From kitchens to tech hubs: Inside fast casual’s digital revolution

Speaker A: Foreign.

Speaker B: For those of you leading fast casual brands, take note. The Fast Casual Executive Summit is happening October 4th through the 6th in Arlington, Texas. Save 20% when you register at fastcasual summit.com with the code podcast. Welcome to the Restaurant Operator podcast. I'm your host, Shara Kanzler, publisher of fastcasual.com, and we have a super exciting show for you all today as we talk about some of the brands that made this year's list of Fast Casual Top 100 Movers and Shakers and how their use of technology has given them an edge. Joining me is Luke Wildwerding, Vice president of North America sales at Elo Touch Solutions. And Elo was the top 100 report sponsor, so we are super excited to chat with you. Luke, how's it going?

Speaker A: It's going great, Shara. Appreciate the opportunity to be here today.

Speaker B: Awesome. Well, just in case our audience doesn't know what the top 100 list is, it's an annual report where we rank the top 100 brands and 25 execs in the industry. We receive hundreds of nominations, and then we use the Fast Casual index to aggregate performance, market sentiment, and growth to narrow down the rankings to 100. And then our panel of judges take those results and ranks the final winners based on leadership, tech, innovation, growth, and culture. So it's a very exciting list. We have big brands on the list and we have small brands on the list. Um, as most of you know, Cava was the top brand of the year, so we were super excited to give him that. Give, uh, their CEO that award at the top 100 gala in May. So, Luke, why do you think this list is important enough for you guys to sponsor each year?

Speaker A: Well, I'd start with, wow, what an incredible list. And having attended the event, incredible group of human beings that serve our population in some of the most important ways. I'll start with the business side. Fast casual folks have grown the business. They've doubled it in 10 years. So there's just tremendous growth from a business perspective in the fast casual segment. But as a technology company, we also like to think they're also the lead in innovation. Many of the things that they're innovating around end up in retail. They, they end up in different parts, uh, of our economy. Let's say in terms of what they're doing with loyalty, data capture, you start looking at vision applications, just, uh, self service, the, uh, education, training, labor management. All these different types of innovations are really centered around. It's QSR too. But fast casual and so you start to look at some of the lead innovators, and I love this CAVA example and hope to talk to you about it more. But as you start to look at what Kaba has done and others, they're automating, you're leveraging intelligent automation, they're using technology to their benefit and it really shows. So I would say that from an ELO and Zebra perspective, we were very eager to shoulder in on the top 100 because these are the groups of innovators and operators to follow.

Speaker B: Right. Well, before we get into everything, do you want to give everybody a quick rundown of what ELO and Zebra do? Just for anyone who doesn't know, I'd love to.

Speaker A: So Zebra acquired ELO back in October of 2025, and through this acquisition, we are now the world's leading platform. When you start to look at from farm to table or dock door to front door, we really cover technology across the entire spectrum. And whether that's food traceability, scanning, mobility, its self service, its interaction, there's a piece of our building block platform for everyone. And we have Histor from an ELO perspective been the point of sale. The self service kiosk, the kds, the drive thru technology, the large format displays and menu systems. And now through this acquisition, we're adding a massive amount of business intelligence and through sticky printers or printers in general, just like I mentioned, food traceability, RFID mobility. But again, as you start to look at how you innovate and the platforms that you choose to innovate with, you want to make sure you're working with a leader. And this again is where Zebra and ELO are really shining in terms of our overall platform approach.

Speaker B: Sure, for sure. Well, back to the top 100 we talked about. Most of these brands on the list are very tech savvy and we can't talk about technology without mentioning AI, which I feel like every podcast I do, it always comes back to AI. But that's what everybody's interested in. People are trying to get ahead of it, but I still think there's a ton of confusion around it. So I know that's kind of your sweet spot. Spot Luke. So if you were running, let's say a 200 location chain today, where would you spend that first AI dollar?

