Brinker's CIO rewired 1,200 restaurants' tech, and Chili's kept comp sales growing

What was changed

Chris Caldwell joined Brinker International as CIO in February 2024 — after nine years as KFC's CIO, reuniting with CEO Kevin Hochman, who told him that when he arrived in June 2022, up to 70% of restaurant employee feedback had centered on technology making work harder, with Wi-Fi outages the biggest complaint.

Caldwell explored other network vendors but stayed with incumbent Comcast: together they installed new networking gear, replaced every Wi-Fi access point at 1,200 restaurants, added cellular backup against outages, and in some locations tore up parking lots to install fiber. 'Over the last two years, we would basically just rip the guts out of every bit of the network infrastructure, and now we're in a stable spot,' he said.

Then came the devices. Managers said back-office computers were painfully slow; Caldwell showed leadership a video of the workflow rather than ask for money — 'All right, how fast can we go' was the reply, 'It wasn't a funding question.' Every location got a new laptop, the fleet got 23,000 new longer-battery iPads, and 9,000 kitchen touchscreens were revamped to show each station only the work it needs instead of the full order list. At 12 restaurants Caldwell is testing a redesigned ordering flow aiming to cut input clicks by 50% so a new hire could use it with minimal training.

Only then did AI enter: Microsoft Copilot and AI-assisted coding in the corporate office, and lighter restaurant use cases like demand forecasting through scheduling vendor HotSchedules, with forecasting, inventory, logistics and an operations chatbot under exploration. Caldwell also drew lines: robotics testing ended after Hochman arrived, and AI phone-ordering was rejected on quality — 'if it's not a great customer experience, we're not going to do it.' Under Hochman and Caldwell, Chili's has been the sector's strong performer, with 20 consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth.

Why it worked

Seventy percent of employee feedback being about technology meant the fastest operational win wasn't a new app — it was not losing orders to Wi-Fi outages.

Sticking with Comcast but replacing every access point bought stability without a rip-and-replace vendor migration across 1,200 sites.

Showing executives a video of slow workflows turned a capital request into a speed challenge — hardware got approved without a funding fight.

Kitchen screens redesigned per station and a 50%-fewer-clicks ordering flow attack the labor problem directly: new hires productive with minimal training.

What can be applied

AI readiness is plumbing: fix the network, the hardware and the screens your staff touch every hour, and say no to any use case that hurts hospitality.

Aftermath

By mid-2026 Caldwell was rolling out Microsoft Copilot internally, watching AI coding adoption grow, and evaluating vendors for restaurant-level AI in forecasting, inventory and logistics — weighing build-versus-buy as he goes. The robotics program stayed dead and AI phone ordering stayed rejected on hospitality grounds. Chili's carried 20 straight quarters of same-store sales growth while sector peers stumbled; Starbucks dropped an AI inventory tool and Yum faced a franchisee suit over an AI rollout in the same period.