Restaurant Tech Trends

Justin Foster
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  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

On Restaurant Tech Trends, we interview movers and shakers in the restaurant industry to identify how technology is changing the way multi-unit restaurants work.

  1. 4D AGO

    Danny Klein, VP of Editorial @ QSR & FSR, Producer @ QSR Evolution Conference, Originator @ Women in Restaurant Leadership

    🚨 RESTAURANT INDUSTRY HEAVYWEIGHT ALERT 🚨 Today on 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends, I sat down with Danny Klein, VP of Editorial at QSR & FSR Magazine and producer of the QSR Evolution Conference - among his many pursuits. If you pay attention to where this industry is headed, Danny is clearly at the tip of the spear of the conversation. Don't miss this one. 📺 WATCH AND LEARN 📺 👉 Why Danny believes the #1 threat to QSR over the next 5 years is… QSR itself (and how brands get in their own way) 👉 The real story behind Women in Restaurant Leadership (WiRL), how it went from an "accidental" networking event to a 500-person conference and full media platform 👉 What’s changing at QSR Evolution 2026: new venue, upgraded production, and a keynote lineup that includes CEOs from White Castle, Shake Shack, Texas Roadhouse, and more 👉 Danny’s candid take on AI in restaurants: where it’s delivering ROI, where the hype got ahead of reality, and why small, practical wins matter more than moonshots ➕ PLUS: Danny shares his unfiltered view on the explosion of restaurant podcasts and the simple reason voice AI on the 📞phone📞 may be one of the most underrated opportunities in restaurants Huge thanks to Danny for the thoughtful, honest conversation and for everything he does to elevate this industry. If you care about QSR, the media in this industry, or where restaurant tech is headed, this one’s worth your time. 🚀🍔🤖📈

    26 min

  2. 12/12/2025

    Gary Liskovich, Founder/CEO @ Harmonyze

    🧠 FRANCHISE DATA ≠ FRANCHISE INTELLIGENCE 🚨 Today on 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends I sat down with Gary Liskovich, Founder & CEO of Harmonyze, a company tackling one of the messiest and most under-discussed problems in franchising: turning fragmented franchisee data into actual, real-world performance improvement through better coaching. 📺 WATCH AND LEARN 📺 👉 Why franchise business consultants spend 4x more time prepping for calls than actually talking to franchisees and how that breaks the coaching model at scale 👉 How Harmonyze "harmonizes" (see what I did there 😂) POS, loyalty, delivery, kiosk, LMS, ops, and even recorded leadership calls into one intelligence layer focused on EBITDA 👉 What happens when coaching shifts from reactive, anecdotal check-ins to daily, proactive, location-level insights pushed to the right people 👉 Real A/B test results where franchisees improved performance nearly 3x faster than control groups in the same quarter ➕ PLUS: Gary shares why most of the best coaching insights don’t live in dashboards or manuals but in recorded Zoom calls with brand leadership, and how AI can finally surface that tribal knowledge at scale ➕➕ PLUS PLUS: Rapid fire takes on gratitude as a daily habit, the future of franchise coaching, and the correct coffee order for a serious ops conversation ☕️ Huge thanks to Gary for the thoughtful, founder-level conversation and for building tech that actually respects how franchising works in the real world. 🚀

    15 min

  3. 12/09/2025

    Eric Caron, Sr. Director of Digital Products @ Caribou Coffee

    Today on 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends we sit down with Eric Caron, Senior Director of Digital Products at Caribou Coffee, a brand with 800+ locations, a fast-growing drive-thru footprint, and a LOT happening in digital. 📺 WATCH AND LEARN 📺 👉 How Caribou rebuilt its tech foundation - from reproducible data and controlled testing to a unified Flutter app and lightning-fast Stripe checkout 👉 Why the brand draws a hard line between helpful AI (smarter ops) and creepy AI (facial recognition, over-automation) 👉 What Caribou’s two store formats mean for digital ordering, loyalty, and creating the right guest experience, whether it’s a "just give me caffeine" day or a "stay for the moment" visit ➕ PLUS: Eric breaks down where menu boards, loyalty, and personalization are headed and why "just because you can doesn’t mean you should" is the guiding principle for tech at Caribou. Thank you Eric for the honest look at how a major coffee brand is modernizing without losing the human touch. 🚀

    23 min

  4. 12/04/2025

    Brendon Gilbert, VP Technology @ Vibe Restaurants

    On today's 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends: Brendon Gilbert, VP Technology at Vibe Restaurants! Vibe is a multi-brand franchise group behind 70+ Little Caesars, nearly 90 Wingstops, and a growing number of Whataburgers. 📺WATCH AND LEARN📺 👉 Why Brendon was hired as Vibe’s first tech leader and how early wins came from blocking and tackling rather than shiny tools 👉 How Vibe balances franchisor-mandated tech (POS, payments, hardware) with portfolio-level systems (ERP, payroll, HRIS, scheduling) to scale across three brands on its quest to grow from $200M to $350M 👉 What it takes to operate a brand that is 70%+ digital at Wingstop and why connectivity, failover, and single-number support matter more than buzzwords 👉 Brendon’s POV on AI-assisted scheduling, turning hours of manual work into a 15-minute workflow without losing local knowledge or hospitality judgment Huge thanks to Brendon for a practical, operator-centric conversation about scaling tech in the real world.