Speaker A: Well, and I think my guidance would be to step back and share. I had the opportunity on a previous podcast to talk about just Start, and I think that was the right guidance at the time. It would be just a start. Pick a language model, pick a partner work on certain categories. But um, I would also say at this time, in this juncture, in terms of AI maturity and where things are going, people have to really get their arms around their data. And so when we start to look at managing loyalty, traffic, labor, uh, and sort of the data optimizations you've got to look at, do you have a data lake? Are you collecting the data through your third party platforms that you might leverage? Do you own the data that they are collecting on your customers? But a lot of the AI portion of this really starts with the data. And I would joke and say restaurants are becoming a data center that serves food. And so as you start to look at this optimization and where AI can take us, if you're an operator today that doesn't have their arms around their data, you have to start there.

Speaker B: But how do you start there? I mean, how do you get, I mean are there what like platforms or apps or you know, ah, there's a million things out there. I think that people need help with kind of narrowing down some of those choices.

Speaker A: And I think just looking at this community of highly skilled operators, there are platforms that you can work with, like Biki as an example and I think that's uh, very much a part of this community. But they're very data centered and centric and they're saying let's get our arms around the data and then we can expand and build upon there. There's also this idea that do you start with an agentic first type of platform or point of sale and then you can build upon the agent capabilities, let's say, or the AI integrated into those platforms. But oftentimes there's the decision has to be made where's the data and then how do we create actionable insights on that data? And much of that's going to start with your investment, your partnerships with companies like ELO and Zebra. But there are other platforms like Biki, um, we work with Cluck, uh, and others that are AI native first type solutions. As you start to look at that direction, you have to figure out are you the organization that has the talent wherewithal to really get your arms around data or are you going to partner? And I think Shara, to answer that question very specifically, I think you've got to understand are you the company that's going to build it or are you going to buy it? But you have to start with your platform and this platform approach. Do you have the right platform where you can build upon? Are you still leveraging a deck, decades old point of sale system or just kind of plugging in various things to try to make things work and function. Because that would be a good starting point to say let's figure out how we're going to move forward for the next decade because it's going to be different.

Speaker B: Right. So are these platforms and capabilities, are they affordable yet for smaller brands or is this something that only big brands are doing right now?

Speaker A: I think the big brands are innovating themselves. I think a lot of the big brands are taking uh, this idea of make and because of we've all heard the terms Claude code and other uh, AI capable development platforms, they're looking at taking investment dollars and innovating in a unique way and fashion. And I think that's great, that's a good direction for your larger operators. But the smaller operators, where their focus has been food and serving and working with the people and their customers, how do they take and benefit from this technology revolution here? And I think that's going to be a buy discussion.

Speaker B: Okay, so what do you think? I mean we see all the sexy stuff, right, like all the robots and all that cool stuff, but obviously smaller brands and even medium brands, even big brands aren't ready for that. But what do you think in the next five years will be standard in every restaurant when it comes to AI, even you know, brands that only have 10 or 11 locations?

Speaker A: Well again, if you haven't adopted self service, that's just a starting point. I think when we start to look at the innovation around loyalty, exploring the full menu, the lift that you receive from self service, I think that's just a starting point. And I've heard the arguments that says, well, I don't want to lose out on the personalization, I don't want to lose out on the person to person contact. And I would argue that if you leverage self service appropriately, your employees become more of the ambassador, that will drive more brand recognition, help them explore menus further. But you're leading the horse to water. They'll know how to operate with you going forward and long term. But again that's a starting point that will drive you to innovate around your kitchen environments that will challenge this idea of what you're doing. For point of sale, you will start to add other services and optimize in different ways. When you start with some of the basic building blocks of where technology is going and what it's going to enable. And I really like you mentioned Kava. Kava is a fantastic one because when you look at kava, um, they're A leader in terms of technology. And yes, they're a bigger organization, but they're using AI to predict demand, optimize labor, improve inventory accuracy, reduce waste and create more personalized customer experiences. And they're doing it in a lot of different ways. And so again you step back and say how do we get started with those types of things? And it's really a make or buy discussion, but you got to get your arms around the data.

