Ozempic, AI & the Future of Restaurants with Oli Ostertag, General Manager of PAR Technology’s Operator Cloud
In this episode, Nick Portillo welcomes Oli Ostertag, General Manager at PAR Technologies Operator Cloud. Together, they dive into one of the biggest shifts shaking up the industry: the rise of appetite-suppressing drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. With more than a quarter of Americans considering these medications, dining habits are changing fast, and restaurants are being forced to adapt.
Ollie shares how quick-service brands can turn this disruption into opportunity by offering smaller portions, lower-sugar options, and smarter menus, without sacrificing profitability.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:44 - The Impact of Appetite-Suppressing Drugs on Food Service
06:59 - The Impact of Consumer Behavior on Food Service Trends
19:44 - The Impact of AI on Customer Experience in Food Service
22:23 - Optimizing Customer Engagement through Data
29:47 - Future Innovations and Product Strategies
RESOURCES
CONTACT
Transcript
There are a million ways to make money in the food service industry.
Speaker A:You just have to find one on the Titans of Food Service podcast.
Speaker A:I interview real life movers and shakers in the food game who cut through all the noise to get to the top.
Speaker A:My name is Nick Portillo and welcome to the Titans of Food Service podcast.
Speaker A:Let's jump right into it.
Speaker A:Welcome back to another episode of Titans of Food Service.
Speaker A:I'm your host, Nick Portillo.
Speaker A:Before I jump into the episode, please, if you're enjoying the podcast, if you can leave me a five star review on Apple podcasts or Spotify or anywhere you get your podcast, that would mean the world to me.
Speaker A:You can also catch the show on YouTube.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Over 25% of Americans are now considering appetite suppressing drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.
Speaker A:I'm sure you've heard it.
Speaker A:Sure you've seen the commercials.
Speaker A:It's all over the news.
Speaker A:In the first six months of using GLP1s, restaurant spending drops by 6% and that number is likely to climb as Medicare and Medicaid expand coverage.
Speaker A:This isn't just the blip.
Speaker A:It's a long lasting shift in how people dine.
Speaker A:And it's forcing restaurants to rethink everything.
Speaker A:For QSRs, that means adapting fast, operating are facing menu pressure to offer smaller lower sugar portions without shrinking check sizes.
Speaker A:Unpredictable demand that throws inventory and supply chains off balance.
Speaker A:And the ever present headwinds of terrorist inflation and labor shortages.
Speaker A:Today, my guest, Ollie Ostertag, the general manager of PAR Technologies Operator cloud, is helping brands turn these challenges into opportunities.
Speaker A:From automating workflows to streamlining menus, staffing and inventory.
Speaker A:In the episode, he's gonna share how the right tech can keep operators agile, profitable and ready for whatever the market throws at them.
Speaker A:Without further ado, let's go ahead and welcome Hollywood.
Speaker A:All right, Ollie, welcome to the Titans of Food Service podcast, man.
Speaker A:I appreciate you taking time to come and meet with me.
Speaker B:Nick, thanks so much.
Speaker B:Real, real pleasure to be here with you.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Are you in Chicago and Illinois?
Speaker B:Correct.
Speaker B:I'm currently in our downtown Chicago river north office, but frequently travel.
Speaker B:You know, we have offices across the United States, internationally and you know, always great to spend time with customers on location as well.
Speaker A:Yeah, totally.
Speaker A:I, I was looking through a little background on yourself.
Speaker A:You, you are a pretty smart guy.
Speaker A:I mean, it looks like you went to Brown and you got your jd, you had an mba.
Speaker A:I mean from top schools.
Speaker A:That's pretty impressive, Nick.
Speaker B:Appreciate it.
Speaker B:I've always been more of A of a hustle guy than smart guy.
Speaker B:But yeah, you know, we've, we've really tried to make sure that at at par, we're, we're hiring for, you know, ambition and more drive than necessarily anything else.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker A:Did you grow up in the Illinois area?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:So you know, my background is a little bit atypical.
Speaker B:I'm actually from Germany.
Speaker B:So, you know, both parents German, you know, born in Germany, left Germany when I was 2.
Speaker B:You know my, my dad actually was a senior executive at Eli Lilly his entire career.
Speaker B:So you know, for the topic of today, maybe a little bit relevant given that Eli Lilly is one of the biggest, you know, companies in the, you know, weight loss, you know, drug space.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:Grew up principally in Southeast Asia.
