- 6 weeks ago
Jehad Affoneh, Chief Design Officer at Toast, is one of the creative minds behind Toast IQ, the company’s new conversational AI assistant that helps restaurants turn data into action. From identifying top-performing menu items to providing insights across sales and labor, Toast IQ helps give operators the clarity to run smarter, more efficient businesses.
Watch now to learn about turning data into action, designing for humans, and how AI is reshaping restaurants.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Watch now to learn about turning data into action, designing for humans, and how AI is reshaping restaurants.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
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NewsTranscript
00:00We were talking to a customer who said, I wish I can save hours so I can spend it elsewhere
00:03in the restaurant. His feedback was, Toast IQ gives me hours back in my week, time I get to
00:08spend with my family. Instead of being buried in reporting and trying to figure out what happens
00:13tomorrow and so on, getting home just 30 minutes earlier to spend time with my four-year-old is
00:19just priceless. Welcome to Restaurant Influencers presented by Entrepreneur. I'm your host,
00:32Sean Walchef. This is a Cali BBQ Media production in life, in the restaurant business, and in the
00:38new creator economy. We learn through lessons and stories. I am a paid creator for Toast. I am also
00:45the Toast unboxing guy. I'm on Toast's customer advisory board. Toast is the title sponsor of
00:50this show, which is why I was so adamant about bringing today's guest on. Toast has a fall
00:57product release that is going to shake up the industry, and I wanted to know everything about
01:02it. Today, we have Jahad Afone. He is the chief design officer at Toast, and he is here to tell
01:09us all about the products that are coming out and one of the most important ones. Jahad, welcome to the
01:14show. Thank you so much for having me. Jahad, you and I have gotten to work together hand in hand
01:19since I've been on the customer advisory board. I've been to Boston. I've seen the products that
01:25you and your team have been building, the feedback that the customers have been giving you, some of it
01:30honest, some of it brutal. Yeah. But let's start with your journey to Toast. Tell us, what is a chief
01:38design officer? What does your job entail? Yeah. So, first of all, thank you so much for all the
01:44feedback you've been giving us alongside the cab members and other customers. It's the way we
01:48build products. So, it's been awesome. So, the role of a chief design officer generally at Toast
01:56included is to think about the end-to-end experience of how we build products for customers, both from
02:01every individual product, as well as the way they connect together for best outcomes. So, if you think
02:07about the way you use Toast today, for example, you, an operator at a restaurant is using Toast on daily
02:14basis to make changes, whether to menus, whether to payroll, whether to market and generate demand for
02:20their customers. But they're also using Toast as an ecosystem, as the end-to-end experience of how they
02:26manage their restaurant. So, each piece of that experience matters, but actually, the way they connect
02:31together matter most. And then, the way they connect to the rest of how they operate the restaurant. So,
02:37not just Toast products, but what are you doing day-to-day? What happens when you need support? What
02:42happens when you open a new location? How do we take the operational overhead that you have as an
02:49operator and reduce it as much as we can? So, like, thinking about you as a person is kind of the best way
02:57to think about it. The best way I describe design, it's not my words, it's a famous quote for design,
03:02is design is the rendering of intent. So, if you think about kind of what is the intent of the
03:07person behind the screen, we do our best to render that intent in the way that you think about it as a
03:14person. I know we're going to talk about the fall release, but bring me back to the first product that
03:18you worked on at Toast. Lots of amazing products, but the first one that I spent a ton of time on
03:30personally with an awesome team at Toast is Toast Now. And it's been a lot of fun to kind of work
03:37through it, build it, and see the impact it's been made on restaurant operators. Toast Now is the
03:43mobile app operators use to manage the restaurant on the go. They use it many times a week to manage
03:51the restaurant, whether to get sales reports, take quick actions, turn on and off delivery orders,
03:55whether to dig deeper into their labor details. Or now, with Toast IQ, is to do a ton more on the go.
04:06And Toast Now has become also the way customers interact with support, with Toast support when they
04:11need help. And now it's also the way they onboard to Toast. So it's been kind of a transformation of
04:17how customers, the entry point to Toast for, you know, tens of thousands of customers.
04:21Bring me into launching Toast Now. I mean, how do you guys go for a product launch?
04:27Yeah. So one of the most fun things we did this with this fall release as well is we start building
04:33with what we call design partners. So a small group of restaurant operators, some Ken members,
04:38and some selected customers that we focus on selecting a variety of customers that represent
04:45the diverse group of who's going to use this product. And then we focus on building a customer,
04:51what we call a customer journey of thinking through what are the problems they're facing.
