Restaurant Tech Trends

Justin Foster

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. HACE 6 DÍAS

    Amar Narain, CIO & VP Information Technology @ Pizza Pizza

    🍕☁️ FROM DUMB TERMINALS TO CLOUD-NATIVE AI 🤖 Most restaurant tech leaders talk about digital transformation. Very few have actually lived every era of it. On today’s 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends, I sat down with Amar Narain, CIO & VP Information Technology at Pizza Pizza Limited. He's spent 20 years inside the same brand modernizing it step by step. We’re talking: • Unix + dumb terminals • multiple full-stack rewrites • cloud-native rebuilds • fully custom POS / digital / call center • and now AI agents All while supporting 800+ restaurants and 20M+ orders a year. Amar's experience is real-world, “don’t break the business” execution. 📺WATCH AND LEARN📺 👉 Why Pizza Pizza builds and doesn't buy its POS, apps, and call center stack and how owning the codebase lets them move faster and avoid vendor lock-in 👉 How driver tracking + SMS alerts improved delivery ETAs, reduced wait time at the door, and increased driver throughput 👉 Amar’s practical take on conversational AI for call centers: it must be as good as a human AND cheaper per interaction 👉 How they’re layering AI personalization into web + mobile so frequent guests see what they’re most likely to order first 👉 His no-BS modernization framework for legacy brands: reduce friction --> align to business goals --> automate ➕ PLUS: Amar’s thoughts on analytics, cloud transitions, and the operational realities most vendors never see from the store level. If you’re a CIO, CTO, or operator sitting on legacy tech wondering where to start, this episode is a masterclass. Thanks Amar for sharing the playbook. 🍕📞☁️ #RestaurantTech #CIO #Cloud #AI #POS #Delivery #HospitalityTech

    25 min

  2. 28 ENE

    Jim Taylor, Founder & CEO @ Benchmark Sixty, Author of Bold Operations: Building The Foundation Of Strategic Excellence In Restaurants

    🧠 RESTAURANT OPS KNOWLEDGE BOMB 💣 Today on 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends, I sit down with Jim Taylor, Founder & CEO of Benchmark Sixty Restaurant Services and author of Bold Operations: Building The Foundation Of Strategic Excellence In Restaurants. Jim has spent 20+ years helping restaurant operators cut through noise, rethink labor, and build calmer, more profitable shifts using people-first, data-driven playbooks. If you run restaurants and feel like labor metrics create more stress than clarity, this episode is for you. 📺WATCH AND LEARN📺 👉 Why most operators measure labor the wrong way, and why labor % is a result, not a strategy 👉 The 4 data points Jim asks for in every engagement and how they unlock productivity fast 👉 How a 26-unit restaurant group saved $600K in one year without cutting teams or burning people out 👉 The difference between high productivity and unhealthy workload, and why crossing that line drives turnover 👉 Why covers per labor hour may be the most underused metric in restaurant ops ➕ PLUS: Jim’s take on where AI actually delivers ROI today vs where it’s still early, why prescriptive analytics is the next big unlock for labor management Huge thanks to Jim for a thoughtful, practical conversation that every operator should hear. Full episode linked in comments.

    16 min

  3. 20 ENE

    Anthony Presley, CTO @ CBS NorthStar, Co-Founder @ TimeForge

    🚨NEW RESTAURANT TECH TRENDS EPISODE DROP 🚨 Today on 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends, I sat down with Anthony Presley, CTO at CBS NorthStar and Co-Founder of TimeForge Labor. Anthony has been building restaurant tech for decades and it shows. This conversation cuts straight through the noise on POS, kitchen AI, labor, and why “all-in-one” isn’t always the answer. 📺 WATCH AND LEARN 📺 👉 What Kitchen AI really means in practice: predictive cook times, real-time promise accuracy, and why static Excel-based prep times are still killing guest experience 👉 How NorthStar is using predictive kitchen timing to prevent Friday night meltdowns when dine-in, online, and delivery all collide 👉 Anthony’s candid take on AI scheduling: why black-box schedules fail, and why AI should nudge, suggest, and pre-populate instead of fully replacing managers ➕ PLUS • The most common (and costly) mistakes multi-concept operators make when selecting a POS • Where automation belongs in restaurants and where humans will always win Full episode linked in the comments 👇

    24 min

  4. 15 ENE

    Brandon Barton, CEO @ Bite

    🥷 RESTAURANT KIOSK NINJA ALERT🚨 On today's 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends, I sat down with Brandon Barton, CEO of Bite. Brandon's bar-none one of the most experienced voices in restaurant kiosks and in-store digital ordering. He's been in restaurant tech for 20+ years and has had a front-row seat as kiosks shifted from "nice to have" to mission-critical infrastructure across both QSR and fast casual. This conversation goes well beyond surface-level kiosk hype. 📺 WATCH AND LEARN 📺 👉 Why kiosks drive ~20% higher check averages when personalization and upsells are done right (and where brands go wrong) 👉 Why "anti-hospitality" is the wrong framing for kiosks and how choice (cashier + kiosk) is what guests actually want 👉 How Bite thinks about kiosk UX differently than mobile or web, down to finger usage and screen real estate 👉 Why voice AI on kiosks isn’t a guest or brand priority yet 👉 The biggest reason kiosk pilots fail (hint: it's not the hardware) ➕ PLUS: Secret menus, Shaq at Big Chicken, why pop-ups should be banned forever, and Brandon’s unfiltered take on POS complexity and integrations. This is a must-listen for anyone building in the in-store ordering space. Huge thanks to Brandon for the candid, thoughtful conversation! 🚀

    28 min

  5. 30/12/2025

    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

  6. 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

  7. 09/12/2025

    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

  8. 04/12/2025

    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
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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.

Información

  • Creador
    Justin Foster
  • Años de actividad
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodios
    52
  • Clasificación
    Apto
  • Copyright
    © Justin Foster
  • Mostrar sitio web
    Restaurant Tech Trends