Speaker B:You know, lived in Thailand, South Korea, Japan, China, you know, graduated high school from the American school in Shanghai then then went stateside for undergrad and through to law school and did multinational M and A.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Mainly you know, representing private equity companies, acquiring fintech, fintech companies across again, Europe, Middle east and Africa.
Speaker B:And then you know, made my way to business school.
Speaker B:I prefer to be an operator.
Speaker B:And you know, I will tell you, Savneet Singh, when he is recruiting you personally, it's hard to say no.
Speaker B:So joined our CEO at PAR roughly five years ago and it's been a really exciting journey since growing up.
Speaker A:Coming out of school, did you always think you wanted to be on the track that you're currently on?
Speaker B:Yeah, you know, I would say I was always interested in actually running a company.
Speaker B:I got a little bit off that track when I was an undergrad and I was majoring in history and economics and ultimately it seemed like a good fit at the time to pivot to legal services and specifically the corporate side there.
Speaker B:Hence I went to law school and was working for two large multinational law firms that were specializing at the top end of the private equity space.
Speaker B:But yeah, my passion was always being an operator.
Speaker B:My dad was an operator at Eli Lilly for his entire career.
Speaker B:And at par, the exciting thing was being able to onboard and actually build something.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So just brief background on par for anybody listening who doesn't know.
Speaker B:Par was historically a hardware business.
Speaker B: as been publicly listed since: Speaker B:Some of the big companies customers historically were the likes of McDonald's, KFC and principally hardware services.
Speaker B: current CEO, joining in late: Speaker B:So Being able to drive that journey and focus us more on software, acquire different entities and really build out our product strategy is what has been so exciting.
Speaker A:That's fantastic, man.
Speaker A:You guys are working on some pretty great things over there.
Speaker A:So tell me a little bit about how you're involved with the food business.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:So part technology.
Speaker B:We are active in food services holistically, I'd say our bread and butter in the past has been within the QSR space.
Speaker B:So specifically enterprise restaurants think the likes of, of a Wendy's or Smoothie King.
Speaker B:You know that that makes up roughly 80, 85% of our business currently.
Speaker B:But we also have a convenience store, you know, arm where we call it PAR Retail.
Speaker B:Our goal has ultimately been to cover the key pillars of operators within the spaces that we operate in.
Speaker B:So if you're thinking a quick service restaurant and at the enterprise level, we're looking at the point of sale, the back office, the payments, the online ordering, the loyalty, we've made sure to build or acquire best in class.
Speaker B:It's one of our key product tenants and we find ways to take those products and combine them in a way to drive better together product functionality.
Speaker B:And that's obviously our strategy within C Store as well.
Speaker B:And it's our strategy in any vertical we enter.
Speaker B:We are an acquisitive business looking to optimize in hospitality, in food services.
Speaker A:So tell me about, you know, I know you, you a subject, subject matter expert in, you know, the rise of Ozempic and other drugs like that.
Speaker A:Tell me what's the effect of that on, on the food service industry that you see?
Speaker B:Yeah, I would, I would say the, the following, you know, obviously the rise of Ozempic also comes with a change in consumer behavior.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:You know, we're seeing potentially smaller, you know, portion sizes, you know, maybe an indexation away from a certain type of, of food, you know, salty snacks, et cetera.
Speaker B:And of course there's a, there's a pass through impact here on the food services industry.
Speaker B:From an operator perspective.
Speaker B:I will say what we see with a lot of our customers because you know, PAR within the QSR space has over 100,000 unique rooftops across our different product portfolios.
Speaker B:So we really see everything.
Speaker B:We see different types of concepts, different different types of sizes of concepts and we see a very purposeful move into areas where consumers are imbibing in.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So when you take for instance a Smoothie King, Smoothie King, their strategy is also focused on health foods.
Speaker B:They are leaning in that direction.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:They're meeting customers where they're at.
Speaker B:And we see that with a lot of our, you know, our, our concepts that we, that we partner with, they are realizing what the trend lines are and they're making sure that they're, you know, that, that their produce is, is matching, you know, consumer sentiment.
Speaker A:And what about like, is there a, a significant decrease in purchase patterns that you're seeing across the board because of the rise of these, these drugs?
Speaker B:Yeah, I, I would say, I would say certainly there's a change in, in purchase patterns.
