AI Usage at a Glance
Timeline
May 1, 2024
Creative GenPractice documented: Toast offers an AI writing assistant inside its Marketing Suite that generates suggested text and layouts for restaurant email and SMS marketing campaigns. Restaurant operators provide simple inputs—such as campaign goals and desired tone—and the AI produces a draft they can review, edit, and send.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Jun 1, 2024
Data AnalysisPractice documented: Toast offers a Benchmarking tool that uses aggregated, anonymized data from across its restaurant network to let individual operators compare their own sales, labor costs, menu performance, and table metrics against peer restaurants in their local area. An AI-based classification system categorizes menu items to make these comparisons possible.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Oct 1, 2024
Customer SvcPractice documented: Toast deployed an AI-powered support tool inside the Toast Now mobile app that lets restaurant operators ask support questions by text and receive fast, accurate answers without calling or waiting for a human agent.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Oct 8, 2024
Creative GenNew evidence: New Toast Mobile Innovations Help Restaurants Increase Revenue by Owning Their Guest Relationships and Brand
Evidence AddedView practice →Dec 12, 2024
Customer SvcNew evidence: Restaurant AI | Toast Innovation Hub
Evidence AddedView practice →Jan 1, 2025
Data AnalysisPractice documented: Toast offers AI-powered Guest Feedback tools inside its platform that automatically organize, prioritize, and analyze written guest feedback, delivering a concise actionable summary to restaurant operators. This feature is available at no extra cost to Toast customers.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Jan 1, 2025
RecommendationPractice documented: Toast offers an AI-assisted advertising tool that suggests effective timing, audience targeting, and ad placements for restaurant operators running digital campaigns on Google and Meta, and connects campaign performance directly back to in-store and online sales data.
Practice DocumentedView practice →May 1, 2025
RecommendationPractice documented: Toast offers a Menu Upsells feature, enhanced with AI-driven recommendations, that prompts restaurant servers—via handheld devices, POS terminals, and kiosks—to suggest specific add-ons or upgrades to a guest's order at the point of purchase. The recommendations are based on the restaurant's sales data and menu pairings identified by Toast IQ.
Practice DocumentedView practice →May 1, 2025
ProductivityPractice documented: Toast deployed Toast IQ, a conversational AI assistant built into its platform that lets restaurant operators ask questions in plain language and take direct actions—like updating menus, editing staff shifts, and adjusting inventory—without switching between tools. The system draws on real-time and historical transaction data from across Toast's restaurant network to surface proactive recommendations and execute tasks on command.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Oct 29, 2025
ProductivityNew evidence: Toast Expands Toast IQ from Smart Features to Smart AI Assistant
Evidence AddedView practice →Dec 14, 2025
Data AnalysisPractice documented: Toast uses machine learning models within Toast IQ to surface labor insights for restaurant operators, including staffing recommendations tied to historical sales patterns, time of day, and day-of-week trends, to help restaurants align scheduled staff with expected customer traffic.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Jan 1, 2026
Data AnalysisNew evidence: Restaurant Performance Benchmarking
Evidence AddedView practice →Jan 8, 2026
RecommendationNew evidence: Toast Delivers Precision Insights, Action, and Efficiency for Retailers
Evidence AddedView practice →Jan 8, 2026
ProductivityPractice documented: Toast deployed an AI Invoice Scanning feature in beta for Toast Retail customers that reads supplier invoices—uploaded as photos or scans—and automatically extracts product and pricing information into Toast's inventory receiving workflows, reducing the need for manual line-by-line data entry.
Practice DocumentedView practice →May 5, 2026
RecommendationNew evidence: Toast IQ Grow: AI Marketing & Demand Tools for Restaurants and Retailers
Evidence AddedView practice →May 5, 2026
RecommendationNew evidence: Toast IQ Grow: AI Marketing & Demand Tools for Restaurants and Retailers
Evidence AddedView practice →May 5, 2026
ProductivityNew evidence: Toast IQ Grow: AI Marketing & Demand Tools for Restaurants and Retailers
Evidence AddedView practice →May 14, 2026
ProductivityNew evidence: Get Started With AI Invoice Scanning
Evidence AddedView practice →Recent activity
Toast offers a Benchmarking tool that uses aggregated, anonymized data from across its restaurant network to let individual operators compare their own sales, labor costs, menu performance, and table metrics against peer restaurants in their local area. An AI-based classification system categorizes menu items to make these comparisons possible.
