United StatesFood and restaurants2025 – ongoingWingstop
Smart Kitchen with per-restaurant AI demand forecasting
Wingstop's forecasting kitchen system cut ticket times by 40% across its US restaurants, while same-store sales fell
Problem
Wingstop's kitchens had changed little in about 30 years and ran on printed tickets. Orders averaged 18 to 22 minutes even on good days and could reach 45 minutes on busy weekend nights, while more than 70% of orders came in digitally and delivery depended on fast handoffs.
Approach
The Smart Kitchen replaced printed tickets with a four-screen kitchen display and machine-learning forecasts built for each restaurant using sales history and local events such as high school football games. Crews start cooking before orders arrive. After a test in about 160 Dallas-Fort Worth stores, it reached 1,000 restaurants by mid-2025 and all US restaurants by the end of 2025.
Results
Takeaway
Wingstop reported faster service and stronger sales at early test stores than at control stores. The full rollout coincided with its first annual US same-store sales decline in 22 years, leaving the system's sales effect unclear in the overall results.
Categories
- Industry
- Food and restaurants
- Business function
- Production and qualityCustomer service
- Innovation type
- Process innovation
- AI technology
- Predictive analytics and ML
- Adoption
- Built in-house
- Evidence
- Company's own claim
Sources
Source summaries
Reporting from the second-quarter 2025 earnings call, the trade outlet says the system was in 1,000 restaurants after a 160-store Dallas-Fort Worth test, with ticket times down 40% within four weeks to about 10 minutes from 18 to 22. Smart Kitchen stores showed higher same-store sales than control stores and guest satisfaction eight points higher, while overall comparable sales fell 1.9% in the quarter.
Entrepreneur reported that each restaurant used forecasts based on sales history and local events, and that staff had doubts about cooking before any order arrived. CEO Michael Skipworth says the old kitchen was 'archaic' and that waits of about 20 minutes, up to 45 on busy nights, were cut nearly in half. It also reports faster training and lower turnover in test stores.
The franchise trade outlet reports that US same-store sales fell 3.3% in 2025, Wingstop's first annual decline in 22 years, and domestic average unit volume dropped to $2 million. It notes the smart kitchen system was installed in all stores by the end of 2025, with ticket times down 40% and about half of restaurants consistently at 10 minutes.
Full details are in the original sources.
