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From robots that help make chips to those that prepare avocados for guacamole, Chipotle is using AI to make its restaurants more efficient while allowing workers to focus on other tasks. The fast casual restaurant chain is also applying AI to the process of hiring workers, allowing managers to stay more focused on running their restaurants.
Chipotle added an AI-powered platform to its hiring process that it dubbed “Ava Cado.” The platform, created by AI HR firm Paradox, is essentially a conversational chatbot that interacts with job candidates, answers questions about the company and the job, collects information about them, and ultimately can schedule interviews with human hiring managers. It can also converse in English, Spanish, French, and German.
Chipotle chief human resources officer Ilene Eskenazi said the company’s growth plan was a factor in the decision to use the AI hiring technology. With projections for about 300 new restaurants opening each year with an average of 30 employees per location, the company estimates it will have somewhere between 9,000 and 10,000 new hires per year, on top of other positions opening up at existing Chipotles.