04:54So starting from the person, not the product. And then we start thinking about what are the problems
04:59they're trying to solve in that area specifically, what hypotheses and convictions that we have on
05:05the way we can help them solve it. And then we start iterating closely with them, with those
05:09partners on how we build that product. And then we start literally shipping every week to those
05:15customers. We connect deeply with them. We're on WhatsApp groups together. We're literally doing
05:20feedback on daily basis on every release and every iteration on things that work, on things that
05:25work, but don't feel right. Things that feel great, but not enough value, like getting into the details
05:31of things up to the point where we start scaling to dozens, then hundreds of customers. And one of the
05:39things we look at a lot is, are we creating raving fans in that early group? And until we hit that
05:45raving fans recipe, if we feel like customers can't put this product down, or they really are getting
05:50value, they're literally raving about it. They cannot wait to tell another customer about it. They
05:55cannot wait to tell their restaurant operator friend about how they're going to love it. Until
06:00we get to that point, we're not ready to scale. And then we start kind of scaling and iterating until
06:05the point where we're launching the product.
06:07What do you think was the biggest piece of feedback that made Toast Now what it is today?
06:15Lots of amazing feedback early on. A couple I can think of now. One is
06:22freshness of data matters a lot. When we first launched Toast Now a few years ago,
06:32but we tried to think about how important is it the immediate freshness of data, like live data
06:38versus a couple minutes late. And it's not just technical kind of thinking through the technical
06:44limitations and challenges, but also trying to think about what do you need right now that helps you
06:48make a decision. Sometimes a minute old data is actually more useful if we're able to run some,
06:54you know, some learning models on it to help you, you know, get more data. And what we realized is
07:00freshness is almost more important than anything else. We've heard that feedback loud and clear from
07:06customers. And actually, we saw once we kind of made changes to how we indicate that freshness, not just ship fresh
07:12data, but indicate to you that it's fresh, showing you when was the last time and so on. We saw usage just climb.
07:18Like that raving moment was very interesting. Another great piece of feedback was just the mechanisms of how you dig deeper on data.
07:27So what data point you need to see that can give you a signal that you now need to go three levels deep to
07:33understand versus a point of data that it doesn't matter unless two points of data up there need to be like kind of the mechanisms and the view.
07:44It actually helped us draw a full view internally of all data that Toast thinks through how that those data points
07:53interact together and what customers care about at what point. It was really foundational to how we think about
07:57data experience as a Toast.
07:59Yeah, I had Aman Narang, co-founder, CEO on our Restaurant Influencers show. I got to interview him during a sales kickoff,
08:06and I remember him talking about the Toast Now app and sharing a story about the fact that someone told him, you know,
08:16we would love the data, but we would love it in a mobile first fashion. Like Aman, do you if I need to go to email,
08:24I would log on to a browser and then check my email because emails that important. But how much easier is it with an email app?
08:31Yeah, that was kind of an aha moment for him, at least, you know, sharing the story of how important it is for a
08:38modern restaurateur that is mobile to be able to get all of that actionable data in a way that's easy to
08:46translate to operations and to actually make actionable items from it.
08:50Yeah, it's actually amazing. One of the like myth of when I talk about small businesses, restaurants, of course,
09:00but even more small businesses, there's this myth that like small businesses or restaurants are not tech forward or not data forward.
09:08I think like what you keep hearing and learning is they're not complexity tolerant. It's not that they're not data or tech forward.
09:18They actually are very data forward. They know the restaurant in and out. They might not be the way, you know, a large business operates with data, but they're actually very data forward.
09:31They know the signals. They especially ones who have operated restaurants for years. They can feel the signals.
09:37Yeah. And they can feel when something's not going well. They can feel when a data point, even though it says it's OK, it's not going to trend.
09:43OK, later on, they're actually very tech forward. They're just very complexity intolerant for good reasons.
09:48They have a time they're going through and figuring out how to get to the data point is is they're very intolerant for that.
09:54And it actually it's like it's great because it pushes us to be better in showing them what they need at the time they need it and then letting them react to that data and work through it.
10:03Did you know that Toast powers over 140,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada and UK?
10:11It's an incredible company. I'm on the Toast customer advisory board.
10:14They are proud sponsors of this show, Restaurant Influencers. We couldn't do it without their support.
