Restaurant365 included AI Scheduler in its 28 October 2026 release. For restaurant managers already using the system, one detail matters: publishing a schedule first approves all remaining AI suggestions. “Not reviewed yet” therefore does not mean “excluded from the roster.”
What has been introduced
According to the vendor’s overview, a manager initiates a draft for a week or selected days. The system uses the location’s schedule history, falling back to time-clock records or a labour forecast when history is insufficient. Existing shifts stay in place.
This is not unattended background scheduling: a person starts generation and publishes the schedule. The documentation describes how the feature works; it does not establish time savings or better staffing outcomes for a particular restaurant.
Checks before publication
Our editorial workflow for existing users:
- Review suggested shifts, employees and hours. Examine warnings about the configured labour rules.
- Edit or delete unwanted suggestions. The Restaurant365 instructions explicitly advise deleting unreviewed suggestions before publishing.
- Check shifts without an assigned employee separately. Approval turns them into open shifts, not staffed ones.
- Check the option to include unassigned shifts in the publish dialog. Leaving it unselected keeps those shifts unpublished on the schedule; it does not prevent their creation.
After publication, reconcile the result and identify who will resolve unfilled shifts. Publication alone does not demonstrate adequate staffing.
Availability and limits
Users need Labor → Scheduling → Schedule → Add/Edit/Delete Shifts permission, and the feature must be enabled for the account. If the button is absent despite the permission, the documentation directs users to an R365 administrator or Customer Success Manager. The checked pages do not establish a universal price or availability in every country.
Takeaway: agree who reviews suggestions and who publishes before first use. This is a control-focused update for users of a particular feature, not a recommendation to replace a restaurant management system.
A related workflow is human-reviewed prep planning; keep that process separate from approving the staff roster.
The cover is an editorial AI illustration, not the Restaurant365 interface or a photograph of a test.