Speaker B: Right? Exactly. When you mentioned self service and kiosks, I'm with you on that. I think the best restaurants that do a really good job with that have a kiosk or two, but they do have a brand ambassador floating around and welcoming them in and showing them, hey, this is how you use it. Um, I have teenagers and one of my son makes me drive him to McDonald's to get out of the car and go use the kiosk because he doesn't, he wants to take his time and he's very picky and he customizes everything and he doesn't feel pressure from the employee. So I think Gen Z's are really liking that, that self service.

Speaker A: Sure there's a saying, people buy from people and it's a great saying, but I've never heard the saying that says people order from people. That just doesn't have a real ring to it. So it isn't an issue that you're using technology to order, but you still have to have a person to person element to build that brand loyalty. What you're about, the, the idea of who you are as an operator. And so I think it's not lost on self service, it's lost on not having some level of human interaction.

Speaker B: Exactly. Well, what part of the rational operations do you think is underserved by AI and where we can really get it? Is it at the drive through or training? What do you think?

Speaker A: Well, there's a lot of different ways you can take this and certainly the early adopters are going to be around labor optimization, food waste, just some of your basics. But I'm a big fan of training. When you start to look at what AI can do and it's not a big lift right now, but how do you start to integrate optimizing the human condition as I like to say, and help your employees be better at what they're doing and whether that's some basic task management, whether that's, if they have downtime, they can watch a video, uh, whether there's some reinforcements of observations that you're seeing in terms of your employees, you can now leverage your kitchen display system that has moved to touch in many many cases to do more with that kds. When you're not serving customers through orders or if something's going slower or something or other. How does your KDS help again push people along or make recommendations. But I start to look at training. Used to go sit in the corner, watch a video, uh, we're going to teach you point of sale or other. But how do we use AI to be more creative, more capable in terms optimizing employees? You will find that systems through the data we've talked about previously here. It's going to know when you have down times, it's going to know when the restaurant's a little slower. And so how do you start to interject better ways of optimizing your employees, ensuring that they're happy, enjoying what they're doing. Uh, and I like to say if you are trained, you likely can teach someone else something. And so we know that conversational AI is coming. But how do you educate people in having conversations with customers? How do you, I mean there's so many different ways that we can start to leverage technology whether it's the kitchen, the front of house, um, even the self service kiosks have capabilities in terms of education and making us better people, employees or other. And I think right now we're still a little one dimensional on this and I think it's going to expand uh, drastically.

Speaker B: I think that conversational AI is getting so much better. I was out of town last week and I uh, saw, sent a text message to a yoga studio and it took like six or seven interactions before I realized I was talking to AI. They were like how is, you know, why are you in town? And blah blah blah. And then I kept going. Then, then it just got to be a little, I could tell by the voice, just the, the way how formal they were speaking. But it did take a while for me to, for to figure it out. And then I was like, oh, I've just been talking to a robot.

Speaker A: Well I think as a population we've been around, Elo's been around for 50 plus years. And so as you start to look at the airport, uh, industry in terms of baggage claim and other, we had to have the ambassadors to help people understand how to leverage that self service capability. And the same thing's happening now. I think people now understand how to use a kiosk for ordering, the optimization, the convenience that it brings and there's also benefits to the operator. But this next level is how will Conversational AI play a part and where can voice be an optimization component of that? But me personally as a technologist, I've gone through and talked to the machines and after a couple interactions like agent, agent, agent, help, help, and then someone will jump back on the phone. But we know that many drive thrus are leveraging AI, conversational AI for that drive thru experience and sometimes it works really well, sometimes it doesn't. So I would say that we're getting to a point where it's capable now. It's just how do you balance between pure conversational AI and the human element and making sure that we have a way to operate. I think for self service ordering in some of the KDS components, there'll likely be a voice option or capability here. Long term, it's just how do you supplement where I'm saying agent or other, I want us to talk to a human. You're going to have the fallback of the touchscreen and this is where there's almost this beautiful orchestra of voice and touch interaction that will ensure that the conversational AI doesn't get stuck and that you have a capability of leveraging the touchscreen to keep the conversation or the ordering or other moving forward.