10:19They power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego. If you have questions about Toast, if you're thinking about bringing Toast on to be your primary technology partner at your restaurants, please reach out to me.
10:31I'm happy to get a local Toast representative to take care of you. You can reach me at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram.
10:38Once again, thank you to Toast for believing in the power of technology, the power of storytelling, the power of hospitality. Back to the show.
10:46So I'm so excited for this audience, for all the people that have watched the show, supported this show to be able to share this year's fall release.
10:56Can you start high level with the products that you're releasing and then share the the most important release?
11:03And in my opinion, at least, go ahead. What are we talking about?
11:07We're really, really excited about Toast IQ, which we think of as your as your partner in managing your restaurant available both on Toast now and Toast web.
11:18So it's available with you on the go. It's available when you and you're sitting in front of your computer and you're doing either analysis in your data or need advice.
11:24And we've really thought through the way an AI partner can actually help you unlock, not just answer questions about reporting and data, which are deeply important, but also unlock insights for you both proactively and in answering your questions.
11:41Give you advice where you need it. And most importantly, in certain ways, take action based on those that that advice with you, obviously, as the as the person in command, as the operator in command.
11:54And we've been blown away by the way customers have been I've been using Toast IQ.
11:59Talk to me about artificial intelligence, just high level where we are in twenty twenty five.
12:04This is the fall release, obviously, chat GPT perplexity, all the things that are predominant in the news cycle.
12:11But every SAS product has their own version of A.I. and what they're doing with A.I.
12:17I think Toast IQ is completely different.
12:19I've had a front row seat to seeing how you've been working with the Toast Now app and the operators and the feedback of the things that we want to see and the prompts that sometimes I don't even know the right prompt to say.
12:30But you guys have done a really good job engineering prompts of of what I should be asking and what I could be asking.
12:37Talk to me high level just about artificial intelligence where we are today.
12:40Yeah, one of the things we've really focused on is kind of moving from the novelty of A.I., which is kind of how it felt three or four years ago, depending on the journey of like it's really cool that I'm able to speak to it in natural language and it answers me to the practicality of of what.
12:58Why does it matter for me right now and why is it twice as good as any other way of doing the things I want to do.
13:06So instead of like it's a novelty, it's everybody has an assistant now.
13:10And, you know, you have a generic assistance like chat GPT or others that can can can help you to what are the use cases and what are the experiences that matter most our customers and how do we build around them back to the human as the center of the of the experience.
13:29So one example I'll give you of how we thought about this in Toast IQ is we have what we call the for you feed, which is when you open the Toast Now app or on Toast Web, we are proactively surfacing for you insights that you should be looking at.
13:43We think you should be looking at things like, hey, you have more discounts than usual this week on this item or you have more voice than usual or this person on your restaurant is killing it.
13:54Their average sex size is climbing versus previous weeks and you should recognize them or, you know, everything from areas of concerns to areas of celebrations to areas of advice to things to look at.
14:05And one of the ways we we kind of we think about this is solving the blank page problem with AI where you open an assistant and like you can ask anything about the world.
14:17And that's kind of a daunting thought anything. Well, OK, what specifically, though, like what where do I start?
14:24So for you is kind of starts there with we're proactively trying to help you think through areas of your restaurants to look at.
14:32And then within every for you included, but within every conversation with Toast IQ, we also give you the next best question or the next best next best follow up or the next best action.
14:45There is always a way for you to keep the conversation moving.
14:48And that next best follow up. We call them follow ups is designed based on both your question.
14:54If you're the one asking or the for you insight as well as insights from the data.
15:00So if you say, for example, how's my restaurant doing this week?
15:03And part of the answer is we realize it's actually performing better than usual.
15:09The next the next follow up could be why is it doing better than normal or why is it trending better than the last four weeks?
15:16But a follow up could be were there any events in my and around me or was the weather better than expected that my restaurant performed better?
15:22It's kind of like trying to help you on. This is what you should dig deeper into.
15:25You can always obviously ask it yourself, but we're trying to kind of help you get into the lube of what to think through.
15:36And then we also focused on really why does this matter for restaurants?
15:43So we've spent a ton of time optimizing Toast IQ to be not just artificial intelligence, not just artificial intelligence for restaurants, but it's kind of like someone who's the way I think about it.
15:57For me, it's like someone who's worked every job at a restaurant for a couple of decades and has all the both joy of running restaurants and the experiences where they wish they knew in advance.
16:12They have kind of all that knowledge plus the world knowledge plus timely and fresh data.
