Sunday, 8 March 2026
Saturday, 7 March 2026
Your favorite restaurant is becoming a tech company
Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
- Restaurant chains from Taco Bell to Starbucks are experimenting with AI and other tech.
- The investment is intended to improve efficiency, protect margins, and drive traffic.
- However, there's a balance to strike between cutting-edge tech and hospitality-focused service.
Not long ago, a restaurant's edge was its secret sauce. Now, it might be its source code.
From McDonald's "Experience of the Future" initiative, which expanded the rollout of in-restaurant kiosks and app-based ordering, to Chipotle's Autocado, which automatically cuts and peels avocados, the trend is accelerating across the industry. Even Starbucks, long known for its human-centric "third place" positioning, recently introduced a generative AI tool for baristas called Green Dot to provide real-time support inside stores.
Whether they're selling pretzels, burgers, or lattes, major chains are building internal AI copilots, rearchitecting their data systems, and operating their restaurants like interconnected tech platforms. The new competitive edge isn't just menu innovation — it's technological infrastructure.
As Amir Hudda, CEO of restaurant tech company Qu, told Business Insider, for fast-casual and quick-service brands, a restaurant is both a retail storefront and a manufacturing center "in one room, where the product expires in 30 minutes or less."
Increasingly, that manufacturing center runs on software, and adapting to the shift isn't just riding the appeal of a shiny new tech cycle. It's a survival strategy.
Consumers are more price-sensitive. Labor costs are up. Delivery and mobile orders now flow in from multiple channels at once. And in a K-shaped economy, where affluent consumers keep spending while others pull back, restaurants are fighting to protect both traffic and margins.
Technology promises to both drive revenue and cut costs. But it also raises a deeper question: At what point does a restaurant stop feeling like a restaurant and start feeling like a vending machine?
Restaurant operators or project managers?
At Taco Bell, CEO Sean Tresvant describes digital operations as a pillar of the brand's "magic formula," alongside value and innovation. The chain is testing voice AI in hundreds of restaurants, with a focus on improving the experience for staff and consumers. Loyalty programming, he told Business Insider in February, "is going to continue to be a big story for us."
At GoTo Foods — parent company of brands including Auntie Anne's, Cinnabon, Jamba, and McAlister's — CEO Omer Gajial told Business Insider the company is investing in unified POS systems and customer data platforms to better segment and re-engage guests. Loyalty members already visit their favorite brands more often than non-members, so the next step, he said, is "having a high level of precision around the different offers made to the right customer segment."
AI tools are being carefully layered in, Gajial added, to improve operations before reshaping the guest experience.
Burger King has gone further, building its own internal AI system called BK Assistant. Chief digital officer Thibault Roux told Business Insider the company now uses AI to generate real-time "next best actions" for managers, like flagging out-of-stocks, surfacing performance metrics, and simplifying back-office work.
"We really want to emphasize the word 'assistant,'" Roux said. "This is meant to help them in their work, not replace them."
For Hudda, who helps restaurants implement tech solutions, that infrastructure shift has been a long time coming.
For decades, restaurants operated under a simple model: orders were placed, prepared, and consumed under one roof. Today, orders flow in from apps, delivery platforms, kiosks, and counters, all feeding a single kitchen that still functions like a high-speed manufacturing center. That shift created enormous complexity, but many brands didn't redesign their tech stacks to match it. Until now.
Hudda argues that modern restaurant tech isn't just about AI features, it's about unifying data at the core. Labor, loyalty, inventory, and delivery all ultimately depend on the point-of-sale system and the human staff operating it. If that foundation isn't resilient and unified, everything else becomes harder to manage.
"Without a strong core, layering on AI is just decoration," Hudda told Business Insider.
Hospitality is still the heart of the industry
Mike Perry, founder of creative agency Tavern, argues that many chains are moving so aggressively toward efficiency that they risk eroding what made customers love them in the first place.
"If you're going all tech and no human, you're just losing brand touch points," he said. In his view, restaurants aren't really selling food — they're selling hospitality. Strip away too many human interactions, and you're left with what he calls "a really, really fancy vending machine."
He points to Chick-fil-A as a counterexample: a brand that uses significant technology behind the scenes while keeping hospitality front and center in the drive-thru. "The tech backing is really making that all function," he said, "but the front end of that is person-to-person hospitality."
Wall Street is watching closely to see which approach wins.
Motley Fool analyst Asit Sharma says the K-shaped economy is squeezing traffic, particularly among price-sensitive diners, making automation and AI-driven efficiency more urgent than ever. And if the "wealth effect" fades, discretionary spending can soften quickly, further underscoring the need for brand loyalty and repeat visits.
Restaurants are investing in tech to protect margins and counting on loyalty to protect traffic; a balancing act that can't come at the expense of hospitality.
Because no matter how advanced the AI gets, someone still has to make your coffee — and make you want to come back tomorrow.
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Friday, 6 March 2026
I went to ClawCon, where OpenClaw obsessives ate free lobster tails and debated about AI
Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider
- I went to ClawCon in New York, a gathering for fans of Peter Steinberger's open-source AI agent OpenClaw.
