Restaurants Turn to AI Food Images, and Diners Are Pushing Back

AI-generated food images are appearing on delivery menus and restaurant posters, where consumers are criticizing their uncanny and unappetizing appearance. The visible failures sit beside a quieter shift: AI tools are also being marketed to food companies for concept testing and menu research.

Restaurant marketing changed as more customers began choosing meals through online menus and delivery apps. Owners digitized menus and added visuals; some adopted generative AI images to seek greater visibility on third-party platforms without paying for a photo shoot. The generated images have since appeared in physical signs as well as online listings.

Brendan Sweeney, CEO and cofounder of restaurant marketing company Popmenu, said he found five pizza restaurants on Uber Eats using the same AI-generated image. He argues that an image that looks obviously artificial is a worse choice than using no food photography at all.

Tastewise introduced TasteGPT on March 27 as a food-and-beverage intelligence chatbot for R&D and innovation teams. Tastewise says the tool combines consumer-demand signals, menu data and ingredient-growth trends to generate insights, validate ideas and identify whitespace—areas where demand exists but supply is limited.

The company says users can ask about consumer needs, competitor positioning, trends supporting a concept and whether an idea should proceed. WIRED reports that Tastewise partners with Nestlé, PepsiCo and Kraft Heinz, and describes its automation tools as able to track product launches, test new food concepts and identify gaps in existing menus.

Tastewise’s stated automation jobs

• Track product launches.
• Test new food concepts.
• Identify gaps in existing menus.

A Toast poll cited by WIRED found that about 85 percent of restaurateurs feel comfortable using AI tools and plan to use them more extensively. The poll reflects respondents’ reported comfort and plans, not a measure of actual use. That use is not universal in customer-facing promotion: some restaurants are publicly refusing generative-AI posters, with handwritten notices becoming part of the backlash against AI-generated content.