16:18And they're there just for you to help you out.
16:20Yeah, I think one of the most exciting things for me using Toast IQ at Cali BBQ, we were getting ready for fall football season and we were having a manager meeting and the discussion was if we should open an hour early.
16:33So we open at 11 a.m. If we were going to open at 10 a.m. because football games kick off at 10 a.m. on the West Coast, you know, for us to have to go back to the office to pull up a spreadsheet to go into toast and look specifically every Sunday for 18 Sundays last football season.
16:51What were the sales and what were the labor? Instead, I prompted Toast IQ to let me know what were the sales, what were the labor and what's the recommendation?
17:01Should we open an hour early because we had high sales and it was a profitable time for us or should we just keep our hours the same way that they were?
17:10And within 15 seconds, we had a decision made in our business that saved us literally thousands of dollars or it would have taken us time to have to go into those reports to find the answer.
17:21Do you have another do you have another story of of how someone's used Toast IQ and unlocked?
17:26Yeah, one of the things about Toast IQ is it also changes the way you run things like it's not just saving time.
17:34It's we we have a customer who used Toast IQ to update their menu.
17:40So they they've they've been they've kind of been meaning to update their menu.
17:44They have not gotten around to it and they've spent a bunch of time kind of working with those IQ asking questions.
17:51What's working? What's not working? What items should I remove? What items should I add? What items are doing well? Not doing well descriptions that are not landing with customers.
17:58I don't remove the item, but how do I sell more of it and not just asking those questions, but they end up actually making pretty significant changes based on these things one at a time to the to the menu without leaving Toast IQ.
18:12And the cool thing thinking about that is it's not just it's easier.
18:16So their feedback was literally I did in an hour what I would have needed, you know, hours and days to do and interrupted time in particular.
18:23But it's also if you think about this one step further, it changes how you think about your menu.
18:28If you're able to test and change menu items in seconds and then see how the day goes and then change them back or or make changes.
18:36Your menu is now a dynamic representation of the food you make at your restaurant versus a set thing that you can't change or requires a ton of work to change or you change once a month.
18:46If your menu is that dynamic, the way you're able to test things and react to them is as dynamic if your scheduling is that dynamic.
18:55If you're if you're if you're so aware of events and weather around you, if if you're bringing data together in ways you've never done that before.
19:02It really changes how you how dynamic the business is, not just saves time.
19:10And one of the other things I'm one of my favorite use cases just like you were talking to a customer who said, you know, we always think of like, I wish I can save hours so I can spend it elsewhere in the restaurant.
19:21And what he said is those IQ gives me his feedback was those IQ gives me hours back in my week, which actually is time I get to spend with my family.
19:34Instead of being buried in reporting and like trying to figure out what happens tomorrow and so on.
19:40His feedback was getting home just 30 minutes earlier to spend time with my four year old is just priceless.
19:46It's actually, you know, worth more than than anything else.
19:49And it just kind of a representation of how it fundamentally changes how you think about your business.
19:55The more you use it, the more you're actually relying on it as your true partner.
20:00It's something that I mean, our first show was digital hospitality.
20:04It's something that we believe to our core that we as restauranteurs, we can run more profitable, more sustainable, more impactful restaurants.
20:13If we have great technology partners that give us the tools that we need to do exactly that.
20:18I mean, the last thing we want to do is get into this business and work seven days a week, 365 days out of the year.
20:24Don't make any profit and not see our friends, our friends and our family.
20:29That's why I think this is such a revolutionary product is that it's not only giving me information about my restaurant and my business and my historical business as well as my future business.
20:42But it also has the capability of going across other restaurants that are in the toast ecosystem.
20:48You know, the benchmarking ability to say, hey, I think I'm doing well as a restaurateur, but maybe tell me what's going on in the San Diego market.
20:56Tell me what's going on in barbecue restaurants.
20:58You know, in Southern California, those types of insights are extremely powerful because we've never really had access to that kind of information before.
21:06Yeah, it's funny. One of the one of the like there is there is you cannot underestimate the way just a few pieces of data beyond the four walls can change how you think about your business and running your business.
21:22When when I first joined toast before joining, I talked to a bunch of restaurants just about toast and the experience of toast and kind of both.
21:31I was really I was too excited to wait and I just really wanted to learn the business.
21:36And what really stuck with me, which sounds obvious to probably all operators, that was just really insightful for me is they talked about whether as much as they've talked about like, you know, sales data.