Speaker B:But again, you know, the concepts that we partner with at the enterprise level, they're very, you know, they're very in tune with what their customers want.
Speaker B:So that largely minimizes the impact that you see.
Speaker B:Because if, for instance, there was item A that people were purchasing and now it is less relevant for customers, maybe they keep it on a menu, but they supplant it now with item B.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So, you know, in terms of overall sales, we are seeing, you know, customers, even in a more challenging macroeconomic environment, do well by leaning into those kinds of health initiatives.
Speaker B:So certainly there, there are certain menu items that you would expect to see less of.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Maybe customers are buying less, you know, less salty fries, but you are also seeing customers purchase items, for instance, that are more health conscious fries that are produced in a different way.
Speaker B:So yeah, I would say in terms of overall sales, you are not seeing a major impact to a lot of our customers there.
Speaker B:We have customers that are focused very much so on health produce and again, meeting where customer sentiment is.
Speaker B:But their menu will change over time for sure.
Speaker A:And with this trend towards looking for healthier options, less salty options.
Speaker A:I know, you know, I'm here in California, we've always, you know, there's always been kind of this health halo around the way that we view food.
Speaker A:And you know, when, when growing up with, you know, when my mom would take me to the grocery store, we looking at the nutritionals and you know, on the back of the box, is that, is this something that you're seeing, you know, this kind of move towards healthier options?
Speaker A:Is that, you know, across the country or is it more on the coast?
Speaker A:What do you, what are you seeing there?
Speaker B:I, I would see, sorry, I would see it more as a, as a macro change that you are seeing consumer sentiment changing across the country.
Speaker B:I think you will always maybe see an over indexation on the move towards healthy, less fats, et cetera on both coasts.
Speaker B:I think that's certainly true.
Speaker B:But I see this as very much a macro change and that's also why some of these concepts out there.
Speaker B:I mentioned Smoothie King before as a concept we partner with.
Speaker B:That's why their success is not limited just to one specific area of the country.
Speaker B:It is something that is spreading.
Speaker A:And with operators like Smoothie King, you know, what does your engagement look like with them?
Speaker B:Yeah, you know, I would say again using Smoothie King as an example.
Speaker B:Our, our strategy at par has always been we want to have multiple different products because we can ultimately optimize the APIs between those products and do unique things.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So for instance, what we have always seen is that if you are using our point of sale product and you are using our back office products, we can actually provide real time data feed between between those products.
Speaker B:We can make sure that there's a singular source of truth where what you are looking at, you know, to be accurate and what you sometimes see with split systems is that number one, the data flow is not automatic.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:It's maybe every 15 minutes.
Speaker B:And then secondly, you are not actually necessarily seeing all the same data points between systems.
Speaker B:There can be a slight variation and change.
Speaker B:So with the likes of a Smoothie King, we are partnered across point of sale, we're partnered across back office.
Speaker B:We also have have our loyalty product in there and then you can run initiatives such as, you know, loyalty in store.
Speaker B:When you go and pay in store, you can be prompted by a cashier because they know your loyalty product profile on an upsell.
Speaker B:We strategize with customers to understand exactly what they're looking for out of their tech stack.
Speaker B:For instance, what are their growth aspirations?
Speaker B:How can we unlock a rollout of hundreds of sites across multi products?
Speaker B:That's something that often comes up.
Speaker B:It can also be that they're looking for very specific features.
Speaker B:Those features in the past have really been driven on the operational side at least by an increase in efficiency.
Speaker B:So for instance, how do I maximize speed?
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:How do I maximize speed?
Speaker B:By calibrating the menu in such a way where it has the least amount of steps.
Speaker B:How do I make sure that my labor is more efficient, that I don't have to keep keep hiring and hiring by making sure that teaching on my technology is shortened Instead of requiring 10 hours, now I require five hours, things of that nature.
Speaker B:So it depends on customer high level.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I think optimizing efficiency is important for everybody.
Speaker B:I am seeing a big focus now in optimizing speed, optimizing throughput.
Speaker A:Go a little deeper on when it comes to speed.
Speaker A:What are the actual things that you're tracking on Speed.
Speaker A:And how can someone take the data like Smoothie King or an operator, how can they take that data and apply it to increase their speed?
Speaker B:For sure, you know, one of the main areas that customers have been focused on specifically on the drive thru side is the speed of service.
Speaker B:At drive thru, you know, let's say your average speed of service is 60 seconds.
