Technology

Chipotle, Wingstop among finalists for Savor’s restaurant AI awards

Photo: Savor

November 3, 2026

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Chipotle, Wingstop andUrbane Cafe are among the restaurant brands that made the cut for the Savor AI 50, a new awards program that recognizes restaurant AI already working in stores rather than stuck in testing.

Savor named 65 finalists across 12 categories; winners and runners-up will be announced Dec. 1 on Savor.fm, the Fast Casual Nation podcast and the Paul Barron Podcast.

Ten brands are up for Best Brand AI, which honors the brand with the most impactful AI strategy. Chipotle earned a spot for Ava Cado, its AI hiring assistant.

Other finalists include Taco Bell, which has voice AI ordering in roughly 900 drive-thrus, according to Savor; Bojangles, which is taking voice AIordering system-wide; Starbucks, for its Green Dot Assist barista tool; and Burger King, for Patty, its AI assistant for restaurant teams. Wingstop, Urbane Cafe, Donatos Pizza, Kura Sushi and Texas de Brazil round out the category.

Technology suppliers compete in separate categories, including voice AI, back-office AI, kitchen AI and robotics, and AI startups. The remaining categories cover forecasting and inventory, menu and pricing, loyalty and personalization, labor and scheduling, marketing, food safety and computer vision.

Savor said it selected finalists independently based on public signals such as real restaurant deployments, disclosed results and trade coverage, with no sponsor influence. Finalists are listed alphabetically, and no scores or rankings have been released.

Savor also noted that not every AI test sticks. McDonald's ended its IBM drive-thru test, Del Taco parted ways with voice AI supplier Presto and Dave's Hot Chicken dropped its voice ordering test, according to the release.

"Restaurants have spent three years piloting AI. The Savor AI 50 finalists are the ones who moved past the pilot and can show it working in real restaurants, with real guests and real results," Paul Barron, founder of Savor, said in a press release.

Savor is a restaurant and hospitality intelligence company that operates a foodservice podcast network, including Fast Casual Nation. Barron also founded Fastcasual.com.

The full list of finalists is available here.