Chipotle Mexican Grill announced it is launching a new hiring campaign and plans to add 20,000 more employees ahead of its busiest time of year, “burrito season,” from March to May. Chipotle also said it is rolling out a new employee benefit and TV ads showcasing its real team members to help attract talent for the additional job openings.

In October 2024, Chipotle announced a new platform that leverages AI to “make the hiring process more efficient for its restaurant teams.” The technology features a virtual team member named "Ava Cado" who uses Conversational AI to chat with candidates, answer their questions about Chipotle, collect basic information, schedule interviews for hiring managers and send offers to candidates who are selected by managers.

To date, "Ava Cado" has “shortened the average amount of time it takes for a candidate to complete their application and start on the job from 12 days to four days” and is increasing Chipotle's candidate application completion rate to over 85% from approximately 50%, the company said.

“'Burrito Season' presents candidates with an opportunity to start here, stay here and reach their career goals with us,” said Ilene Eskenazi, chief human resources officer. “As current team members have demonstrated, our restaurants can be the foundation of a fulfilling career, and we’re committed to bringing in the best candidates who share our values and onboarding them as efficiently as possible.” In 2024, the company said it promoted 23,000 team members, and 85% of all restaurant management role promotions were internal.