Hi TableTalk friends,

Running a restaurant - or multiple units - today means juggling so many moving parts: POS systems, labor schedules, inventory counts, guest data, digital orders, and more. And when you try to unite it all… you end up with a thousand tabs, spreadsheets, dashboards, and often no clear view of what really matters.

That’s where Coach AI comes in. It isn’t another add-on or standalone dashboard. It’s an intelligent assistant built directly into the PAR platform you may already use - designed to turn raw data into real decisions, without extra apps or training. This week, we’re digging into what Coach AI is, why it matters, and how it could transform how you run your restaurants.

What Coach AI is: embedded intelligence, not another tool to wrangle

Coach AI is the flagship first product under PAR AI: an “intelligence layer” woven into PAR’s core offerings - POS, back-office, inventory, labor scheduling, payments, drive-thru/order management, and more.

That integration means: no new apps to install. No separate dashboards to learn. No vendor-stack bloat. Coach AI delivers insights inside the workflow you already use.

Instead of jumping between systems or building complicated reports, you just ask a question — in natural language - something like:

• “Which stores need more labor this weekend?”

• “Where are we losing margin on food costs?”

• “Which locations have declining upsell performance?”

Then Coach AI pulls live data from POS, labor scheduling, inventory, guest orders - aggregates it - and delivers clear visualizations, KPI grids, and prioritized recommendations ranked by potential ROI.

In plain terms: it turns scattered data into direction.

Why this matters (especially now)

1. Data overload, human constraints

Traditional reporting workflows force managers to spend hours digging across spreadsheets, different systems, or manual reports. That’s time away from staff, guests, and the kitchen floor. With Coach AI, what used to take hours becomes instant.

2. Unifying fragmented operations

Whether you run a single unit or a sprawling multi-unit brand, the challenges are similar: labor costs, food cost volatility, shifting guest patterns, scheduling, inventory management. Coach AI unifies all those data points - POS, labor, inventory, guest - into a single, intelligent view. No more fractured systems.

3. Decision-ready, prioritized recommendations

It’s not just data - it’s actionable: Coach AI surfaces the problems, quantifies their impact, and ranks solutions by expected ROI or urgency. So you don’t waste time chasing low-impact fixes; you go straight for what moves the needle.

What early users are seeing - real relief, real results

• According to early adopters (e.g. a multi-unit operator), Coach AI has replaced spreadsheets, ad-hoc BI tools, and custom report cycles - making ops management simpler and faster.

• Managers are spending less time behind screens - and more time focusing on staff, service, and guest experience.

• The unified data + AI-driven insights allow for smarter staffing, better margin control, improved inventory - which in tight-margin foodservice, can make a meaningful difference.

PAR themselves calls Coach AI “built-in, not bolted on” - intentionally designed to avoid creating data silos or burdening users with extra complexity.

What this could do for you or your clients

If you’re managing, advising, or building for restaurants - here’s where Coach AI could move the needle:

• Real-time operational clarity. Instead of waiting for end-of-day or end-of-week reports, you get answers now to questions on labor, cost, guest behavior.

• Prioritized action — not noise. The ROI-ranked recommendations help you respond first to what matters financially or operationally - whether that’s reducing overtime, reordering inventory, or adjusting staffing.

• Consistency at scale. For multi-unit brands or franchise groups - apply the same standards, insights, and decision-making logic across every store.

• Lean staffing, smarter use of human energy. Replace manual data tasks with decisions, coaching, service - letting your team focus on what matters most: execution and guest satisfaction.

• Faster adaptation & resilience. With volatile food costs, shifting guest demand and labor pressures, Coach AI helps you sense problems early - before they compound - and adapt quickly.

Even for small operators: you don’t need a full BI team, expensive consultants or complex integrations. Coach AI brings enterprise-grade operations intelligence directly to your everyday stack.

Why Coach AI stands out in the crowd - AI done the right way

There are many “AI” tools out there promising everything from demand forecasting to voice ordering to marketing automation. The problem? Many require heavy integration, new systems, steep learning curves, or extra complexity.

Coach AI rejects that. It doesn’t ask you to rebuild your operations. It embeds intelligence into what you already run. It augments human decision-making - it doesn’t replace it. And because it draws on live, real data across sales, labor, inventory and guest history, its recommendations are grounded, operationally relevant, and actionable.

If you want to pilot AI in your operations stack - or recommend something to a client - Coach AI is a low-friction, high-leverage way to do it.

🧠 If you enjoyed this week’s deep dive, forward it to someone in your restaurant who wants to fully grasp AI. They’ll thank you later.

Your slightly self-deprecating, definitely human narrators,
Anicia & Shane