Each week we take a look at the newest companies and tools in restaurant technology and filter them down to give you the 5 best topics of the week.

This Week’s Top 5 Stories:

You know how sometimes a simple app update can make ordering or payments easier for customers? Apple, the tech giant, just dropped major software refreshes across their devices, including expanded Apple Intelligence features. 

A key innovation for restaurants is the tool Live Translation in calls and messages, which could help with diverse staff or international tourists placing orders without mix-ups. Then there's Visual Intelligence for quick searches on screenshots, maybe useful for checking supplier pics or menu ideas on the fly. These new features may not be something you necessarily need to implement yourself, but just being aware of them is incredibly useful. Imagine a customer doesn’t speak your language, but he or she has an IPhone. If you want to impress them on your customer service, pull up the live translation on either your IPhone or theirs and watch as you bridge a gap that might not have been possible before. Overall, these updates make apps smarter, potentially improving your restaurant's mobile ordering or loyalty programs, as well.

I'm normally skeptical about over-relying on one company's ecosystem, since glitches could affect everyone at once, but if your setup already runs on Apple gear, this free update might enhance customer interactions without extra cost. Not to mention, IPhones are very common so the chances of someone in your restaurant having one and being able to utilize these tools is very high. It's not going to reinvent your kitchen, but it could smooth out some edges in daily ops.

Ever wish you had an extra hand that handles reservations and stock checks without complaining? MobiDev is a software development firm with over a decade in building POS and tech for U.S. restaurants, and they're highlighting AI agents as a rising trend. These are autonomous bots that loop through data, make decisions, and act on things like adjusting waitlists based on real-time traffic.

For restaurant owners, the upside is 24/7 coverage on routine tasks, like suggesting upsells from current inventory, which might cut waste and boost sales subtly. AI agents ensure consistency too, reducing human errors that lead to overbooking or stockouts during peaks. 

Here are some of my restaurant focused AI-Agent Ideas (if you like one, let me know and I’ll build it)

If your place is small and low-tech, setting this up might be more trouble than it's worth. It's valuable for scaling, but weigh if it truly beats your current system before diving in. 

AI agents automate the boring bits and they adapt on the fly.

If marketing feels like a constant headache between juggling emails and trying to figure out what actually brings people back through the door, you might want to hear about this new thing from Thanx. They're a company that specializes in loyalty programs and guest engagement software, basically helping restaurants track customer data and send out targeted offers without it feeling like spam. Their latest release, ThanxAI, is an AI that acts like a virtual marketing assistant, pulling data from your sales and inventory to whip up campaigns on the fly.

The real value here is how it saves time on stuff like segmenting your customer list, which used to take hours or even days if you're doing it manually. For instance, if you've got extra strawberries sitting around, you can tell that to ThanxAI and it will create a quick promo for strawberry specials, sending it only to folks who've ordered fruity stuff before. It's not magic, but it could cut down on those wasted ingredients and maybe bump up your foot traffic without too much effort.

One of the tags on their site is about how it shouldn’t take a data science degree to utilize data in your marketing. However, don’t expect to pick up this tech and start crushing your marketing right away if you are a small restaurant. This product seems to be geared towards bigger customers (their websites lists Blaze Pizza and some other “Enterprise Restaurants”).

This AI could quietly turn your customer data into more foot traffic. It handles the grunt work so you focus on the food. Worth a peek if marketing isn't your strong suit and if you have an extra hand to help with marketing.

Running a restaurant means dealing with those nightmare moments when your POS system lags during rush hour, right? Qu is a unified commerce platform that integrates ordering, payments, and operations for chains and independents alike, kind of like a central hub for all your tech needs. They’re definitely more focused on quick-service restaurants, but their tech is applicable in a lot of locations. They've just rolled out Qube, an edge computing setup that processes everything right at your location instead of relying on the cloud, promising near-perfect uptime even if the internet flakes out. In layman's terms, all of your processes (POS systems, kitchen screens, kiosks…) literally happen within your restaurant instead of in the cloud (aka some data center many miles away). What this means is you have way more control over your data and the reliability of your systems. 

What stands out for day-to-day ops is how Qube keeps things humming offline, so you're not scrambling if Wi-Fi drops during dinner service. It also sets the stage for fancier AI stuff down the line like voice ordering in the drive-thru, making transactions quicker and less error-prone. For a busy spot, this could mean fewer frustrated customers and smoother shifts for your team.

That said, if your current setup is basic and reliable, switching might feel like overkill and add to your tech stack complexity. But if downtime has cost you sales before, this could be a solid upgrade without being revolutionary. 

Edge computing is a fancy way of saying that the actual “computations” (aka your POS system running) occurs on the premises of your restaurant instead of in the cloud as they usually do. This might keep your systems running no matter what. It supports upcoming AI features too. Could be a game-changer for high-volume spots.

This you? – Staring at spreadsheets trying to make sense of why last week's sales dipped, and wishing for a quicker way to get answers. PAR Technology is a big player in restaurant solutions, providing everything from POS hardware to back-office software for chains like McDonald's and smaller spots. Their new Coach AI is baked into their ops management system, letting you ask plain questions about your data and get instant insights.

The handy part is how it crunches numbers fast, like spotting trends in labor costs or inventory waste, which could help you tweak staffing without guessing. Coach AI also promises future perks like ranked recommendations on where to cut costs or boost profits, turning raw data into actionable tips. For owners buried in reports, this might free up time for actually running the place.

Honestly though, if you're not swimming in data already, it might not add much value and could just be another subscription fee. It's promising for larger operations, but unless you have the ability to capture and store a lot of data (from which the AI can provide insights from), then this tool could very well be overkill.