Food On Demand

06/18/2026

More than 179,000 users engaged with Toast IQ from January to March, the first full quarter for Toast’s artificial intelligence-powered assistant for restaurants and retailers since its launch last fall.

The Boston-based digital technology platform analyzed anonymized Toast IQ data from over 125,000 restaurant locations throughout Q1 2026, revealing top use cases, such as margin protection and menu optimization, as well as trends, such as fine-dining restaurants producing 29 percent more threads than fast-casual operations.

According to the Jan. 10 Restaurant Trends Report from Toast, the top topics restaurant operators promoted Toast’s AI assistant with during the first quarter of the year were sales and revenue (47 percent), menu and inventory (34 percent), guests and marketing (32 percent), and operations and reporting (29 percent).

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Margin Protection Emerges as Top Use Case for Toast IQ by Hans Lammeman | Jun 10, 2026 | News Briefs More than 179,000 users engaged with Toast IQ from January to March, the first full quarter for Toast’s artificial intelligence-powered assistant for restaurants and retailers since its launch last...

06/17/2026

The catering market is forecasted to exceed $81 billion in 2026 — up more than 6 percent from 2025’s valuation —, and that growth is only the tip of the iceberg as a projected 6.2 percent annual growth rate over the coming decade pushes the sector beyond $140 billion by 2035.

The changing dynamics around employer-provided meals in the workplace play a critical role in the evolving catering market. According to 2026 data from ezCater, a catering-focused third-party marketplace with more than 125,000 restaurant partners, 91 percent of orderers plan to spend as much or more on catering as they did last year, and 56 percent anticipated an increase.

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Workplace Meal Trends are Transforming the Catering Market by Hans Lammeman | Jun 10, 2026 | News The catering market is forecasted to exceed $81 billion in 2026 — up more than 6 percent from 2025’s valuation —, and that growth is only the tip of the iceberg as a projected 6.2 percent annual g...

06/16/2026

Drone delivery company Wing is expanding its partnership with Walmart into seven new metro areas, adding Memphis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay Area and Salt Lake City to its growing U.S. network.

The expansion supports a previously announced plan to build a drone delivery network spanning more than 270 Walmart stores and reaching more than 40 million Americans by 2027. With the latest additions, Wing said its service footprint will span nearly 20 U.S. markets.

Wing, which has completed more than 1 million commercial deliveries, currently partners with Walmart in markets including Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Atlanta.

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https://bit.ly/3QaQo8U

Wing Expands Walmart Drone Delivery Network into Seven New Markets by Bernadette Heier | Jun 9, 2026 | News Briefs Drone delivery company Wing is expanding its partnership with Walmart into seven new metro areas, adding Memphis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay Ar...

06/15/2026

Wonder announced new Grubhub integrations with Eater, Beli, Amazon Alexa+ and Bilt, expanding how diners discover restaurants, access rewards and place orders.

The company said the partnerships are designed to meet consumers where they already spend time while creating new demand opportunities for the more than 415,000 restaurants on Grubhub’s marketplace.

“Grubhub’s latest integrations tap directly into the everyday platforms where diners are already discovering, planning, and ordering their next meal,” said McCall Gridley, head of Grubhub’s growth partnerships at Wonder, in a statement. “By integrating with leading financial, lifestyle, and media platforms, we’re making it easier than ever for customers to discover, decide, and order—while unlocking new demand and high-intent traffic for our merchant partners.”

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https://bit.ly/3S1zlXm

Grubhub Taps Beli, Alexa+ and Bilt Integrations to Drive Restaurant Demand by Bernadette Heier | Jun 9, 2026 | News Briefs Wonder announced new Grubhub integrations with Eater, Beli, Amazon Alexa+ and Bilt, expanding how diners discover restaurants, access rewards and place orders. The company said....

06/12/2026

With domestic same-store sales down 8.7 percent in Q1 2026 from a year prior, Wingstop launched its first-ever loyalty platform, Club Wingstop, May 28, rolling out a rewards program specifically designed to break from the norm.

The Dallas-based chicken wing chain with more than 3,000 total locations rolled out Club Wingstop just over six months after CEO Michael Skipworth introduced the effort as bringing “a hyper-personalized digital experience to life in a way that only Wingstop can” during the company’s Q3 2025 earnings call.

Wingstop built its new loyalty program around the theme “Members eat first,” offering users a distinct sense of exclusivity through limited-edition merchandise, members-only events and special access to new menu offerings.

