’t just about taking costs out; it’s about creating capacity to drive more revenue and stem revenue losses. Use AI to analyse POS data to create customer segments based on items ordered - then use AI to suggest menu items that those same customers are looking for and that you might have missed. Bianca’s example of stemming revenue losses by catching every reservation is a great one. We also spoke to menu optimisation where real-time AI analysis can suggest menu changes based on item profitability, ingredient availability, or customer feedback - and analyse your menu to identify the optimal placement of menu items.

9. AI can create a Digital Twin of your venue. If you are considering adding a new food group - say gelato to a coffee bar - AI can estimate cross-sell, cost impact, and overall revenue impact. Load your data into a tool like Notebook LLM and let it do the work. Yell if you’d like us to let you know how.

10. Make working on your business, not just in your business a priority. Create time to learn about and apply AI. make this a priority. AI-first is the new mantra of the best operators.

Thanks again to Tyrone for hosting a great panel, to Bianca for all the insights and great thoughts, and to everyone who attended!

You can snag a copy of our Guide to AI in Hospitality here, and if you need more tips and tricks, just call, and we’ll be happy to help.