21:50Yeah. And because whether is obviously fundamentally important to you, you know, it's sunny today, you're likely going to have more people like whether impact scheduling, whether impact sales, whether impact the open the patio or not.
22:02And it's just an interesting data point. And the feedback was just one basic basic piece of feedback, like a like a like an improvement was it just so annoying that I have to check the weather app that I trust separately than just having it baked into my decision making process.
22:18And with those IQ, it's not just whether it's local events, it's what's happening around you, it's data, you know, from best practices and restaurants, best practices and kind of data to help you make the best decision possible.
22:36It's always about you making the decision, but it's to help you make the best decision possible.
22:40But it's just amazing how a few data points increase that your ability to feel in control, you know, by by 100 acts versus just a few data points and how we think about those data points.
22:52What separates Toast IQ from the other AI tools that are out there in the restaurant tech space?
22:58Yeah, I think overall, I think I think of AI in restaurants or what is going to be really differentiating as one is how you think about the use cases and the experience, because the technology is the technology and will continue to improve and we're seeing it improve on daily and weekly basis, not even monthly and annually.
23:20Like, it's amazing to think about where AI was just beginning of the year versus now, not even two, three years ago.
23:26So experience becomes like the really big differentiator.
23:29Have we really understood restaurants? Do we really understand the use case where AI is a novelty?
23:34That's like, cool to add, but it actually it's not adding a ton of value versus it's really, really important to I think it's the way it connects to the full ecosystem.
23:44Uh, it's, you know, it's helpful to be able to ask what, how much they sell yesterday.
23:50It's 10 X more helpful to be able to say, I want to forecast my sales and then I want to do my scheduling based on it.
23:57And then I want to see who can't make it tomorrow and then, and then get that all together as, as, as one piece.
24:02So like the ecosystem matters matters a ton.
24:05And the third piece, I think that would be hugely differentiated is, is how do we, um, how do we ensure that AI is truly your partner in that experience?
24:16Not just, uh, a robotic, uh, uh, uh, uh, interaction.
24:22Meaning, um, one of the use cases we, our customers use Toast IQ for us, just as an example, that that's really kind of shine very quickly is what F scenarios.
24:30They start with a sales question. They say, what if I open an hour earlier? What if I add this menu item?
24:35What if I remove this menu item? Uh, should I remove this menu item? Am I pricing my items correctly?
24:40So it moves from like, give me the facts to help me with an opinion based on industry expertise.
24:45And that expert industry expertise is not, uh, is not, it's just, it's not just the open web, although that's part of it.
24:52It's baked data from our customers. It's continuous. We've made hundreds and hundreds, potentially thousands of updates to Toast IQ.
25:02Uh, you know, the brain behind Toast IQ over the last, uh, uh, 12 months or so, as we've been testing it internally.
25:09And those updates come from deep understanding of every use case. We evaluate every single request that comes from customers to deeply understand its quality.
25:18Have we answered the question, right? Have we answered it based on the hundreds and hundreds of evaluations we've built internally, uh, to dedicate it to restaurants.
25:25So, you know, building a generic assistant is one thing, building one that's designed specifically for restaurants is, is actually super unique.
25:32Um, and the more closer we are to customers and they're thinking the more, the more we're able to make it truly your partner versus a generic partner to everybody.
25:42How do you instill trust in AI for the operator?
25:47I know many operators out there, doesn't matter the type of technology, but when the technology doesn't work, then they give up and they're less to adapt, um, adapt and adopt.
25:58Yeah.
25:59How do you deal with trust if Toast IQ maybe doesn't answer it correctly or answers it in a way that the owner completely, I don't believe that data.
26:10Yeah, we, we spend a ton of time on quality and quality evaluations internally.
26:17Um, both of real customer questions, but actually most importantly of testing.
26:22So before we release any new data point or action, we do extensive testing internally to minimize any, um, uh, quality issues.
26:30And we have multiple systems that look at data confirming the data and so on.
26:35Mistakes do happen, but we, we, we, we try to minimize them as much as possible.
26:39Um, the other piece is there are ways we're working to ensure that you understand where we got the data from.
26:45Yeah.
26:46So if you're, if you're thinking, I don't think I sold that much, or I don't think that's how much I sold.
26:52We, we want you to be able to go from there to, okay, here's the source of the data.
26:55Um, and obviously if, if it happens to be a mistake that you give us the feedback, there's a mechanism for feedback that you tell us that was the wrong data.
27:03And, and, and you should look into it.
