Why You Won’t Be Seeing AI-Generated Artwork in Our Business Anymore

We want to talk openly about something that has generated a surprising amount of conversation recently: our use of AI-generated images in some of our posters and menu boards.

We originally started experimenting with AI for a very simple reason: cost.

Running an independent food business involves a huge number of expenses that customers never necessarily see. Designing and updating menus, posters, promotional materials and signage is one of them. AI gave us a way of producing some of those visuals quickly and at a significant saving to the business.

For us, it wasn't about making a statement about the future of art or replacing somebody's livelihood. It was a practical business decision about an emerging technology.

However, it became very clear that some of our customers felt strongly about it.

We've received negative reviews because of our use of AI-generated artwork, and we've also had some difficult face-to-face conversations about it. Whatever our own views might be, when customers are telling us something matters to them, we think it's important to listen.

Why do people object to AI-generated artwork?

Having listened to some of the criticism, we can understand that there isn't just one reason.

Some people are concerned about the impact generative AI could have on illustrators, designers, photographers and other creative professionals. If businesses can generate an image in seconds rather than commissioning a person to create it, there are understandable concerns about what that means for creative jobs.

There are also ongoing debates around how AI models are trained and the use of artists' existing work in that process. Questions around copyright, consent and compensation matter deeply to many people in creative industries.

Others have concerns about the energy and resources required to operate large AI systems.

And for some customers, the objection is much simpler: they just don't like AI-generated imagery.

There's something imperfect and human about artwork and design created by people. In a world increasingly filled with computer-generated content, some people value knowing that what they're looking at has had a human hand behind it.

We think that's a perfectly reasonable preference.

So, we've listened

We've therefore made a decision.

We're moving away from visible AI-generated artwork in our business.

That means we've redesigned our printed menus, menu boards and posters. Doing that has come at a cost to us, both in replacing existing materials and in producing the new designs, but we feel it's the right response to what our customers have been telling us.

This isn't us declaring that AI is inherently good or bad.

Like most new technologies, it's complicated.

AI can offer genuinely useful tools to small businesses, particularly when budgets are tight. The savings that initially attracted us to it were real, and we don't think businesses should be ashamed of looking for sensible ways to reduce costs.

But a hospitality business isn't just about efficiency.

It's about people.

It's about the person cooking your food, the person serving you, the person standing on the other side of the counter and the customers who choose to spend their money with us.

If something we're doing is making a meaningful number of those customers uncomfortable, we'd rather listen than stubbornly insist that we're right.

What have we learned?

Probably that technology can move much faster than people's feelings about it.

Something that looks like an incredibly useful new tool to one person can represent something completely different to somebody else.

We also recognise that the way something feels matters.

We're a food business. Our food is cooked by real people. Our recipes have been developed by real people. Our teams are real people. Our restaurants are places where people meet, eat, talk and work.

Perhaps our visual identity should reflect that human side of the business too.

So you'll be seeing new menus, new menu boards and redesigned posters from us.

They've cost us more.

They've taken longer.

But they're ours.

And sometimes that's worth paying for.

Thank you to everyone who gave us constructive feedback, even when it challenged us. We won't always agree on everything, but we'll always try to listen.

And, ultimately, we'd much rather the conversation at the counter be about the food.