Toast unveils an array of new AI agents for restaurants
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The Scheduling Agent can make a labor schedule in seconds, Toast said. Image courtesy of Toast
POS provider Toast has launched a host of new AI agents that are designed to automate more restaurant tasks, like making labor schedules and improving the website.
The new agents are part of Toast IQ, a built-in AI layer that debuted last year. Toast now has two categories of Toast IQ agents: Grow, which is focused on marketing, and the new Team, which is focused on labor.
The company also teased a few other new agents, including a menu-pricing agent, that are available for existing customers to test.
They join a wave of AI agents hitting the restaurant industry from multiple angles. There are agents from vendors like Toast, Square, and PAR designed to help operators run their business. And there are consumer agents, like Meta’s Muse or the OpenTable-affiliated Lola, that can help customers do things like make reservations.
Toast said its latest updates are another step toward building an “agentic platform that absorbs the hardest work of running a business.”
Toast IQ Team has several features, but perhaps the most notable is the Scheduling Agent. It is designed to build a labor schedule in seconds based on employee availability, expected sales, and overtime risk. According to Toast, restaurants using the beta version of the agent averaged 41% fewer overtime hours per employee than restaurants not using it.
Toast IQ Team also has AI-powered sales forecasts that can help operators make a staffing plan. Another new feature, called Team Performance, allows operators to create contests in the MyToast employee app to incentivize workers to promote certain menu items. It includes a live leaderboard.
Team starts at $60 per month, plus $9 per employee per month.
Toast is also adding more agents to Toast IQ Grow, which debuted in May. The new agents are focused on SEO, reviews, and offers.
The SEO Agent is designed to keep tabs on a restaurant’s online presence and find opportunities to improve visibility in search engines or AI-powered search. For instance, it might recommend highlighting a trending menu item on the restaurant’s website.
The Reviews Agent will automatically prompt customers to leave a review at various points, such as during online order confirmation. Customers who leave a negative review will be given “a direct channel to share feedback” so the operator can respond quickly. The agent can also give operators a snapshot of recent review trends or issues.
The Offers Agent creates marketing promotions aimed at specific goals, such as welcoming new customers or winning back lapsed customers. Offers are based on the restaurant’s own historical data.
They join Toast IQ Grow’s flagship feature, the Marketing Agent. It is designed to find marketing opportunities based on past sales data and then create and run campaigns around them with the operator’s approval. Toast IQ Grow also includes a human marketing manager who can work with the restaurant to fine-tune the AI’s work.
On its most recent earnings call, Toast said IQ Grow was its fastest-growing new product ever.
It starts at $699 a month.
Toast on Tuesday also opened “early access” to three other agents that it is developing. They are:
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Menu Agent: Works to improve the restaurant’s online menu by updating descriptions, finding missing or weak content, and making pricing recommendations.
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Answering Agent: Answers the phone.
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Configurable Agents: Allows restaurants to create custom AI agents from prebuilt templates that can do things like catch missed clock-outs, flag unusual voids, or forecast how much food to prep.