- The event was packed full of AI fans looking to network and debate about LLM models.
- "People in this room probably are not developers," organizer Michael Galpert said. "Their agents are developers."
AI agents haven't yet taken over, but their fans are already swarming.
On Wednesday, hundreds of OpenClaw fans packed tightly into a West Village event space to network, fan out, and munch on lobster tails. Engineers from Big Tech companies and AI labs debated the merits of vibe coding while nursing Modelos.
Sitting in the audience for the event's live demos, I felt the AI fever.
Attendees didn't seem so enamored by OpenClaw — when one presenter asked whose lives had been changed by the agent, almost no hands raised — but people seemed excited by the branding and the ability to chat among AI fanatics.
Take a peek inside the room dotted with lobster headbands and corporate backpacks.
Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider
I arrived at Ideal Glass Studios at 6 p.m. on the dot, right when the doors opened. The line had already grown two blocks long.
Navigating to the back of the line, I spotted some tell-tale signs of techies. The man in front of me wore an Anthropic hat. The man behind me had no bag; he was just holding his laptop.
Walking down the line, a heckler chanted: "You guys are ruining society! Don't use AI."
Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider
While my ticket was scanned at the door, I watched a bouncer escort out three attendees who he said were only on the waitlist. Tickets were free, but space was limited.
Walking inside, the first thing I saw was the density of the crowd. It was packed, loud, and most didn't take off their bulky backpacks or coats, even though there was a coat check.
I also spotted branding, and lots of it. The event had a slew of sponsors with advertising tables, posters, and stickers. Many of the live demos later in the night were also performed by sponsors.
Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider
At the center of ClawCon was a towering table of lobster tail. Staff helped serve them up on small plates. Walking around, I saw multiple founders pitching products between bites of the tail, fishing it out of its shell.
It was fitting: OpenClaw's mascot is a lobster.
Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider
Every attendee got one drink ticket. Relatively few of the attendees I saw were drinking, meaning the bar was quiet. I saw a few engineers order Modelos and glasses of Prosecco.
Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider
The event's energy was buoyant. Walking around, people seemed truly excited to be there among like-minded AI-pilled folks.
Wearables were common. I spotted at least two attendees wearing Meta AI glasses with the flashing recording light. There were also a handful of influencers filming themselves and others.
In New York, people often lead with their work. Here was no exception: I heard countless engineers debating which tech companies were the best (and worst) to work for.
Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider
I found a seat and listened in on some conversations. One Amazon engineer told an Uber engineer that he was doubtful of OpenClaw, but came because he was open-minded and loved AI.
Host Michael Galpert got onstage to introduce the evening. He explained the meetups' short history, dating back to the first ClawCon in San Francisco a month ago. Notable attendees to that event included Marissa Mayer, Ashton Kutcher, and OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger, he said.
I hoped that Steinberger would show up in New York, but I had no luck. (He's likely busier than ever, having recently joined OpenAI.)
"People in this room probably are not developers; their agents are developers," Galpert said.
Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider
Galpert introduced Vincent Koc, one of OpenClaw's maintainers. The team shipped 194 features and fixes on Tuesday, Koc said.
Some folks chuckled when Koc referenced "normies" embracing OpenClaw, including Baby Keem and Andrew Tate (both of whom have posted about it on X).
This was when the room's noise began to build as well. Those who couldn't get a seat were chatting, making it hard to hear.
Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider
Then came a series of demos. Some were truly fascinating, like a researcher who used OpenClaw to manage his colony of mice. Another presenter said he used OpenClaw for paper trading with the goal of eventually earning passive income.
A few had technical difficulties, making them less demos and more presentations of screenshots. Many also felt like ads, hawking their product and promising free tokens.
Meanwhile, the room was getting louder and louder. Galpert tried to get folks to quiet down, but said that there were no speakers for those in the back of the room, so he couldn't blame them.
Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider
Reaching the end of the demos, I looked around.
Many of the seats were empty. Those in the rows ahead and behind me had stopped listening and started talking among themselves.
I'm not sure folks were leaving, per se, so much as joining the crowd. The event was for networking and meeting other AI devotees; at some point, sitting silently and watching demos lost its luster.
Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider
The final demo was my favorite.
It was more of an explanation, as the artist Fiona Aboud told us about her parenting agent. Aboud is a mother to 19-year-old twins. Her OpenClaw is a "handholder" for parents, allowing them to ask questions, track feedings, and make charts.
With that, the demos were over. I walked around a bit, snapped a few photos, and left.
On the train home, I saw people on X comparing it to the early days of crypto. That seemed accurate, I thought: all the excitement and excess, wrapped up in one deliciously nerdy conference.
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I'm British, but I grew up in Dubai and feel totally safe here. Most residents are going about their days like normal.
Charlie Lovett
- Charlie Lovett, a British citizen in Dubai, said he feels safe despite Iranian strikes.
- Lovett said Dubai has always felt safe and that residents have a lot of trust in the government.
- He's stuck in Dubai and trying to get out to run the Barcelona marathon this month.