27:05Um, and then the other pieces we, we focus, we spend, uh, uh, and, you know, great amount of the team has done a wonderful job.
27:15There's a whole team behind us.
27:18That's just amazing at a deeply understanding customers and deeply working on the engineering side of things.
27:22That, um, allows us to, um, allows us to spend a ton of time on the most asked questions.
27:31So for example, um, how many menu items have I, how many, how many, how I sold of that menu item, uh, is a question we get a lot.
27:39Just as an example, we spend a lot of time making sure that question, because it's a high percent of our questions is deeply accurate.
27:47The other pieces we are working on, especially for actions to ensure that there is an auditability trace for everything.
27:55So you're able to say what actions have been taken by whom.
27:57So if Sean used those IQ to take an action, you can clearly say it's Sean.
28:01You just like you, the intended action.
28:03You can look, look back at the prompts.
28:05You can, so you as a human can always have the power to look back and say, who did this?
28:10When, what, why?
28:11Um, and the, just the other fun, interesting kind of from testing with customers, we find customers actually build trust pretty quickly.
28:21Um, uh, so the first couple of moments matter probably more than anything else.
28:26Probably.
28:27Um, if the first answer is wrong, they lose trust immediately.
28:31If the first few answers are right, they start forgiving mistakes pretty quickly.
28:35Um, one example of that we see is a lot of customers start toast.
28:40Like you want, like the best way to use toast IQ is natural language.
28:43Like speak to it.
28:44Like we're speaking.
28:45Um, that's actually the best way to get the best answer.
28:47But because we were used to chat bots pre AI, we see a lot of customers that like robotically ask questions like sales data tomorrow or sales data yesterday.
28:56And they go from there to like the third or fourth chat message.
29:00It's like just a conversation.
29:01It's just like, you know, like, uh, we even see some customers in our user testing, uh, moderate user testing.
29:07And that would like, thank you.
29:08Or appreciate it.
29:09You know, they move from like robotic to amazing how people put trust with AI.
29:15If they get the first few experiences.
29:17Right.
29:18And obviously with a high, with a high part of college.
29:20So for toast IQ, it will be, it's available now and any toast user has access if they go through toast now.
29:28Is that, how does it work?
29:29Yeah.
29:30All our, um, uh, customers in the U S.
29:33Um, who, uh, have the permissions, the right permissions for it, uh, have access or permissions to the right data and actions and so on.
29:41Um, they have access today.
29:43If you go on toast now, it's, it's at the bottom of those.
29:45Now you can just click and ask a question or you can go to for you and so on.
29:49And on toast web, it's on the left.
29:52Now at the very top, you can click on it and start a conversation.
29:55And, uh, we're working on really cool experiences to bring it throughout those web as well.
30:00Where do you see toast IQ going?
30:02Um, our goal is to make toast IQ the way, the best way for you to interact with toast and the best way for you to manage your business and manage your restaurant.
30:11We think of it as running your restaurant at the speed of conversation.
30:14Um, we want you to really run your restaurant with toast IQ, like you're running it with a partner, trusted partner who knows you really well, who's out there to help you out, who really, really deeply cares about your business and who has nothing else in life, but to make you successful.
30:29And, and, and, and hopefully, you know, give you back time and, and, and improve your, your revenue and margins and so on.
30:36Um, so, uh, we're, we're, we're, we're probably at the very early innings of that journey, but moving as fast as, as humanly possible to get there.
30:46So I know you're not supposed to pick a favorite child.
30:49Um, I feel like the toast IQ product is probably the favorite child and the product released, but any other cool things that toast has coming out that, uh, that we should know about.
30:59Oh, I, I, I love all my children the same.
31:02I have one job.
31:04That works great for you.
31:08Um, we, we do, we, um, really excited about some of the, uh, work we're doing with toast advertising.
31:16It's in beta that, um, uh, uh, restaurant operators can easily create and manage digital ads, um, uh, on third party search and social media channels directly from toast.
31:29We've seen a ton of successful customer or seen a lot of successful customers, uh, uh, do this and really excited to see how the product evolves and how customers use it.
31:37Um, we're really excited about some of the work we're doing in, uh, benchmarking and improvements to benchmarking, especially as it integrates with other data points.
31:45And, and toast IQ, your ability to look beyond the four walls of your restaurant and ask about what other, uh, um, uh, barbecue restaurants are doing, or, or, or is everybody seeing this trend that I'm seeing in sales or, or so on.