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https://bit.ly/3RESdeJ

Inside Club Wingstop: The ‘Members Eat First’ Loyalty Strategy by Hans Lammeman | Jun 3, 2026 | News With domestic same-store sales down 8.7 percent in Q1 2026 from a year prior, Wingstop launched its first-ever loyalty platform, Club Wingstop, May 28, rolling out a rewards program specifically ...

06/11/2026

DoorDash has launched Ask DoorDash, a conversational AI-powered search feature that lets users search the app in their own words rather than scrolling through restaurants or grocers.

Users can tap the Ask button in the search bar and type prompts such as “What’s a good healthy lunch?” or “Find me a family dinner with dishes under $20.” The feature can also help with grocery shopping by turning a recipe link, cookbook photo or handwritten grocery list into a shopping cart. For reservations, users can search prompts such as “Find me a date-night spot downtown around 8 p.m. with good cocktails.”

The launch comes as more restaurant and commerce companies explore conversational AI as a way for consumers to discover food and dining experiences.

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https://bit.ly/4v4t6Av

DoorDash Launches AI Chatbot for Conversational Ordering by Bernadette Heier | Jun 11, 2026 | News Briefs DoorDash has launched Ask DoorDash, a conversational AI-powered search feature that lets users search the app in their own words rather than scrolling through restaurants or grocers. Users can t...

06/11/2026

🎙️ We’re back with the newest episode of the Food On Demand Podcast.

Episode 59: Tech Stack Deep Dive with Kevin Bentley of Jollibee

Dr. Kevin Bentley, Ed.D., MSIS, MBA, head of technology for Jollibee Group North America, shares his take on the biggest topics in restaurant technology, everything from the potential to roll out voice AI drive-thru capabilities at Jollibee Group to the potential staff impacts of advancing technology in the foodservice space.

Watch or Listen at foodondemand.com/fod-podcast/

06/10/2026

Asian beverage culture has seeped well into mainstream America, proving an industry-shaping force rather than a fad as the number of U.S. boba tea shops continues to tick upwards after years of growth.

The U.S. bubble tea store count reached 11,162 as of April 1, according to industry-wide data from Smartscrapers. Of those, 59.4 percent are single-owner operations, while the remainder belong to larger brands like Gong Cha, Kung Fu Tea and Sharetea.

America’s growing taste for Asian beverages is shaping broader trends in third-party delivery orders, according to Kitty Lu, director of public affairs for U.K.-based delivery platform HungryPanda.

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https://bit.ly/4arOJm0

Boba’s Growing Influence on American’s Ordering Habits by Hans Lammeman | Jun 3, 2026 | News Briefs Asian beverage culture has seeped well into mainstream America, proving an industry-shaping force rather than a fad as the number of U.S. boba tea shops continues to tick upwards after years of gr...

06/09/2026

After nearly 15 years of developing aircraft and delivery infrastructure, California-based drone delivery platform Matternet is finally ready to take off.

That’s the assessment of CEO Andreas Raptopoulos, who says the company is positioned to scale significantly following a string of strategic partnerships, approval to operate in the U.K. and a reverse merger that took the company public. Those moves all come from the first half of 2026 — a year he calls “the inflection year for drone delivery in the United States.”

“People underestimate how much this space is going to scale over the next three to four years,” Raptopoulos said. “We are talking about 1,000X delivery in drone delivery in the United States over the next four to five years. This is going to revolutionize how we get access to goods.”

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https://bit.ly/4dNRtMS

Matternet CEO Gives Bird’s-Eye View of Aggressive Scaling Strategy by Hans Lammeman | Jun 2, 2026 | News After nearly 15 years of developing aircraft and delivery infrastructure, California-based drone delivery platform Matternet is finally ready to take off. That’s the assessment of CEO Andreas...

06/08/2026

Starbucks has stepped away from an AI-powered inventory counting tool that automated product counts in its stores, as first reported by Reuters.

The technology combines computer vision and 3D spatial intelligence to scan items like milk, syrups and other beverage ingredients. Employees held a tablet up to shelves while the system automatically counted products.

Developed by NomadGo, Starbucks said when the system was announced in September it had already been deployed in thousands of company-owned coffeehouses.

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https://bit.ly/4fVyiSE

Starbucks Pulls Back AI Inventory Counting Tool by Bernadette Heier | Jun 2, 2026 | News Starbucks has stepped away from an AI-powered inventory counting tool that automated product counts in its stores, as first reported by Reuters. The technology combines computer vision and 3D spatial intelligenc...