Toast Debuts Toast IQ Grow

Toast today introduced Toast IQ Grow, a complete marketing solution that includes more than 20 updates across marketing, payroll, inventory, and operations.

Key highlights include the debut of the Marketing Agent that builds audiences and automates campaigns across channels, and a reimagined Toast Local consumer app featuring integrated Resy reservations, increasing the number of locations available for booking to more than 20,000.

"The work of growing a business can often get pushed aside by the work of running it. We think AI agents can change that by actually doing a lot of that work, starting with marketing. Our customers shouldn't have to choose between being busy today and building for tomorrow," said Steve Fredette, president and co-founder of Toast, in a statement. "Our vision is for the Toast IQ ecosystem to become an agentic platform that handles the heavy lifting, giving our customers the tools to get busy, stay busy, and own their growth."

Toast IQ Grow combines agentic artificial intelligence with a dedicated human marketer who helps optimize tools, drives results, and runs digital marketing. Toast IQ Grow identifies opportunities to grow the business and takes action, whether it's re-engaging lapsed guests with personalized offers or recommending campaigns to drive repeat visits after a first order. By combining automated execution with human expertise and reaching guests across email, SMS, social media, and paid channels, Toast IQ Grow helps drive consistent, incremental demand.

Toast IQ Grow includes the following:

• Marketing Agent with AI that understands past performance and identifies marketing opportunities like BOGO or holiday promotions based upon that information. It then designs and plans a customized, tailored campaign strategy with assets including email, SMS, and organic social channels to fill slow shifts.
• Dedicated Marketing Success Manager:A human marketer who guides campaign direction, refines messaging, and ensures every effort aligns with the operator's specific brand and goals.
• Core Toast growth tools for managing Email Marketing, SMS Marketing, Loyalty, Gift Cards, Social Media Marketing, Toast Websites, Toast Online Ordering, Toast Delivery Services, Guest CRM, and Toast Advertising.

The newly enhanced Toast Local app builds on existing capabilities like commission-free takeout, delivery, and reservations, and adds new ways for restaurants to reach and retain guests. With expanded reservation availability from Resy restaurants, frictionless loyalty sign-ups, and smart offers, Toast Local helps diners discover and engage with restaurants directly within the Toast ecosystem. Restaurants also maintain ownership of their guest data, enabling them to build direct, lasting connections beyond a single transaction. It includes the following:

• Live reservations and waitlists: Guests can discover and book more than 20,000 restaurants from Toast Tables and now Resy, as part of a strategic, multi-year partnership with American Express, directly within the Toast Local app.
• Offers and rewards: Operators can push specific offers and loyalty programs directly to diners through the app. Restaurants can also offer on-premise exclusive offers to guests, like a perk for the guest sitting in front of them and an easy way to fill a slow shift.

Toast is also introducing the following updates to support businesses as they run daily operations and scale.

• Toast IQ Multi-Location Analysis: An enhanced capability of the Toast IQ AI Assistant that delivers advanced intelligence, surfacing trends and performance insights across complex, multi-unit operations.
• Menu Upsells: A POS feature now enhanced with AI-driven recommendations that uncovers high-margin items and add-on recommendations across surfaces, including handhelds, kiosks, and guest-facing displays, to encourage upsells and increase check size at the point of purchase.
• Toast Drive-Thru: An enterprise-grade solution that unifies hardware, software, an AI voice ordering integration, and services in the drive-thru.