Best AI tools for restaurants: a shortlist by job

Pick the job first, then try one tool for it. For phone calls, start with Maple, or Square's voice ordering if you already run Square. For schedules, try 7shifts or Homebase. For food costs, MarketMan. For review replies, Birdeye. Drive-thru and voice kiosk tools are early or sold mainly to chains, so treat them as pilots.

We describe each tool from its own website, help pages or press release, and show prices only where the vendor prints them. We did not test these tools. If you have not chosen a job yet, the restaurant automation worksheet scores your options, and the task-by-task AI guide covers how far each job has come and what large chains have tried.

Which AI tools answer restaurant phone calls?

Tool	What its site says it does	Price shown	One test	Start here if
Maple	Voice answers calls, hours and FAQ questions, and transfers to staff. Pro adds phone orders into a supported POS and OpenTable reservations	Voice $150/month billed monthly or $85/month billed yearly; Pro $350/month billed monthly or $220/month billed yearly	Order an item with a required choice and a modifier, then compare the printed ticket	Calls go unanswered during service and your POS is on Maple's integrations list
Square AI-powered voice ordering	Answers calls to your Square business number, takes pickup orders and texts the caller a payment link	Needs Square Plus, Premium or Messages Plus; the help page shows no separate price	Call your Square number, order, pay by the texted link and find the order in Square	You run Square and most phone orders are pickup
Slang AI	Answers calls and guest questions and books reservations through OpenTable, SevenRooms, Tripleseat and Yelp	Core from $399 per location; Premium from $599	Ask for a fully booked time and check what it offers and what lands in your reservation book	Most of your calls are reservation requests

Maple lists its supported POS systems on the integrations page. Square's details come from its voice ordering help article, which says every order is paid online before it goes through. Slang's plans are on its pricing page and its integrations on its homepage. For a longer phone list, see the phone answering shortlist.

Which AI tools take drive-thru orders?

Tool	What its site says it does	Price shown	One test	Start here if
Maple Drive-Thru	A unit beside your speaker post with its own microphone, speaker and screen; writes orders into the POS; one press hands the lane back to the crew	Early access, priced per unit, no public price	Press the switch mid-order and time how long the crew takes to pick up the car	You run one or a few lanes and want to join a pilot
Presto Voice	Works with your existing drive-thru hardware and POS; joined Toast's partner ecosystem in September 2026	No public price	Ask which headset and POS versions it supports at your store	You are a QSR franchise group, especially on Toast
SoundHound	One platform for phone, drive-thru and kiosk ordering, with POS integration and several languages	No price on its restaurant page	Run the same menu test by phone and at the lane	You want one vendor across channels and many stores

Sources: Maple's drive-thru page, Presto Voice and its Toast announcement, and SoundHound's restaurant page. The drive-thru vendor comparison covers more companies, and the one-lane pilot checklist gives a fuller test.

Which AI tools work on a kiosk?

Tool	What its site says it does	Price shown	One test	Start here if
Maple Kiosk	A kiosk guests talk to; the cart builds on screen, the order goes into the POS, and every screen has a staff-help button	Early access, priced per unit, no public price	Order with a modifier while two people talk nearby, then check the ticket	You want guests to speak their order at the counter
Toast Menu Upsells	AI-driven add-on suggestions on handhelds, kiosks and guest-facing displays, added in May 2026	Part of Toast POS; no separate price in the release	List what it suggests on your ten most common orders	You already run Toast kiosks

Sources: Maple's kiosk page and Toast's May 2026 release. Square Kiosk also suggests items from your catalog, and its help page says items that need a modifier choice are left out. The kiosk buyer's guide covers touch-screen kiosks.

Which AI tools run restaurant marketing?

