AI Concierge at Pied à Terre: Pioneering the Complete Guest Experience
How does a prestigious Michelin-starred restaurant with decades of culinary heritage stay at the cutting edge of both gastronomy and customer service? For Pied à Terre, London's longest-standing Michelin-starred restaurant, the answer lies in pioneering AI concierge technology that extends their tradition of innovation beyond the kitchen and into every aspect of the guest journey.
This case study explores how Pied à Terre partnered with KorticalChat to implement a next-Gen AI concierge on their website, creating a seamless experience from the first digital interaction to the final bite at their table. The results demonstrate how this pioneer of fine dining continues to lead the industry by enhancing the complete guest experience through thoughtful technological innovation.
The Challenge: Extending Five-Star Service to the Digital Space
Pied à Terre has built its reputation on exceptional cuisine and impeccable service over decades, pioneering British cuisine with classic French techniques. As the longest-standing Michelin-starred restaurant in London, they faced a unique challenge: how to extend their tradition of innovation and excellence into the digital realm, ensuring every touchpoint of the guest experience reflected their pioneering spirit.
Specifically, they needed to address:
- Extending Innovation Beyond the Table - Pioneer excellence in digital experience as you do with cuisine
- 24/7 Multilingual Online Concierge Service - Instant answers for global guests, anytime day or night
- Preserve Your Distinctive Brand Voice - Customisable AI Chatbot that adopts your exact tone of voice and visual styling to seamlessly reflect your brand
- Trustworthy and Accurate Answers - AI trained specifically on your restaurant's data, menus, policies and content to ensure precise, consistent information
- Elegant, Effortless Integration - Robust implementation ensuring reliable AI performance that enhances your digital presence
The Solution: KorticalChat AI Concierge on the Website
After careful consideration, Pied à Terre decided to work with Kortical, experts in deploying reliable AI solutions for enterprises like Deloitte, Santander, and Charlotte Tilbury, to implement KorticalChat, a powerful AI chatbot solution that helps businesses engage website visitors by providing accurate, conversational answers based on website content. Unlike typical chatbots with rigid, predefined options and dropdown menus, the KorticalChat solution offers a premium, elegant experience that aligns perfectly with the restaurant's sophisticated brand:
- Truly Conversational Concierge Experience: Visitors can ask whatever they want, however they want to ask it, creating a natural and fluid interaction that mirrors the personalised service of an actual concierge
- Precise, Reliable Knowledge: The AI was trained on existing website content, enabling it to answer questions about the restaurant's general info and policies, opening times, and other key information provide accurate information 24/7 in multiple languages
- Zero Technical Burden: Kortical manages the entire process from design to deployment, with a seamless integration that requires no technical expertise from your restaurant team
- Valuable Guest Insights: Uncover what potential diners really want to know through comprehensive analytics that reveal common questions, interests, and concerns
Implementation: Easy to Implement
Built with the KorticalChat platform, the implementation process was simple and efficient:
- Initial Consultation – A brief call to understand Pied à Terre's specific needs, including how the AI concierge should represent their brand, the type of questions it should handle, and what information was most important to their guests.
- Knowledge Base Creation – The AI concierge chatbot was trained on carefully selected content from Pied à Terre's website, menus, policies, and other relevant information. This ensured the concierge could provide accurate answers about everything from opening hours to menu offerings and special events.
- Brand Customisation – The concierge's visual appearance and communication style were tailored to match Pied à Terre's sophisticated brand identity, creating a seamless extension of their premium guest experience.
- Testing and Refinement – Pied à Terre tested the AI concierge chatbot and provided feedback, allowing KorticalChat to fine-tune responses and address specific scenarios, such as distinguishing between vouchers and menu items.
- Effortless Deployment – Implementation was remarkably straightforward; a single JavaScript snippet was added to the website, making the AI concierge instantly available to visitors with no disruption to the existing site.
From initial consultation to live implementation took eight weeks with no technical expertise required from Pied à Terre's team. Kortical handled all aspects of development, training, and integration while ensuring the AI perfectly represented the restaurant's distinguished brand.
Results: Enhanced Pre-Dining Experience with 24/7 AI Concierge
The AI concierge provided several benefits to Pied à Terre's website:
- 24/7 Digital Hospitality - Automated 90% of common questions and escalated the most urgent messages to the team, offering continuous support without adding pressure.
- Immediate, Accurate Information - Guests asked anything and received immediate clarity, from wine pairings and rare ingredients to key restaurant policies just as they would from a real team member.
- Valuable Guest Insights - Gave the team a clear understanding of what potential diners were really thinking and asking. Instead of relying on website metrics or assumptions, they could see exactly what guests cared about, in their own words.
The AI concierge extended Pied à Terre's tradition of innovation into the digital space, enhancing rather than replacing traditional communication channels like telephone and email. This complementary approach reinforces their position as pioneers in every aspect of the fine dining experience while ensuring guests can always choose their preferred way to engage with the restaurant.
Future Directions and Lessons for the Restaurant Industry
Pied à Terre's successful implementation of an AI concierge offers valuable insights for other fine-dining establishments and restaurants:
Key Takeaways:
- Premium restaurants can successfully adopt AI without compromising their brand identity or service standards
- Incremental implementation allows for testing and refinement before full deployment
- AI can handle routine inquiries, allowing staff to focus on delivering exceptional in-person experiences
- Technology should complement, not replace the human touch that defines fine dining
- Innovation extends beyond the kitchen. True culinary leaders embrace technology across all aspects of their operation
Conclusion: Pioneering Excellence in Every Interaction
Pied à Terre's implementation of the KorticalChat AI concierge exemplifies how the longest-standing Michelin-starred restaurant continues to lead through innovation. By extending their commitment to excellence into the digital realm, they've created a truly complete guest journey that begins long before diners step through their doors.
The success of this implementation demonstrates that true culinary pioneers understand that innovation isn't confined to the kitchen. It extends to every touchpoint of the guest experience. For Pied à Terre, being first means constantly seeking new ways to delight guests, whether through innovative cuisine or cutting-edge technology that enhances the complete dining journey.
Want to Add an AI Concierge to Your Restaurant Website?
Considering an AI concierge for your restaurant? Book a free consultation with our AI specialists and we can do the full build for free. Our solution provides 24/7 guest assistance and immediate, accurate information while maintaining your sophisticated brand standards, all with minimal effort required from your team.
Frequently Asked Questions About AI Concierge
What is an AI Concierge?
An AI concierge is a virtual assistant powered by advanced language models. It sits on your website and answers guest questions instantly, using the information already on your site. Guests can ask anything in their own words and receive clear, accurate answers at any time.
Why Should Restaurants Use an AI Concierge?
Restaurants often receive the same questions over and over, about menus, policies, bookings, or special requests. An AI concierge handles these instantly, even outside opening hours, freeing up your team and giving guests a seamless experience. It also reveals what guests are really asking, helping you understand their needs more clearly than analytics alone.
How Does It Work?
The AI uses a large language model (LLM) paired with retrieval technology. Instead of generating answers from scratch, it finds the right information from your website content and delivers it in a natural, conversational way. This ensures answers are reliable, on brand, and always up to date.
Explore Other KorticalChat AI Chatbot Success Stories
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- Innovator International - How a UK endorsing body for entrepreneur visas uses an AI chatbot to automated triage, reducing staff workload and achieving an 80% automation rate for customer inquiries
This case study demonstrates how Pied à Terre enhances their pre-dining guest experience by implementing an AI concierge on their website. The solution provides 24/7 assistance and immediate, accurate information while maintaining their sophisticated brand standards, all with minimal effort and technical expertise required from the restaurant team.
