Leveraging AI-Powered Training

Restaurant operators are selecting AI-powered training to strengthen workforce development. For example, when Front Burner (FB) Society expanded into new markets, leadership needed to ensure teams had the menu and beverage knowledge required to support sales and service standards.

The Dallas-based restaurant group with concepts including Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar, The Ranch at Las Colinas , Mexican Sugar, Ida Claire, Sixty Vines, and Haywire, partnered with 1Huddle to accelerate onboarding, address skill gaps, and create structured upskilling programs that support employee engagement as well as guest service.

Accelerating Content Creation with AI

George Donohue, Vice President of People at FB Society, explained that the company is using AI primarily on the creation side of training to build materials faster, including games, study guides, leadership content, facilitator notes, and first drafts of workshops. Instead of starting from scratch, the team is now starting at about 60–70 percent complete and refining from there. Before AI, this work was entirely manual. Team members were building decks, writing scripts, formatting guides, and creating quiz questions by hand. 

“That process was slow and limited how quickly we could respond to the needs of our team in the field,” said Donohue.”Now we can move at the speed of operations. When a brand has an urgent training need, we’re able to meet it more efficiently.”

Making AI Invisible in Training

Operators frequently utilize the embedded AI to create their own training content, yet Donohue noted that the ultimate goal for distributed training is for the technology to be invisible, as the training teams shape the final product to ensure employees "don’t even realize AI was involved."

Everything runs through 1Huddle, so the FB Society team can track engagement and performance very closely such as gameplay completion rates, frequency of play, scores and improvement over time, and brand-to-brand participation and address potential issues in real-time.

“Low engagement is usually the canary in the coal mine,” said Donohue. “If someone isn’t playing, they may be disengaged somewhere else as well. That gives leaders an opportunity to check in before it becomes a bigger issue.”

The company also leans into “friendly competition” by ranking scores and completion rates across brands, he added. 

“It’s a simple concept, but scoreboards are highly motivating for our restaurant teams. When participation increases and knowledge scores improve, execution usually follows.”

Improving the Guest Experience

Donohue said the biggest impact on the guest experience  has been removing friction points. 

“We’re using AI to handle inbound calls so guests can quickly get information or book reservations without waiting on hold. It’s faster and more consistent, and guests ultimately want answers without unnecessary steps.”

FB Society intends to increase its use of AI in the future, evaluating new applications based on whether they save time and help teams perform better. They are already using it to generate content faster in 1Huddle, building multi-layered training for core leadership programs like Predictive Index and Strengths Finder, capturing live sessions and summarizing key takeaways with action plans, and mapping strategic imperatives with supporting milestones.

“We’re just scratching the surface,” said Donohue. “There isn’t a finish line here. It’s a process of constant iteration. If it saves time and helps our teams perform better, we’ll use it. If it feels unnatural, we won’t.”