QSR December 2022

DIGI TAL INNOVAT ION

“It’s great because the responses are immediate and it can answer questions and free up that cashier’s time,” Melvin says. We are seeing some really good changes in our speed of service at the menuboard, so that’s really exciting. “While the company has been successful using this AI technology in a customer-facing way via the drive-thru, Melvin says the future may be in using that same kind of innovation in the back-of-house to help employees manage things like adding items to orders or checking the temperature of the freezer. For now, the brand is looking toward taking its restaurant of the future model up a notch. This could unfold as technology to be able to recognize certain cars when they come through the drive-thru in order to be able to remember their order and identify if they are a loyalty member. This vision of a technology centered restaurant also includes digital menuboards where customers can see their orders in front of them. “Right now, what we’re doing is taking a look at the architecture that needs to be in place to support some of these innovations,” Melvin says.

launch consumer brands in local and interna tional products. She started GoGoGuest as a way to help coffee shops get more value from customers using their WiFi without buying much product. Then, the company pivoted to focus on a guest engagement platform for restaurants. “As buying habits shifted dramatically into the online space during the pandemic, we be gan helping restaurants leverage their already rich tech stacks into actionable insights for marketing and operations,” Valenzuela says. Customer value management, or CVM, is something businesses are starting to pay attention to, she says. Valenzuela notes CVM is “the process of aligning the product with sales, marketing, and ongoing success with the customer to expand revenue.” GoGoGuest is tapping into using CVM to help customers. This means building a restaurant guest engagement platform that uses analytics and works with cloud POS, omnichannel payment platforms, reservation systems, and customer feedback platforms. “We make it easy for restauranteurs to differentiate the value of their brand with the right data, customer analytics, and insights without the need for a data engineer, data analyst, or a costly technology custom devel opment project,” Valenzuela says. Angela Diffly Restaurant Technology Network C O F O U N D E R The Restaurant Technology Network came to life in July 2018. Diffly created the mem bership community to bring together tech executives, from operators to suppliers, aca demics, and consultants, to foster innovation. Members collaborate via working groups to create and disseminate technical guidance, best practices, and industry standards, and RTN also hosts various networking events throughout the year, including Town Hall and partner-focused events. Perhaps most nota bly, RTN nurtures new restaurant tech talent via Start-Up Alley, held annually at MURTEC. “As co-founder of RTN, I steer the member ship community’s overall direction, keep my finger on the pulse of restaurant tech trends, utilize my platform to spotlight innovative voices, and connect people who need con necting,” she says. Before RTN, Diffly was closely tied to tech in editorial and corporate communications roles, as well as a “few sideline entrepreneur ial adventures.” And like all of the disrup tors on this list, her years of experience and know-how rocketed to the surface when the pandemic hit. Diffly says COVID changed the definition of what a restaurant is, and opera tors had to respond. “We have cloud kitchens,

ghost kitchens, dark kitchens, automats, virtu al brands, and celebrity brands, AI/ML in every facet of the operation, native/delivery-as-a service, third-party, drone, robotic delivery, marketplace mayhem, kitchen robotics, robot hosts, servers, and so much more,” she says. “The real question is what hasn’t changed? The one consistent driver is technology. And I believe restaurants are waking up to what’s possible with technology in the driver’s seat.” It’s a future rife with possibilities, Diffly adds. New generations are often more com fortable with tech than people. “And they want what they want, whenever and however they want it,” she says. “I believe the quick-service restaurant is prime for radical evolution. Even faster food—in whatever shape that can take— will be table stakes.” Diffly suggests envisioning a category with AI-centric hyper-automation, whereby people are not present at all to serve, and also via new ly imagined drive-thru experiences, like Taco Bell’s Defy, but taken up a notch. “The com bination of digitally native consumers paired with smart tech innovation will put a whole new spin on fast food, and the quick-serve as we know it will become as nostalgic as the elusive Hamburgler hiding out on eBay today.” “Restaurants are hungry for technology standardization,” she continues. “We are climbing the mountain every day, creating brick-by-brick standards to help restaurants move quickly when it comes to integrating technologies.”

Jessica Valenzuela GoGoGuest C E O / C O F O U N D E R

Zhong Xu Deliverect C E O A N D C O F O U N D E R Zhong Xu be gan his career in software engineer ing and eventu ally combined this experience with his passion for the restaurant industry. The latter came from his father, who

DELIVERECT

GOGOGUEST / CJ VARELA

migrated from China to Europe in the 1980s and worked in restaurants to make money. Xu’s father was also an engineer and learned the difficulties restaurants had firsthand. He started a POS for Asian restaurants in Belgium that he still runs today. “My father’s trajectory and ethos not only inspired me to work in the hospitality industry, but gave me an understanding of the impor tance of the ‘why’ behind building a business,” Xu says. Xu’s Deliverect is a software company that helps simplify the management of online

GoGoGuest is a restaurant guest engagement platform that leans on customer analytics and AI. It first launched guest WiFi marketing in 2016 and has since evolved to help restau rants have access to data and to give them insights into the right marketing and opera tions steps. Valenzuela has a long history of working in the space. She clocked time in a restaurant during college and grew up around the eatery her mom co-owned and managed. After col lege, Valenzuela held in-person and digital product marketing roles, helping activate and

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DECEMBER 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com