Toast's AI knows better than you do

'It's actually outperforming what humans can do.' — CEO Aman Narang

All data is training data when AI is involved.

During Tuesday’s second-quarter earnings call, Toast CEO Aman Narang explained how the data his company collects — lots and lots of restaurant data thanks to the hard work of humans that work inside tens of thousands of restaurants — will help Toast build and sell AI-powered tools that know better than all of us.

The company launched its first AI-powered agent as part of a marketing product, called Toast IQ Grow, in May. The $499 per month add-on for Toast customers promises to drive business through personalized efforts led by AI but with additional human support to create and execute custom and marketing campaigns.

“We’re leveraging data and learning across 150,000-plus customers,” he said, learning what makes a successful ad campaign or a good online ordering website; understanding how restaurants function during busy times and slow times, and analyzing guest behavior and preferences.

Then Toast, which launched as a restaurant point of sale system 14 years ago but plans to evolve into an agentic toolset for businesses, uses that information to determine and execute the best, most optimized, most-likely-to-succeed action.

“That’s what’s really allowing us to build a platform where it’s actually outperforming what humans can do,” Narang said.

It’s catching on.