Chipotle continues to lean into its technology and is deploying its new equipment package to improve operations and labor efficiency, CEO Scott Boatwright said Wednesday during an earnings call.
Chipotle’s high-efficiency equipment package, which includes a dual-sided plancha, three-pan rice cooker and high-capacity fryer in recent quarters is now installed in over 600 restaurants, marking a 250-store increase over the prior quarter. Boatwright said the chain plans to have the equipment installed in about 2,000 restaurants by the end of this year.
In restaurants where this equipment has been installed, the company is seeing hundreds of basis points of improvement in comparable sales, Boatwright said.
The company is also testing a mystery shopper program that will help provide an “independent view of our operations and validate our efforts,” Boatwright said.
During the quarter, the company installed new digital makeline displays called Chipotle Kitchen that improve accuracy, speed and consistency, he said.
Compared to previous text-based displays, the new system uses visual cues for ingredients to make it easier to integrate new menu items in restaurant workflows, he said. This system is in use in 100 restaurants and Chipotle expects it to be in all of its locations by the end of the year, Boatwright said.
“While still early, we are already seeing meaningful improvements in on-time performance, digital order accuracy and customer satisfaction,” Boatwright said.
Chipotle continues to leverage artificial intelligence to enhance operations. Its AI assistant, Ava Cado, which launched in 2024, has helped streamline hiring and free up managers, for example.
Chipotle will expand Ava’s capabilities to help managers with operational insights. The brand is working to improve its ability to triage equipment issues more quickly, which helps reduce downtime, he said.
The company is also piloting Zipline drone delivery, which has shown “encouraging early results,” Boatwright said. The company first piloted this channel at a restaurant in Rowlett, Texas last summer. The company will expand the pilot into several more restaurants in the second quarter.
“Taken together, these efforts reflect the speed and breadth of innovation happening across the company, all in service of helping our teams perform at their best and give our guests more reasons to choose Chipotle,” Boatwright said.
Chipotle has long been a proponent of new technology and efficiency-improving equipment. In recent years, it has been piloting its Hyphen automated makeline and the Autocado, a machine designed to peel, cut and core avocados. Chipotle did not share an update about those new devices during the recent earnings call.
Technology is one pillar of Chipotle’s Recipe for Growth initiative, which launched in February, after the brand posted negative comparable sales growth during three out of four quarters last year. That strategy also includes emphasizing operational and culinary excellence, menu innovation, talent cultivation and unit expansion.
Menu innovation also has proven successful in improving the chain’s metrics. During the first quarter, Chipotle returned to positive traffic growth and posted same-store sales of 0.5% following the return of its Chicken Al Pastor LTO, launch of a Cilantro Lime sauce LTO and December rollout of its high-protein menu.
