Texas Roadhouse

How they deploy

Deployment model

Texas Roadhouse runs technology centrally from its Support Center in Louisville, Kentucky, which provides and coordinates restaurant hardware and software support for all of its restaurants, under Chief Technology Officer Hernan Mujica, who reports to CEO Jerry Morgan. Texas Roadhouse's Head of Information Security leads the cybersecurity team under the CTO's direct oversight, and the company outsources some business processes, information technology among them, to third-party vendors (FY2025 Form 10-K). Texas Roadhouse has not described an AI team, an AI center of excellence or an employee AI assistant; the closest structure is an internal risk subcommittee of managers from IT, HR, marketing, accounting, risk, procurement, training, finance and legal that evaluates the risks of the company's AI use.

Model providers

Texas Roadhouse has not named an AI model provider. The FY2025 Form 10-K says Texas Roadhouse may depend on third-party AI models and vendors whose availability, reliability, performance or terms of use may change, and that its use of AI in technology and marketing may carry license obligations, usage restrictions and third-party IP claims. The technology vendors on Texas Roadhouse's record are not AI model providers: Ziosk supplied the tabletop tablets behind Roadhouse Pay at its 2022 launch, Microsoft supplies Azure, Fabric and Power BI, and Royal Cyber's case studies describe ServiceNow configuration management work for Texas Roadhouse.

Data and infrastructure

Texas Roadhouse's FY2025 Form 10-K describes management information systems that let restaurant and Support Center managers query sales and operating data daily, a disaster recovery plan with off-site storage of critical data, a redundant data center and on-site power backup, and reliance on third-party cloud, hosting, content delivery and telecommunications providers for digital ordering and point-of-sale systems. Texas Roadhouse held $2.6 million of capitalized cloud computing implementation costs, net, at Dec 30, 2025, down from $5.9 million a year earlier, and submits its systems to the independent audits that PCI DSS requires of a level 1 provider. Job postings place Texas Roadhouse's analytics on Microsoft Fabric and Power BI and its cloud security on Microsoft Azure; Texas Roadhouse has not said where any AI model runs or whether guest data may be used to train one.

Leadership

AI, data and platform leaders

AI org map

Central technology team at the Louisville Support Center under a CTO who reports to the CEO; no AI office, with AI risk in a management subcommittee and a board committee

Texas Roadhouse runs technology from its Support Center in Louisville under Chief Technology Officer Hernan Mujica, who reports to CEO Jerry Morgan, with the Head of Information Security leading cybersecurity under the CTO (FY2025 Form 10-K and NACD bio). Texas Roadhouse has no published AI office or chief AI officer. AI risk runs through the enterprise risk management program: an information governance risk subcommittee evaluates the company's use of AI, and from fiscal 2026 the board's Finance and Audit Committee, chaired by Donna Epps, oversees AI risks.

Texas Roadhouse has not disclosed how many people work on technology, data or AI. Texas Roadhouse employed about 101,000 people at Dec 30, 2025, of whom 935 were executive and administrative staff and 4,059 restaurant managers, with the rest hourly restaurant staff. Technology sits under Chief Technology Officer Hernan Mujica at the Louisville Support Center, where postings in Oct 2025 and 2026 sought a data engineer, an analytics engineer for Microsoft Fabric and Power BI and a senior DevSecOps engineer for Azure, and the cybersecurity team's members average more than 17 years of IT experience (FY2025 Form 10-K).

Use cases

Texas Roadhouse has named no AI use case. Its FY2025 Form 10-K says the company is implementing AI programs to improve productivity and uses AI in its technology and marketing, without saying what the programs do or whether any runs in production, and AI did not come up on Texas Roadhouse's earnings calls from Nov 2025 to Aug 2026. Texas Roadhouse reports no return on AI; the gains it reports, such as labor hours growing at about a quarter of comparable traffic growth in Q2 2026, are partly credited to technology investments it does not describe as AI.

Adoption

Texas Roadhouse has not said how many employees can use AI tools or how often, and has announced no AI assistant for any of its about 101,000 employees, all but about 5,000 of whom are hourly restaurant staff (Dec 2025). The technology that has spread through Texas Roadhouse is operational and not described as AI: Roadhouse Pay reached more than 500 restaurants in 2022, the digital kitchen and the in-house guest management system reached about 95% of restaurants by Nov 2025 and every domestic restaurant by late 2025, and handheld ordering tablets remain in a slowly expanding test in 2026. AI shows up in Texas Roadhouse's record mainly as governance: a risk subcommittee for its AI use, described from Feb 2025, and AI risk oversight by the board's Finance and Audit Committee from fiscal 2026.

By the numbers

Economics & controls

Recent signals

1. Aug 6, 2026

   Mike Lenihan said labor hours grew at about 25% of comparable traffic growth in Q2 2026 and named a quieter kitchen from Texas Roadhouse's technology investments as one factor; AI did not come up on the call.

   Q2 2026 earnings call transcript

2. May 11, 2026

   Restaurant Business described Texas Roadhouse as more high-tech than it appears, citing its digital kitchen, new table management system, handheld tablet test and pay-at-the-table devices, none of them described as AI.

   Restaurant Business

3. May 7, 2026

   Jerry Morgan said handheld tablets had improved order accuracy but are not meant to let servers run more tables, and that the digital kitchen tracks some cook times and helps restaurants handle more to-go orders.