Speaker B:Improving that by 5 seconds by 6 seconds, call it a 10% improvement is super material because ultimately you know you will generate more sales.
Speaker B:This is something that is actively benchmarked by customers.
Speaker B:You know, obviously people know what best in class looks like and our job is to help facilitate that.
Speaker B:You know, for instance, we carry, you know, drive through headsets at par as well.
Speaker B:We're active on the hardware space.
Speaker B:You know, our hardware and our services are actually what, what power up our software business.
Speaker B:And our job is to make sure for instance from a headset basis that you know, the, the data received or someone speaking that it's very clear, you can understand it, that the pass through over to the screen is there and that from the flow from headset to the operator back to the point of sale, that it's seamless.
Speaker B:If we increase again speed by 10%, by 20%, all it means is that ultimately more revenue is generated.
Speaker B:You don't have as many bottlenecks.
Speaker B:You for instance don't need to have multiple lanes if one lane is operating faster, things of that nature and optimizing speed as well.
Speaker B:You are seeing certainly more kiosks with certain customers.
Speaker B:And our job is to make sure that we are using the likes of a kiosk in store to help supplement the point of sale experience.
Speaker B:So not only are customers able to have that face to face interpersonal action if they go to a front fouz cashier, but if they want to, they can also move quickly with, with the kiosk.
Speaker B:And that is all being driven by number one speed, throughput and then separately an intelligent upsell strategy kiosk will lead to higher check size because you can automatically upsell them.
Speaker B:And the same thing with in store loyalty.
Speaker B:Ultimately you can get higher check sizes because they know the customer profile.
Speaker B:I know what you like.
Speaker B:Would you like to add this to the mix?
Speaker B:So that's really how we see that.
Speaker A:That's impressive.
Speaker A:I mean what you guys are doing.
Speaker A:So you've mentioned you're tying into the point of sale, right?
Speaker A:Or your POS system.
Speaker A:You're into the headsets, into kiosks.
Speaker A:How else are you tying into an operator's operation?
Speaker B:Yeah, another way would be with the payments.
Speaker B:So we try to optimize and give stores choice with our payments.
Speaker B:So for instance we work with many different payment process.
Speaker B:Basically a choose your adventure.
Speaker B:With par, we don't mandate any products but where I think it's very cool.
Speaker B:What we can do actually with our payments product is you combine payments, you combine loyalty, you combine point of sale where if I go with my phone and I pay and I'm a non loyal customer, you can prompt in store that someone actually is now logging into your loyalty product.
Speaker B:So the great thing is you can take a customer that otherwise would not be a loyal customer and you can actually in store prompt them to become loyal and you know, obviously run whatever incentive to then keep them loyal over time.
Speaker B:So again it depends on customer and what their strategy is.
Speaker B:But we of course have various different avenues that we believe add holistic value to customers.
Speaker B:We make sure they understand what that is from our product and then we can always partner on specialty initiatives with those chains and our benefit again because we sit across over 100,000 different keys QSR sites, we partner with, you know, more than 50 of the top 100 different chains.
Speaker B:We know what best looks like.
Speaker B:We can push that, push that down.
Speaker A:Yeah, very interesting.
Speaker A:And how do you, you know, if you have 50 out of the hundred, what are some of the big changes, if any that you're seeing now in a post Covid world, for sure, I.
Speaker B:Would say, I would really say the following.
Speaker B:You know, customers are as mentioned, they're dynamic, they meet the market where it's at.
Speaker B:So there are different initiatives at play.
Speaker B:Voice AI is something you hear a lot about in the drive thru.
Speaker B:For instance, you're seeing customers looking at streamlining, optimizing on that basis, that's important.
Speaker B:Same thing with the rise of kiosk.
Speaker B:Customers are looking for increased efficiency.
Speaker B:And I think in a post Covid world you still need to make sure that as you are driving these, these new initiatives, as you are baking in AI, you don't want to lose empathy.
Speaker B:You know, I really truly believe that the promise of a brand is not just the quality of the food, it's the overall experience that you remit.
Speaker B:So I think there is always a need that the brand is put first and foremost in front of customers.
Speaker B:So for instance, if you have voice AI, you know, when it can be truly personalized is when you have a truly winning brand premise.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:For instance, if you have a, you know, if you have a brand that would have a famous brand ambassador and every time you go and Order, you hear their voice, you see their image.
