Red Lobster’s new CEO is betting that artificial intelligence will help define the chain’s next chapter. Damola Adamolekun said he wants to turn the seafood brand into “the most AI-forward restaurant company that exists,” and he is pushing departments to find their own uses for the technology.
That plan comes after two years of effort to pull Red Lobster out of bankruptcy. It also arrives as the 58-year-old chain, with more than 500 restaurants, tries to rebuild itself under the youngest CEO in its history.
AI Across the Business
Speaking on The Black Money Tree Podcast, Adamolekun said AI could support work in human resources, restaurant operations and sales forecasting. He said it can help teams create evaluations, presentations and training materials, while also helping operations compile key metrics into a deck before he visits a location.
Red Lobster also plans to use AI for forecasting how much food to order and how to staff each week, work that is currently done by hand at headquarters. Adamolekun said the company picked Anthropic’s Claude after his chief of staff reviewed the field.
A Turnaround Built on Smaller, Smarter Moves
Adamolekun’s AI push is only part of a broader turnaround. Since taking over, he has remodeled dining rooms, leaned back into the brand’s comfort-food identity and answered unhappy customers on TikTok.
He also told The Wall Street Journal in February that Red Lobster needs to get smaller by closing weaker stores so stronger ones can be protected. The chain brought back Endless Shrimp in April at a higher starting price, after the earlier version had become a costly mistake.
From Bankruptcy to a Fresh Strategy
Red Lobster’s troubles trace back to the 2014 sale to Golden Gate Capital, which financed much of the deal by selling the real estate under roughly 500 locations. The chain later filed for bankruptcy and said shrimp supplier Thai Union had pushed it toward buying more of its own product.
Adamolekun inherited that mess after Fortress Investment Group bought Red Lobster out of bankruptcy in 2024. Before joining the seafood chain, he worked at Goldman Sachs, TPG, Paulson & Co. and later became CEO of P.F. Chang’s in 2020, where he helped push annual revenue past $1 billion.
A Wider Restaurant Industry Race
Red Lobster is not alone in looking to AI for cost control. By early 2026, more than a quarter of restaurant operators said they were using AI in some form, according to the National Restaurant Association, up from roughly 16% two years earlier.
Large chains are already spending heavily in the same direction. Yum Brands built a proprietary platform with Nvidia across more than 28,000 locations, and Wendy’s partnered with Google on drive-thru voice ordering.
Adamolekun said his age gives him an advantage because he understands the technology well. “I do think we’ll probably be the best AI company, because I don’t know that anybody’s pushing it as hard as I am,” he said.