Restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill is piloting technologies to enhance its employee and customer experience by streamlining operations and reducing friction.

The company recently began piloting two technologies in its restaurants to deliver precise forecasting, optimal quality and increased convenience for digital guests.

In select southern California restaurants, Chipotle is piloting a cook-to-needs kitchen management system that provides demand-based cooking and ingredient preparation forecasts to optimise throughput and freshness while reducing food waste. Leveraging AI and machine learning, the system monitors ingredient levels in real time and notifies the crew how much to prep, cook and when to start cooking, while automatically populating real-time production planning for each restaurant.

“The new kitchen management system has alleviated manual tasks for our crew and given restaurant managers the tools they need to make informed in the moment decisions, ultimately enabling them to focus on an exceptional culinary and an outstanding guest experience,” said Curt Garner, chief technology officer.

The kitchen management system, powered by New York AI firm PreciTaste, is being tested at eight restaurants in Orange County, California. Early results indicate the pilot is effectively streamlining kitchen operations for crew members while always ensuring a full line of fresh ingredients.

The company is simultaneously piloting location-based technology to enhance its app functionality and provide a seamless, convenient experience for customers who opt-in. The programme can engage with Chipotle App users upon arrival and uses real-time data to enhance their experience with order readiness messaging, wrong pick-up location detection, reminders to scan the Chipotle Rewards QR code at checkout, and more.

“Empowering our restaurants with advanced technologies is critical for operational excellence and better positions our teams for our ambitious growth plans,” said Scott Boatright, chief restaurant officer.

Chipotle’s contextual restaurant programme, using UK firm Radius Networks’ Flybuy technology platform, is being tested at 73 restaurants in Cleveland, Ohio. Early results indicate positive performance with improved in-store rewards engagement, order alert notifications, and efficiencies with earlier assignments for marketplace delivery drivers.

Chipotle’s autonomous kitchen assistant introduced earlier this year to drive efficiencies through collaborative robotics has moved to its next stage of operational testing. Chippy, which integrates culinary traditions with artificial intelligence to make tortilla chips, was relocated from the Chipotle Cultivate Center to official installation in-restaurant. Chippy will start cooking chips for customers next month in a Fountain Valley, California, location while the brand leverages its stage-gate process to listen, test and learn from staff and customer feedback before deciding on a national implementation strategy.

Chipotle had more than 3000 restaurants in the USA, Canada, UK, France and Germany, and is the only restaurant company of its size that owns and operates all its restaurants. It has more than 100,000 employees.