   Q1 2026 earnings call transcript

4. Apr 10, 2026

   Texas Roadhouse's 2026 proxy said the renamed Finance and Audit Committee focuses on financial, cyber, data, privacy and AI risks from fiscal 2026, and that an information governance risk subcommittee evaluates the company's AI use.

   2026 proxy statement

5. Feb 27, 2026

   Texas Roadhouse filed its FY2025 Form 10-K, which adds that the company is implementing AI programs to improve productivity, uses AI in its technology and marketing, and may depend on third-party AI models and vendors.

   FY2025 Form 10-K

6. Feb 19, 2026

   Jerry Morgan said Texas Roadhouse completed its digital kitchen and upgraded guest management rollout in late 2025 and would expand its handheld tablet test in 2026 after pulling it back to rewrite software.

   Q4 2025 earnings call transcript

7. Dec 3, 2025

   Mike Lenihan became Texas Roadhouse's CFO, joining from CKE Restaurants after 20 years at Yum! Brands, where his roles included Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis and IT Shared Services.

   Form 8-K

8. Nov 6, 2025

   Jerry Morgan said about 95% of Texas Roadhouse restaurants were using the digital kitchen and upgraded guest management system and that the systems give the company more information for decisions.

   Q3 2025 earnings call transcript

Quick answers

How does Texas Roadhouse deploy AI?

Texas Roadhouse has named no AI system in use: its FY2025 Form 10-K says the company is implementing AI programs to improve productivity and uses AI in its technology and marketing, without identifying any, and AI did not come up on its earnings calls from Nov 2025 to Aug 2026. The technology Texas Roadhouse discusses is a digital kitchen and an in-house guest management system, in every domestic restaurant since late 2025, and a handheld ordering tablet test, while CEO Jerry Morgan speaks of hospitality intelligence.

What does Texas Roadhouse use AI for?

Texas Roadhouse has named no AI use case. Its FY2025 Form 10-K says the company is implementing AI programs to improve productivity and uses AI in its technology and marketing, without saying what the programs do or whether any runs in production, and AI did not come up on Texas Roadhouse's earnings calls from Nov 2025 to Aug 2026. Texas Roadhouse reports no return on AI; the gains it reports, such as labor hours growing at about a quarter of comparable traffic growth in Q2 2026, are partly credited to technology investments it does not describe as AI.

Who leads AI at Texas Roadhouse?

AI at Texas Roadhouse is led by Hernan Mujica (Chief Technology Officer). Ownership of AI on the org chart: No named AI owner; CTO Hernan Mujica runs technology and reports to the CEO.

What AI platform does Texas Roadhouse use?

Texas Roadhouse has no named AI platform: its disclosed systems are a digital kitchen and a guest management system built in-house, both in every domestic restaurant by late 2025, with analytics on Microsoft Fabric and Power BI (2025 and 2026 job postings).

Which AI models does Texas Roadhouse use?

Texas Roadhouse has named no AI model or vendor; its FY2025 Form 10-K says only that it may depend on third-party AI models and vendors whose availability, performance or terms could change.

How many Texas Roadhouse employees use AI?

Texas Roadhouse has not said how many of its about 101,000 employees use AI tools; all but about 5,000 are hourly restaurant staff, and no employee AI assistant has been announced (Oct 2026).

How far has AI spread at Texas Roadhouse?

Texas Roadhouse sits at Experimenting: its FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Feb 27, 2026, says the company is implementing AI programs to improve productivity and uses AI in its technology and marketing, but Texas Roadhouse has named no AI use case, tool or vendor, and AI did not come up on its earnings calls from Nov 2025 to Aug 2026. Texas Roadhouse falls short of Piloting because it has disclosed no sanctioned AI assistant for any employee group and no AI use case in production; the systems it has rolled out, a digital kitchen, an in-house guest management system and handheld ordering tablets in test, are not described as AI. Texas Roadhouse's AI governance is more developed than its disclosed use: an internal risk subcommittee evaluates its AI use, and the board's Finance and Audit Committee oversees AI risk from fiscal 2026.

Open questions

• What are the AI programs to improve productivity that Texas Roadhouse's FY2025 Form 10-K says it is implementing, which teams use them, and does any run in production?
• Where does Texas Roadhouse use AI in its technology and marketing, and which third-party AI models and vendors does it depend on?
• Who owns AI at Texas Roadhouse: Chief Technology Officer Hernan Mujica, the information governance risk subcommittee or another executive?
• Do Texas Roadhouse's 935 executive and administrative staff or its 4,059 restaurant managers have a sanctioned AI assistant, and does a written AI use policy exist?
• Does any AI or machine learning run inside Texas Roadhouse's digital kitchen, its in-house guest management system or its handheld ordering tablets, none of which the company describes as AI?
• Does Texas Roadhouse run any AI model on its Microsoft Azure and Fabric environment or in its own data center, and may guest or employee data reach outside AI models?
• How much does Texas Roadhouse spend on technology and on AI, given that it does not break technology out of its capital or general and administrative spending?
• Will Texas Roadhouse report any return on AI, given that it credits its labor productivity gains partly to technology investments it does not describe as AI?
• Will the handheld ordering tablet test become a chainwide rollout, and will Texas Roadhouse's Q3 2026 results on Nov 5, 2026 or its next Form 10-K name the AI programs its FY2025 filing describes?

Sources