Speaker B:That would be super powerful and meaningful.
Speaker B:Same thing when you, when you order at a kiosk, when you order in person, you want to be seen that they understand you, they understand your profile, they understand you know what you are likely to like and order.
Speaker B:You don't want to be prompted on things that don't matter for you.
Speaker B:That's where you see it.
Speaker B:Customers are focused on efficiency, but they don't want to lose empathy and they don't want to lose their brand promise in a post Covid world because there has been an explosion of AI since that is probably the singular biggest talking point in our industry right now.
Speaker B:How do you use AI to optimize?
Speaker B:Nice.
Speaker A:Yeah, you hear a lot about AI.
Speaker A:You know, I'm on the sales side, so I'm a food service broker, so I represent manufacturers and I sell their products into operators like Smoothie King.
Speaker A:We've got a brand that sells quite a bit into them and there's always that talk of AI.
Speaker A:Will it remove that human interaction, that human touch?
Speaker A:Am I going to lose my job over it?
Speaker A:You know, but it sounds like maybe through what you're doing.
Speaker A:You mentioned voice AI and I want to learn a little bit more about that is that you can actually use AI in certain or many applications if you will, to better improve operations of, in this case a food service business.
Speaker A:So tell me a little bit more about that Voice AI and how that's really helping, you know, your customers for sure.
Speaker B:You know, par, PAR itself, we partner with different voice AI companies.
Speaker B:We're right now not producing our own voice AI, but again, what you see with the likes of Voice AI, you're trying to drive efficiency without removing the brand premise.
Speaker B:And our job as PAR is again to put the brand first and foremost.
Speaker B:How do you say our slogan is Food people, nothing in between.
Speaker B:For that exact reason, where we are focused largely with our AI initiatives has been on the back office side.
Speaker B:For instance, we are looking at optimizing our inventory, right?
Speaker B:We are looking to optimize staffing.
Speaker B:If you're able to provide a truly detailed view using all possible factors, right, Like I understand the temperature, I understand if it's raining today, I understand, you know, what my inventory count is to start the day.
Speaker B:You are actually able to come up with an optimized plan to get that inventory out the door at the best possible profit limits.
Speaker B:And then also understanding of course who your customers are, you can drive initiatives to the right profile of customer to take that inventory again at the highest take rate our initiatives, especially on the operator side, is optimizing for efficiency.
Speaker B:I would again just take a step back.
Speaker B:The way we've progressed at par is we effectively have two different subsets of the company, the way we're structured internally.
Speaker B:One is the operator product side.
Speaker B:So that's what I run at par.
Speaker B:I run operational products and my goal, my reason for being here is to drive efficiency.
Speaker B:And whether that efficiency of saving money, whether that efficiency is speed, that's what I care about, that's what my team cares about.
Speaker B:Our other cloud is focused on guest engagement.
Speaker B:So ultimately how do we acquire more customers or end customers of our customers and how do we keep them engaged with a brand coming more and more to the store?
Speaker B:And the way we think about it is as if it's an infinity loop between our clouds, right where we wanna make sure that the engagement products are interlinked with our operational products and we drive value both ways.
Speaker B:And that is really done with data.
Speaker B:We care about smart data.
Speaker B:We care about data that drives actions and insights.
Speaker B:And if you can actually find, follow a customer journey from the above store, what we call where someone is ordering online ordering into the store, that's how you win because you know your customers truly and anyone that will argue that you can follow a customer journey fully just through the point of sale, it's just not, it's just not true.
Speaker B:You need to be able to have all elements.
Speaker B:The loyalty, the online ordering, the in store.
Speaker B:That is the only way to truly understand customers and optimize for them.
Speaker A:You know, a lot of times I think too when it comes to AI and data, people are like, well, I've got all this data, the x percent of this or you know, if I do this, I can get faster.
Speaker A:How can someone take the data that you're using, you mentioned the customer journey and actually apply that to make a more efficient customer journey.
Speaker B:For sure.
Speaker B:You know, I'll, I'll use an example here.
Speaker B:Imagine a scenario where, you know, you have an expiring inventory of, of you know, meat patties and you know, you have, you know, 48 hours to, to get rid of this, this inventory, maybe it's excess inventory for, for whatever reason and you know, on the basis of how much inventory you have and on the basis of how many loyal customers are in, are in the area, what kind of incentive needs to be run to optimize that, that purchase.