This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Charlie Lovett, a British citizen in Dubai who runs a used-car marketplace. Iran has launched retaliatory strikes at sites in the United Arab Emirates after being attacked by the US and Israel. This story has been edited for length and clarity.
I have British parents and am a British citizen, but a large chunk of my life has been spent here in Dubai.
My dad's job brought us here, so I did all my schooling here from age 3 to 18. I moved back to London for university and worked there for a few years. In the last couple years, I set up a business in the UAE, so I am back here quite a lot.
It was very surreal when everything started on Saturday.
I had some friends around, and we knew what was happening in Iran, but I didn't think much about canceling or changing plans, which is a testament to how safe I felt here. I live in a high-rise on the Palm Jumeirah and was sitting on my balcony when I could hear a few bangs in the area.
Initially, it was quite scary and very unsettling, but very quickly, I turned to government sources about what was going on. If you live here or have lived here for a long time, you understand that it is a safe place to live and that measures are in place to protect you. There's been a big difference in reactions between people who live here and people who are visiting.
Growing up in Dubai instilled a strong sense of safety
Before the other day, I had never heard a missile here.
Still, having grown up here, I have a deep-rooted, subconscious sense of safety that has built over time.
There is a lot of trust here within the community and in the government. Half the time, we don't even lock our doors. The other day, I went for a run and didn't want to carry my car keys, so I just left them in the car. You don't have to worry about these things here. It's the small things you notice growing up here, as a kid, being able to play outside for hours without a parent.
You also get an understanding of how the government operates. It's very structured and organized. You feel like you're in safe hands. For instance, during COVID, everything was handled very well.
There are protocols in place, and people here are really good at following them. If you're told not to go into the office, for example, people don't really kick up a fuss about that. They just crack on.
On all the official government channels, you can see almost a live breakdown of everything that's happening and an explanation as to what's going on — like that the sounds aren't necessarily missiles landing, they're just being intercepted. The government also sent out iPhone notifications, all translated into both English and Arabic.
Right now, for people who live here, I think the consensus is it's just business as usual. Everyone's quite calm.
It already feels normal again. There's the occasional loud sound, but that's mostly subsided in the last few days. There's a mall right next to me where I work and shop, and it's been packed. There are people out and doing things and just going about their day. I was just out for dinner with my dad.
There's a lot of conflicting information going around
If you're not from here or if you're here on holiday, I get that it would be very different. You're in an unfamiliar environment, you don't know how things work, and you don't necessarily have family or friends around.
I also think some people may be scrolling online or seeing rumors, rather than following the official channels. I think there's been a lot of mixed reporting, which can also confuse things.
I've got family and friends in the UK, and my girlfriend's there at the moment, so they're seeing what's being reported in British media and what's surfacing online. So there's this huge discrepancy in what's actually happening and what's being shared in certain places.
I got here just over two weeks ago. I'm trying to leave, not because I'm evacuating, but because I'm trying to make it to the Barcelona marathon. It's just a matter of finding a flight that'll get me there in time. Afterward, I'll return here when I can.
For people who live here — about 90% of whom are expats — the thought of this happening wasn't even in our minds until last week. But even then, it has not shifted our perspective. A lot of people feel more comfortable staying here than they would going back to their home countries.
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Thursday, 5 March 2026
Major US trade groups are pressing the Trump administration to distribute tariff refunds 'en masse'
Mary Altaffer/AP
- Major trade groups in the US are trying to hasten tariff refunds to small businesses.
- They argue that the refunds are "existential" for small businesses and startups.
- The Supreme Court ruled in March that Trump's tariffs were illegally imposed.
US trade groups are pressing President Donald Trump and his administration to quickly pay tariff refunds to small businesses.
In a joint press release, the Consumer Technology Association and the US Chamber of Commerce said they had filed a brief on Wednesday in V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. Trump, a lawsuit by small businesses seeking refunds from Trump's sweeping tariffs.
"The brief argues that an efficient, orderly process to deliver refunds is in the best interest of all parties — the Administration, the courts, and American businesses," the press release wrote.
"On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of businesses, especially small businesses, that are now owed refunds, the Chamber and CTA are asking the court to establish an efficient, orderly process to deliver refunds en masse," Neil Bradley, the Chamber's executive vice president, said in the release.
He added that the trade organizations were concerned that other parties might try to benefit from the refund process, and "the last thing our system needs is for the trial bar to be profiting off refunds owed to small businesses."
"While this matters for every American company, refunds are existential for the many smaller businesses and startups who shouldered the tariff burden," Ed Brzytwa, CTA's vice president of international affairs, said in the release.
The trade groups' filing comes after the Supreme Court ruled, in a 6-3 decision in February, that Trump's tariffs were illegal and that his justification for invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act was invalid.
And on Wednesday, Judge Richard K. Eaton of the US Court of International Trade ruled that US businesses that were subjected to tariffs are "entitled to the benefit" of the Supreme Court ruling.
Even before Eaton's ruling, companies had started demanding refunds. Major companies like Costco, Toyota, BYD, and FedEx filed lawsuits against the administration, seeking billions of dollars in tariff duties since they were imposed last April.
Representatives for the Trump administration did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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Wednesday, 4 March 2026
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