31:59And we take a ton of, uh, care to ensure data is anonymized and dealt with in the right ways.
32:04Um, and we're really excited about some of the work we're doing with the AI marketing assistant, um, and the way we're helping you market to your, to your guests, uh, better with AI.
32:13Uh, it's been wonderful to see the reaction of customers and how they, how it's made.
32:18Uh, you know, there is not all restaurant operators or not most restaurant operators are, are, are, are professional marketers or, or actually, or even want to spend the time to, to think about marketing.
32:29Um, and it's been wonderful to see how they're using the AI marketing assistant for, for, for some of that.
32:34Um, which will bring soon to toast IQ as well.
32:37You recently launched a newsletter.
32:39Why?
32:40I go back every year or so, or two years to, to, to relaunching it.
32:45Um, I, I think writing is the best way to articulate clear thoughts.
32:51Yeah.
32:52Yeah.
32:53And in times where there is a lot happening and AI is one of those times, uh, to me, writing is one of the best ways to, to iterate on your brain's way of thinking.
33:05It's like the brain iterating, um, to me, it's much better than, than talking or, or, or debating because it allows you to read and reread the way your brain is, is formulating things.
33:16Um, and, um, I find sharing that thinking publicly to be one of the best ways to both tell your story as, as you always say, Sean, and, and also, uh, the best ways to hold yourself accountable to thinking.
33:28Um, because if you don't do it or you don't, or you do it just with yourself, it's helpful.
33:33I still write on my own as well, but doing it publicly allows you to put it out there, which forces you to have a little bit higher quality, but also allows you to have the response back of either.
33:44I read it was useful or, or actually I think about it differently.
33:48Yeah.
33:49Um, so it's been wonderful kind of to, to have that, to have that, to have the ability to have that discussion.
33:55Uh, I, I thoroughly enjoy reading it.
33:57That's why I brought it up.
33:58It allows me to have a different perspective.
34:00It's one of the things that I appreciate about toast.
34:03Uh, I know that toast doesn't build products for restaurants.
34:08They build products with restaurant tours.
34:11You have always been side by side and building products.
34:14And so many of the humans on the team, the people that I get to interact with the cab, the people that power all the restaurants and hotels and grocery stores that you guys are now operating in.
34:23Um, they truly care.
34:25And the diversity of thought makes me excited about the future makes me excited about where we're going with AI and especially with toast IQ.
34:34Um, what's your hope for the next, the next year now with how fast things are moving.
34:40Just the AI open, open AIs announcements and all the things that happened.
34:44What, what is your hope for the restaurant industry?
34:46I think, um, I think restaurant operators are some of the most hardworking, most passionate people you'll ever meet.
34:57And I think I'm personally really passionate about ensuring they have the help they need.
35:04They have the support they need.
35:05They have the partnership they need, whether from toast or AI or, or, or otherwise.
35:10And they have the, um, kind of one angle I think about a lot is how do we ensure that the most successful they could be?
35:18The other angle I think about how do we ensure that they're having the most joy running the restaurant?
35:25Mm-hmm.
35:26They, they open the restaurant restaurant operators open the restaurants to, to both.
35:30Obviously it's a business to, to run the business, to join a business on, but they also open the restaurant because they really love hospitality.
35:39They love sharing their, their food and recipe with the world.
35:42They love the way it impacts their local community.
35:45We talked to a ton of restaurant operators who say, um, you know, this is a, this is not just about me.
35:51This is about my community.
35:52Like I do want to make more money.
35:53I want to improve my margins, but I also want to be a better, more connected to the community.
35:57I want to spend more time with family.
35:59Like I have different goals than just the business.
36:01I think that's pretty unique to restaurants.
36:03I think we take it for granted, but I think it's pretty unique how ingrained restaurants in our local community.
36:10Um, and I hope that toast IQ and the work we're doing there is going to give restaurants more and more help, uh, both on the operations and revenue on margins, but also on the bringing back joy to the way they run the restaurant.
36:24So I'm really excited about this next segment, which I haven't prepared you for, which is your personal tech stack.
36:30It's the first time I've had a chief design officer on, and I get to ask you about your personal tech stack.
36:36Are you iPhone or Android?
36:38iPhone.
36:39Which version?
36:40Uh, I have the 16 pro 16 pro 26.
36:45And how do you do notification management on your phone?
36:48Not very well.
36:50I'm not, not, not super well.
36:53Um, I, I do, uh, I used to wear an Apple watch and I just couldn't keep up with notification.