Toast Benchmarking is available in two tiers: a basic 'Benchmarking Lite' tier included with the POS & Restaurant Operations suite for all customers, and a more comprehensive 'Benchmarking Essentials' tier in the Restaurant Management suite. The system collects restaurant-specific metrics—such as transaction volumes, staffing schedules, and sales per labor hour—and compares them to anonymized aggregated data from peer restaurants in similar geographic and conceptual categories. An internally confirmed AI-based classification tool categorizes menu items to enable menu-level comparisons; Toast's own support documentation notes that some classifications may be inaccurate and are continuously improved.
Toast deployed Toast IQ, a conversational AI assistant built into its platform that lets restaurant operators ask questions in plain language and take direct actions—like updating menus, editing staff shifts, and adjusting inventory—without switching between tools. The system draws on real-time and historical transaction data from across Toast's restaurant network to surface proactive recommendations and execute tasks on command.
Launched as an intelligence engine in May 2025 and expanded to a full conversational AI assistant in October 2025, Toast IQ is accessible to all U.S. customers via the Toast Now mobile app (iOS and Android) and Toast Web. The assistant receives natural-language text inputs from operators and produces actions—such as menu item changes, shift edits, stock updates, and marketing campaign drafts—directly within the Toast platform. Toast IQ draws on data from approximately 148,000 customer locations, including real-time POS transactions, historical sales patterns, local weather, and nearby event data.
Toast deployed an AI-powered support tool inside the Toast Now mobile app that lets restaurant operators ask support questions by text and receive fast, accurate answers without calling or waiting for a human agent.
Available in the Toast Now mobile app, the in-app chat support feature allows operators to type support questions about Toast products and receive immediate responses. A customer testimonial on Toast's official Innovation Hub page describes the experience as: 'you click the support button in the app, you text a question, you get your answer—it's fast, it's accurate.' The feature is positioned as an alternative to traditional phone or ticket-based support. The technical nature of the underlying AI system (e.g., large language model vs. rule-based) is not disclosed in available sources.
All practices by category
Toast offers a Benchmarking tool that uses aggregated, anonymized data from across its restaurant network to let individual operators compare their own sales, labor costs, menu performance, and table metrics against peer restaurants in their local area. An AI-based classification system categorizes menu items to make these comparisons possible.
Toast offers AI-powered Guest Feedback tools inside its platform that automatically organize, prioritize, and analyze written guest feedback, delivering a concise actionable summary to restaurant operators. This feature is available at no extra cost to Toast customers.
Toast uses machine learning models within Toast IQ to surface labor insights for restaurant operators, including staffing recommendations tied to historical sales patterns, time of day, and day-of-week trends, to help restaurants align scheduled staff with expected customer traffic.
Toast deployed Toast IQ, a conversational AI assistant built into its platform that lets restaurant operators ask questions in plain language and take direct actions—like updating menus, editing staff shifts, and adjusting inventory—without switching between tools. The system draws on real-time and historical transaction data from across Toast's restaurant network to surface proactive recommendations and execute tasks on command.
Toast deployed an AI Invoice Scanning feature in beta for Toast Retail customers that reads supplier invoices—uploaded as photos or scans—and automatically extracts product and pricing information into Toast's inventory receiving workflows, reducing the need for manual line-by-line data entry.
Toast offers an AI-assisted advertising tool that suggests effective timing, audience targeting, and ad placements for restaurant operators running digital campaigns on Google and Meta, and connects campaign performance directly back to in-store and online sales data.
Toast offers a Menu Upsells feature, enhanced with AI-driven recommendations, that prompts restaurant servers—via handheld devices, POS terminals, and kiosks—to suggest specific add-ons or upgrades to a guest's order at the point of purchase. The recommendations are based on the restaurant's sales data and menu pairings identified by Toast IQ.
Cite this record
Trace Foundation. (2026). Toast: documented AI practices (data as of 2026-07-11) [Data set record]. AI Trace. https://www.aitrace.org/r/company/e9b086bc-7d25-4041-b09c-420c5bd4707f. Accessed October 5, 2026.
- Stable link
- https://www.aitrace.org/r/company/e9b086bc-7d25-4041-b09c-420c5bd4707f
- Data as of
- July 11, 2026
- Last verified
- Not recorded
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