Speaker B: Yeah, and I think there's a really great opportunity for you to be able to use that technology specific to your branding. Like I was talking to the big chicken guys the other day and they're wanting to some, they want to introduce a kiosk that is Shaq's voice or the drive thru order where you're taking, getting the order from Shaq. So they're working there, so they're trying to find a partner to do that. So I think that, I mean that's just another extension of uh, brand marketing

Speaker A: too when you start to get into loyalty and we work with multiple partners that are using part of your voice, part of your facial recognition component to create an id. And so it's not all voice which can be spoofed, it's not all facial which is a little, it's your face. Right. So, but how do you leverage some of these components to create loyalty rather than typing in a phone number, swiping a card, scanning a QR code. And so I think as we start to look at innovations moving forward, there are state regulations that we have to be cautious of. But can you use partial biometrics to create a loyalty account and identification to streamline and further provide additional value to customers and the operators alike, uh, going forward? And so these are things that are floating around right now. But uh, you mentioned the voice component of this. Sometimes menus are deep, sometimes they're complex. And you can cut right to the chase in terms of navigation by just asking the question of the computer. And once you've gotten to the area that you want to get to or the type of drink or service you're asking for, you would then optimize through touch to finalize and conclude. And so like I said, there'll be an orchestra at some point in terms of how voice and touch will work together in perfect harmony.

Speaker B: Sure. All right, last question of the day. So the restaurant industry I think has gotten kind of a bad rap over the last several years of being slow to adopt technology compared to retail and airport and hospitality. Um, I think it's getting better. But what do you, do you think that the restaurant industry is going to be able to embrace AI quick enough or are we going to be lagging behind?

Speaker A: I think there's enough platforms today and we talk about AI. AI has been around for decades. The algorithms, the capabilities have been. That's not new per se. The big piece is how do you take a vision language model or uh, computer vision or other to optimize operations, how do you interject into a data lake optimizations and inference in terms of what your customers are doing, how to do labor optimization and food ordering, management of waste, etc.

Speaker B: Etc.

Speaker A: Those are big motions and likely platform directions. And so when you start to look at adoption, I think adoption is happening now. I think the front runners of this are likely using more flexible platform, uh, operating systems technology, maybe mobile first I'll use as a term which gives them the flexibility to adopt and go different types of pieces of a technology stack. And historically the systems integration side has been the bane of many's existence because to take a drive thru ordering product, take a mobile ordering, take a mobile pickup, uh, all these different ways that orders were coming into these systems, they all had integration components. And I think as you move to this agentic world and if you start with an agentic platform, you're going to start plugging in agents rather than the API integrations and others. It will create other complications, but it will streamline many of the processes and simplify a lot of the integration points. So I would say that I look at this fast casual group, this top 100 as true innovators. They're looking at intelligent automation in a whole new way. Uh, there was the avocadinator, there's just different things that I could rattle off where just some of the prep things that are happening. The way that they're leveraging technology is incredible. So is it as front and center as other areas? Maybe not. But I think if you talk to any operator they're weaving in AI into all of their operations today whether it's a platform that they bought or a simple language model that they're introducing. And so again I think it'll continue to move quickly as you start to see a uh, herd mentality let's call it. Uh, once a couple of these start to gain traction they see an roi. I think others are going to follow very quickly.

Speaker B: Exactly. Well Luke, thank you so much for stopping by. We appreciate your insights today. And for our audience, if you want to download the fast casual top 100 report, it's totally free. You just go to fastcasual.com we'll put a link up here. Other than that, let's have a great day. Thanks Luke.

Speaker A: Thanks Cher. Appreciate you. Thank you.