Chipotle's recipe for digital transformation: Cloud plus AI

When Curt Garner became Chipotle's first CIO in 2015, the only technology used for online restaurant ordering was, "believe it or not," a fax machine, he says. Seven years later, the Newport Beach, Calif.-based company is piloting a system with a robotic arm dubbed "Chippy" that prepares the fast-casual chain's famed fried salt-and-lime chips homemade every day without human labor, with the aim of tailoring output to the daily needs of each restaurant. "We are using robotic technology to do all the manipulation that a human would be doing in that process," says Garner, noting that "Chippy" is currently in use in only one of Chipotle Mexican Grill's 3,000 stores but use will expand. "We've spent several months in our lab refining the recipes and the processes to make it possible." The former Starbucks CIO didn't waste time jumpstarting the restaurant chain's digital transformation in 2016, applying and evolving his "learnings" from Starbucks to pilot a digital ordering system that would enable Chipotle customers to order online in advance and pick up their food from a drive-through window -- without use of speaker boxes or menu boards typical of drive-through fast-food restaurants. Removing the physical speaker box on site was a simple concept but a key part of a bigger digital transformation Chipotle kicked off in 2018 that led to an explosion in business, in large part because the digital ordering system required less human labor during the pandemic.