Speaker B:So in, in terms of actually driving a better customer experiences, if you are targeting then loyal customers who have purchased a burger before Imagine you can reduce the price.
Speaker B:You can drive a 50% saving or a $1 burger.
Speaker B:You know, you will get that inventory out the door and then you can optimize for, for other attachment items on the back end.
Speaker B:So you're driving more efficient footfall.
Speaker B:Because I know I need to get this inventory out the gate.
Speaker B:I know how I drive maximum amount of people in store.
Speaker B:Then you need to find ways to upsell them in real time.
Speaker B:That's something I think that matters enormously, especially from the efficiency side.
Speaker B:Our goal has always been we don't want our customers to end up with excess inventory.
Speaker B:We want to be able to forecast in real time and separately we want to be able to prompt decision making.
Speaker B:Should you choose where it is optimized, where it is automatic.
Speaker B:Nick, imagine a scenario, you know, in the past we basically would, would be running, you know, regressions to understand hey, how much inventory should you, you carry?
Speaker B:Then with machine learning you can actually bake in.
Speaker B:Okay, here are these different, you know, these different elements that, that are at play currently.
Speaker B:Again, to, to the point, what is the, the weather like that day, right?
Speaker B:Are there any important events that day that can drive better inventory decision making?
Speaker B:And now imagine a setting where you know, I, I don't need you Nick, to make the decision on the basis of what you are seeing with what we are suggesting you do.
Speaker B:But you can actually automate it where the system orders for you, right?
Speaker B:And you can change that order should you need to.
Speaker B:But it, but it cuts down error making and that, that's really our, our job, right?
Speaker B:We, we start from again the, the top level years ago, the regressions, then machine learning and then AI is the final step where you are actually a smart aid for customers.
Speaker B:And the analogy we always use, it's like self driving cars, right?
Speaker B:Either something can be fully self driving where you sit back, you don't have your hand on the wheel or it can be suggestive where you hold the wheel and if you're moving into the wrong lane, it juts you back.
Speaker B:And we can work and figure out what is best for that customer, but we give them the choice.
Speaker A:I'm a big baseball fan and you see, you know these types of data points driving decisions, you know, am I going to bring in a right handed reliever or the left handed reliever in this situation?
Speaker A:Which one do I go to?
Speaker A:When do I do it?
Speaker A:Based on the batter and the stats and like it's, it's putting the manager, you get less of that like feel of just like a Gut.
Speaker A:And you're going with the actual data that, to help make that decision, you're, you're, you're, In a way it sounds like you're doing something very similar, but at the restaurant or the, you know, a food service operator level of taking out.
Speaker A:Hey, if it's, if it's cloudy today versus it's sunny today, how do, what am I going to do, you know, to optimize sales and efficiency?
Speaker A:I'm curious, how do you, you don't, here's something crazy like when it comes to the weather, how do you even track that?
Speaker B:So you can bake in weather forecasts, right?
Speaker B:So it's ultimately just using whatever data points you want to feed into a system to make that decision.
Speaker B:Where again, is it perfect?
Speaker B:Absolutely not.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Weather forecasts can change, but they become a lot more accurate the closer you get to say said date.
Speaker B:So it would be a question of optimizing purchase patterns and optimizing it for a timing window.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Because data is only as good as data as it trends in real time.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So as data points change, your, your assumptions change as well.
Speaker B:But with something like the weather, I'd say the, the accuracy is pretty high two days out.
Speaker A:And with all of this too, I, you know, essentially I, I, is there maybe the, the jobs overall of, you know, of someone like a smoothie king, you know, it may be changing.
Speaker A:Maybe you have middle managers, maybe you're going more towards a data person who can analyze these types of decisions.
Speaker A:You know, maybe the, the way that they're viewing their operation is changing as well.
Speaker B:For sure.
Speaker B:For sure.
Speaker B:You know, I would, I would say this as well.
Speaker B:You know, I, I work for a, for a software company.
Speaker B:The way that we are, we are seeing AI is really, you know, we want to make our products better.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:We want to be able to do more, faster.
Speaker B:I would, I would argue with anything, you know, and this is, this is just my opinion, but you know, you see a lot of, you know, reports about how AI will materially change the labor market and 100% that will be true, but I believe the labor market will adjust to again, just drive more and more and more efficiency.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I don't think you, you will arrive at a place where the output is, is the same, but less people are working.