36:59I can't turn them off.
37:00It gives me OCD, but also I can't, I can't, you know, I can't keep up.
37:04Um, but I, I have a stack of like importance.
37:09Um, I get to email the last, I get to slack at work.
37:14I get to slack, uh, almost immediately.
37:17And then text message means we're going to talk right now.
37:20Like you're, you can get me right now.
37:22And so I, I look at my phone that way as well.
37:24When, when I get notifications and then at home, I have almost all notifications disabled
37:29if it's not communication.
37:30Okay.
37:31And you're, do you prefer phone calls or text messages?
37:34Text messages, text messages.
37:36Yeah.
37:37How many emails do you get a day?
37:39Um, emails at dozens, dozens.
37:43Dozens.
37:44Yeah.
37:45You get a filter.
37:46You have good, you got good filter.
37:48I should say those are the ones in my inbox versus filtered out.
37:52Uh, but, but dozens, probably dozens a day.
37:55Okay.
37:56Uh, Apple maps or Google maps, Google maps.
37:59Uh, do you listen to music on your phone?
38:02I do.
38:03Which platform?
38:04YouTube music, YouTube music.
38:06Okay.
38:07Where do you listen to podcasts?
38:08Um, most of the time, actually YouTube.
38:12I like the ability to check in once in a while on the video.
38:16Um, if it's like a passionate discussion, I want to actually be, be engaged, but at the
38:20same time I can just put it in my pocket and listen to it.
38:22So most of the time actually YouTube.
38:24Um, and what's your guilty pleasure app that people don't know that you log into?
38:29Ah, that's a good question.
38:30Um, I can look at my phone.
38:34That's a good question.
38:35Um, lately, this is a lame answer, but lately, um, it's been actually, cause I just saw the
38:45notification and lately it's been replet.
38:47I've been building a bunch of apps with AI and it's been kind of my guilty pressure between
38:53meetings and so on with like, I have an idea and I just go in and spend.
38:57Amazing.
38:58We're building it and in between, and they released a new agent where it worked.
39:03The agent works in the background for 10, 15 minutes.
39:05So I can just say like, actually that's not what I meant to make this update and put my
39:09phone down and look back.
39:11And probably that's where I'm spending a ton of time lately.
39:15That's amazing.
39:16Well, if you guys have any questions for me, I'm weirdly available at Sean P Welchef Instagram
39:22is probably the fastest, but LinkedIn, all the platforms I'm available.
39:25If you have a toast IQ story, I would love to hear it.
39:29So please send me a message.
39:31Um, we want to hear all the toast IQ stories.
39:33How is it helping power your restaurants?
39:35If you have questions about toast, uh, happy to answer those questions.
39:39We'll put links into the show notes, into the article.
39:42Uh, Jihad, thank you so much for taking the time to share this very important, monumental
39:48moment for restaurants.
39:49Um, it's not just restaurants, it's small business, but what toast is doing.
39:53I'm, I'm so grateful that I've had a front row seat, um, be able to give feedback, but,
39:58um, to be able to experience it, it's, it's really exciting.
40:01And I'm, I'm honored that you came on to, to share today.
40:03So grateful for, for your feedback and for having me on the show.
40:07And if you're a toast customer and use those IQ, um, please share.
40:11Um, please share feedback with us.
40:12We read every single piece of feedback that you share.
40:14Uh, the team is, is, is really excited to get feedback from, from our customers.
40:19So we're, uh, um, thank you for allowing me to talk about this for a while.
40:23Of course, as always stay curious, get involved and don't be afraid to ask for help.
40:27We'll catch you guys next episode.
40:29Thank you for listening.
40:30If you've made it this long, you are part of the community.
40:33You're part of the tribe.
40:34We can't do this alone.
40:35We started, no one was listening.
40:36Now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.
40:40Please check out our new series called restaurant technology sub stack.
40:45It's a sub stack newsletter.
40:46It's free.
40:47It's some of our deep work on the best technology for restaurants.
40:50Also go to YouTube and subscribe to Cali barbecue media, Cali BBQ media on YouTube.
40:55We've been putting out a lot of new original content.
40:58Hopefully you guys like that content.
41:00If you want to work with us, go to eat the show.media.
41:03We show up all over the United States, some international countries.
41:06We would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling.
41:10You can reach out to me anytime at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram.
41:13I'm weirdly available.
41:14Stay curious, get involved.
41:15Don't be afraid to ask for help.
41:16We'll catch you next episode.
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