2026-08-06
12 分钟Hi there, it's Jason Palmer here, co-host of The Intelligence, our daily news and current affairs podcast.
This is Editor's Picks.
You're about to hear an article from the latest edition of The Economist read aloud.
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Call it a brunch bonanza.
On days in 2024, when Taylor Swift was performing in Miami,
eateries within 20 miles of the venue that use software made by Toast,
which helps 164,000 restaurants manage inventories and payments, registered a 27% surge in omelette sales.
Fans appear to be packing in protein to prepare for the pop marathon ahead.
By the same token, when Beyoncé played Atlanta a year later,
Toast recorded a spike in sales of hard seltzer and late-night meals, peaking at 4 a.m.
As concertgoers streamed home.
Such data are handy for restaurants trying to optimise inventories and staffing levels to capitalise on big events.
Toast's chief marketing officer, Kelly Eston, says the firm wants to take its number crunching further
and use artificial intelligence not just in the storerooms and kitchen, but in the dining area too.
Toast is toying with adding transcription software to the handheld gadgets
that waiters use to record orders and take payments, up customers with fewer distractions.
She thinks cameras around the dining room could help alert workers to customers' needs.
Automated records and face recognition might allow front-of-house staff to offer regulars
their favourite table or drink as soon as they enter.