Speaker B:I would argue you trend into a future where the same people are working but driving a ton more output because now you are more, more more efficient.
Speaker B:And that's the way that we've, we've been viewing AI internally.
Speaker B:Our products will be will be better.
Speaker B:We will drive better results for customers.
Speaker B:Our people will be able to do more.
Speaker B:So the perfect future is where we are releasing software on a far faster cadence than we currently are because we have gotten better, more efficient and, and QA testing for instance.
Speaker B:That's our goal.
Speaker A:So looking, my next question was going to be looking down the line of kind of what's next.
Speaker A:You know, I would imagine there is that upgrading the software, making it more advanced, but what else is there other products you, you know, you hope to come out with in the future?
Speaker A:Or maybe there's things that people aren't asking for now.
Speaker A:What's, what's the future hold for you?
Speaker B:Yeah, I would say this.
Speaker B:You know, I'm always cautious about front, front running before we have the official press releases.
Speaker B:But we are coming out with some very interesting product innovation later this year on our back office side.
Speaker B:And again our goal there with for instance combining data feeds between different products is we will have very interesting ways to optimize in store general manager decision making.
Speaker B:That's kind of high level.
Speaker B:What I can share right now before this comes out.
Speaker B:Our goal at PAR is always to acquire or build best in class.
Speaker B:So we really have our eyes peeled in a number of directions potentially in the future.
Speaker B:We talked about voice AI.
Speaker B:Those are the kinds of things we would obviously be looking at at our side.
Speaker B:Really anywhere operators are looking to go, we will partner with them and we will find ways to optimize for them.
Speaker B:And you know that can be a build, it can be a buy or it can be a partner.
Speaker B:So that's, that's really what our, what our strategy has always been.
Speaker B:And again, you know, I think the, the exciting thing for, for PAR is that, you know, I'll use our back office product suite as an example.
Speaker B:We have a product line or umbrella product line called parops.
Speaker B:And that started where it was much more focused on labor, on inventory, you know, and then forecasting, et cetera.
Speaker B:But we've added to that since where we have for instance a recovery module where you know, you're you know, able to assist customers in partnering then with DoorDash and making sure you're not losing money on delivery orders that were erroneously canceled, things like that.
Speaker B:We are always making our product suite more expansive.
Speaker B:You know, we believe that the best way to gauge whether PAR is successful is number one, the tenure of your customer, how long do they stay with you.
Speaker B:But then number two, how many products are they taking.
Speaker B:So that entire cross sell strategies is really focused on is your customer happy with you.
Speaker B:If they are, they stay with you and they will always look to add more.
Speaker B:And that's been the hallmark of our success.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So you know, when you look at new customers, we, we have not signed a single new customer in the past year that did not take a multi product.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:They are always looking at multi product.
Speaker B:Our current base is going from two products to three products to four products.
Speaker B:That's our strategy.
Speaker B:And it only works if the product actually drives roi.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Otherwise it's not real.
Speaker A:Yeah, that totally makes sense.
Speaker A:For those that listening along, that want to learn more or connect with you, what's the best way to get a hold of you or learn more about par?
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:So I'd say the following best way to learn holistically about par.
Speaker B:If you go on Google, you type in PAR Technology.
Speaker B:That's a great starting point.
Speaker B:We talk about our product suite, we talk about the industries we service.
Speaker B:PAR is also a publicly listed company.
Speaker B:So I would recommend anyone interested in PAR to listen to our investor transcripts to really hear from Savni Singh.
Speaker B:You know, he's our visionary CEO and he really does provide a very cohesive view into the future, where we're going, why people should continue to partner and believe in PAR as it pertains to me separately.
Speaker B:Always happy to connect with anyone over LinkedIn, you know.
Speaker B:Oliver Ostertag, PAR Technology.
Speaker B:If you type it in, you'll find me.
Speaker B:I'm more known as Ollie.
Speaker B:So Ollie Ostertag, you'll find me there.
Speaker B:Otherwise, always, always reachable via email oliverostertagartech.com and always very, very happy and excited to speak with anybody in the industry who wants to jam on some ideas.
Speaker A:Fantastic.
Speaker A:Ollie, thank you so much, man.
Speaker A:I appreciate you coming on and sharing.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Nick, thanks so much.
Speaker B:Hope you have a great rest of the week.
Speaker A:Thanks so much.