Tool	What its site says it does	Price shown	One test	Start here if
Toast IQ Grow	A Marketing Agent (in beta) plans email, SMS and social campaigns for slow shifts, with a human marketing manager	$499/month, bundled with Toast's loyalty, email and ordering tools	Approve every campaign yourself for the first month	You run Toast and have guest emails sitting unused
Owner.com	Website, online ordering, branded app, loyalty and AI-powered email and text campaigns	Flexible $249/month plus a 5% restaurant fee per order; Flat Rate $499/month; month to month	Price both plans on last month's online sales	You want your own site and ordering in one package
Popmenu	Website and AI marketing that captures guest details and sends personalized messages; also sells AI phone answering	No price on its homepage	Ask to see a sample campaign built from your own menu	You want a website and marketing vendor that also answers the phone

Sources: Toast's May 2026 release, Owner.com pricing and Popmenu's homepage. A worked Owner.com example, assuming the 5% fee applies to the full order: at $5,000 a month in online orders, Flexible costs $249 plus $250, or $499, the same as Flat Rate. Under that, Flexible costs less. Owner.com itself says Flat Rate suits restaurants at $5,000 or more a month in online sales. The Owner.com alternatives guide compares it with similar vendors.

Which AI tools build staff schedules?

Tool	What its site says it does	Price shown	One test	Start here if
7shifts	Forecasts sales from past sales and labor data to suggest staffing, and flags local labor-law problems while you schedule	Free trial; plan prices on its pricing page	Build next week both ways and compare hours in your busiest block	You build the schedule by hand every week
Homebase	An AI Scheduling Assistant builds a draft schedule for you to review	Basic plan $0 for one location and up to 10 employees; the assistant is in the paid Plus plan	Check the draft against each employee's stated availability	You are a small team that wants to start free
Toast IQ	A chat assistant that answers questions such as "Who's working Friday night?" and adjusts shift clock-outs	Available to U.S. Toast customers; no separate price in the release	Ask it five questions you already know the answers to	You run Toast and want answers without digging through reports

Sources: 7shifts scheduling, Homebase scheduling and pricing and Toast's October 2025 release.

Which AI tools help with inventory and food costs?

Tool	What its site says it does	Price shown	One test	Start here if
MarketMan	Inventory, purchasing and recipe costing, with AI-powered invoice scans and suggested order quantities	Starter $249/month with 50 AI invoice scans a month; Growth $299/month adds Smart Ordering; Enterprise from $449	Check a month of scanned invoices line by line against the paper copies	Invoices and counts take hours each week
Square Order Guide	Puts supplier prices on one unit basis and turns an uploaded menu into ingredient lists; launched October 2025	Part of Square; no separate price in the release	Compare its per-ounce prices with two recent invoices	You run Square and buy from several suppliers
meez	Recipe management and costing with AI-powered menu analysis; ingredient prices update from your vendors	Free tier for individual chefs; paid plans priced in a demo	Cost your five best sellers by hand and compare	Your recipes live in binders and spreadsheets

Sources: MarketMan, Square's October 2025 release and meez. Camera-based counting has a mixed record: Starbucks ended its program in May 2026.

Which AI tools reply to reviews?

Tool	What its site says it does	Price shown	One test	Start here if
Birdeye Review Response Agent	Drafts replies across more than 200 review sites, follows your approval settings and escalates critical feedback	No price on the page	Require approval on every reply for two weeks and read each draft	You have several locations and reviews go unanswered
Olo Sentiment	Suggests personalized replies to guest reviews and sorts feedback by sentiment	No price on the page	Feed it your five worst reviews and check each suggested reply	You are a brand already on Olo

Sources: Birdeye review management and Olo's AI overview.

How should you test any AI tool before you sign?

1. Write down this week's numbers for the job: calls missed, hours on the schedule, invoice time or unanswered reviews.
2. Ask for a trial on your own menu, POS and busiest hours.
3. Run the one test from the table, then repeat it during a rush.
4. Agree who takes over when the tool fails, and test the handoff once.
5. Read the contract term, cancellation terms and who owns your data.
6. Compare the trial numbers with step 1 after two to four weeks.

If phone calls top your list, the Maple phone ordering page walks through a trial from call to kitchen, and Maple pricing shows both plans.

Published by Maple. This AI-assisted shortlist combines vendors' own pages, help articles and press releases with original test steps and a labeled worked example. We did not test these tools, and it does not promise any result from them.