    15 min

  5. 11/17/2025

    Mike Lukianoff, Founder/CEO @ Signalflare

    Today on 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends we sit down with one of the sharpest minds in restaurant analytics: Michael Lukianoff, Founder and CEO of SignalFlare.ai. If you care about pricing, menu architecture, or the future of decision intelligence in restaurants, this episode is a must-watch.📺WATCH AND LEARN📺👉 Why the “last mile” of analytics has always been the industry’s Achilles’ heel and how Signalflare’s new Navigator product turns messy, multi-source data into simple, actionable decisions for non-technical operators👉 How mobile data, credit card panels, and true trade-area modeling reveal that restaurant overcapacity and margin compression are structural problems, not temporary ones👉 Why Mike believes most enterprises will need to rethink old data warehouse assumptions and why the next generation of restaurant tech requires a clean-slate approach to learning systems👉 How AI becomes smarter only when operators treat it like a learning partnership rather than a one-click magic solution. It is not plug and play. It is raise and teach.➕ PLUS: Mike explains why mispriced add-ons quietly destroy margins, why menu architecture deserves more attention, and why every great operator should use AI to learn, not to automate.Huge thanks to Mike for breaking down how decision intelligence is evolving and what restaurants must do to stay ahead in a demand-shifting, overbuilt market. This one is packed with clarity and operator-first insights. 🚀

    15 min

  6. 11/03/2025

    Eric Culton, Director, Multi-Unit Ops @ McDonald's

    🚨FIRST-EVER OPERATOR EPISODE ALERT🚨 Today’s 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends marks a big milestone. Every week we talk with founders, CEOs, and tech execs shaping the future of the industry. This time, we’re going straight to the front lines. For the first time ever, we’re joined by a franchisee/operator - someone actually running restaurants day in and day out - and there's no one better to kick this off with than Eric Culton, the ops leader behind a $30M+ McDonald’s portfolio across five Pacific Northwest locations. 📺WATCH AND LEARN📺 👉 How Eric’s Digital Ambassador program is driving in-store app adoption and higher digital mix 👉 Where vision AI is can deliver results (hint: speed, compliance, and ops visibility), and how Eric’s piloting it with Cambridge UK-based Tenyks AI 👉 How he’s using Slack and QSRSoft to replace chaos with clarity, and why email chains and group texts are officially done 👉 Why Eric believes the AI Integrator will be the leadership role of the future ➕ PLUS Eric’s rapid-fire answers on fries, drive-thru times, and what great operations feel like Huge thanks to Eric for helping us move into this new chapter.

    12 min

  7. 10/22/2025

    Greg Zamfotis, Founder @ Gregorys Coffee

    🚀TODAY on 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends we sit down with Greg Zamfotis, Founder of Gregorys Coffee — a specialty coffee brand that’s grown to 50+ locations while staying laser-focused on tech, unit economics, and coffee as a true social connector. ☕ 📺WATCH AND LEARN📺 👉 Why Gregorys partnered with Craveworthy Brands to accelerate franchising, and how their shared-services model is helping fuel nationwide growth 👉 How Greg balances hospitality first ("coffee as a third space") with automation and tech — from equipment that dispenses cold brew to personalization powered by AI 👉 Why he thinks the future of coffee tech is all about personalization and creating the perfect custom guest experience ➕ PLUS: Rapid-fire answers on espresso vs. cold brew, the Gregorys menu item he’d go out of his way for (SPOILER: 🍂🥤 Fall Oat Boy), and why he finds testing new tech exhilarating. Huge thanks to Greg for joining and sharing how Gregorys is scaling while staying true to its roots. 🚀

    15 min

  8. 10/14/2025

    John Schattinger, VP Technology @ Robeks

    🚀 New episode drop on 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends! Incept AI co-founder Justin Foster sat down with John Schattinger, VP Technology at Robeks, a fast-growing smoothie and juice brand turning tech into throughput across POS, loyalty, digital, and ops.  📺WATCH AND LEARN📺  👉 Why Robeks moved to a new POS solution and how it unlocked easier integrations and faster rollouts with partners.  👉 How shifting from dollars-for-points to a tiered, item-based structure improved margins and increased visit frequency for members hunting that free smoothie.   👉 Learn how Robeks' Harmonious Bites rollout is tracked with product mix plus retention and check analytics and guest sentiment to ensure upsell without cannibalization   👉 Where John sees practical AI: personalization and agentic coaching ➕ PLUS - What’s next at Robeks: John discusses first-party catering and digital voice ordering. ➕ PLUS PLUS: Shout-out to the vendors mentioned in this episode who are helping make it possible at Robeks: Toast, Olo, Bikky, Tattle, and PAR Punchh . Vendor teamwork makes the dream work! Huge thanks to John for a candid, metrics-forward convo.  #restaurants #qsr #loyalty #pos #AI #customerdata #smoothies #robeks #operations

    15 min
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On Restaurant Tech Trends, we interview movers and shakers in the restaurant industry to identify how technology is changing the way multi-unit restaurants work.

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  • Creator
    Justin Foster
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    48
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Justin Foster
  • Show Website
    Restaurant Tech Trends