Marks & Spencer is bringing AI into some functions within its hospitality business, as it works to develop its tech stack ahead of expanding its café offering.
Director of hospitality Alicia Thompson told MCA’s Hostech conference that the business is looking to use AI in functions like forecasting, stock replenishment, and quality control.
M&S revealed its new grab-and-go café concept last year, with a debut within the retail giant’s store on Liverpool ONE’s South John Street.
Having expanded to 18 outposts, the new café offering includes freshly made sandwiches, pastries, cakes, and beverages. With an eye on further expansion, the cafés seek to appeal to new and younger customers.
“When the business first added those [cafés], the tech stack wasn’t particularly strong,” Thompson told delegates. “So we’re going back to ensure resilience, as much as we can.
“Then we’re looking at what’s the next journey for us in terms of being proactive, and taking the business on that journey. We want to grow but also catch up at the same time, to get the back of house in order and balance tech investment with growth.”
Ultimately, the idea is to ensure the offering is set up for further expansion.
“One of my first jobs was finding bottlenecks in our back of house and looking at how tech can support or unlock some of those,” Thompson added. “We use it to drive the customer experience and food quality, while combating increasing labour and food inflation.
“We’ve put in a forecasting tool to help colleagues and kitchen screens to manage service times and improve speed, and also to give GMs insights into what’s going on.”
When it comes to AI, solutions can help colleagues to fix problems on the ground, rather than “picking up the phone or running to the laptop” – thereby easing quality control.
While the retailer has seen success by using AI in stock and forecasting, the tech cannot yet be used for menu items made on premises, and still requires human overview.
“It’s not quite there yet…that’s a journey.”
She also disclosed that one of her main challenges was running a hospitality offering within a retail business, and avoiding a retail-oriented view of tech.
“That’s been a challenge to get the wider M&S business to understand how hospitality is different, and how we need to look at stock, staffing, tasks, and labour.
“So there’s been a journey around stakeholder engagement, but it’s going in the right direction,” Thompson added.
