We deployed an AI ordering agent for a restaurant. It worked perfectly in testing. Then Friday night happened. Here's what we learned.
A restaurant was missing 30% of phone calls during peak hours. Friday and Saturday nights were the worst — the kitchen was slammed, staff couldn't answer phones, and customers gave up and ordered from competitors.
The owner estimated $3,000-5,000 per week in lost orders from missed calls alone.
An AI voice agent that:
We tested everything thoroughly. Menu loaded. Inventory checks working. Orders created. Payments clearing. In staging, it behaved exactly as expected.
We launched on a Friday afternoon.
By 8 PM the kitchen manager called and said they were selling items that weren't available anymore.
The AI was pulling from the menu database, but inventory wasn't updating in real-time. When the kitchen 86'd an item, the AI didn't know. It kept selling the fish tacos 20 minutes after they ran out.
We implemented a real-time inventory webhook from the POS system. When any item's status changes, the AI's available menu updates within 3 seconds. We also added:
| Metric | Before AI | After (Fixed) |
|---|---|---|
| Missed calls during peak | 30% | 0% |
| Average order value | $28 | $34 (upselling) |
| Order errors | 5-8/night | <1/night |
| Monthly savings | — | $8,200 |
The automation worked beautifully — once we respected the chaos of real-world restaurant operations. The lesson isn't "don't use AI." It's "don't assume your staging environment reflects reality."