Beyond the POS: 5 AI Automations Your Restaurant Needs Now (That Aren't Your Toaster)

Your POS system (like Toast) is the heart of your restaurant. It takes orders, runs payments, and tells you what you sold. But it's not a manager. It doesn't tell you *why* your labor was high, *what* to do about it, or *who* is about to hit overtime.

That's the gap between data and decisions. It's where operators get stuck manually pulling reports from three different systems just to get one answer. By connecting an AI like Epicai.ai to Toast, Gusto, and Sage, you can automate this analysis and get your time back.

1. Get a 7 AM "Daily Ops Briefing"

The Problem: You wake up and have to log into Toast, your scheduler, and maybe a weather app just to know what the day looks like.

The Solution: Automate it. Have Epicai.ai send you (or your GMs) a single Slack message at 7 AM every day.

Prompt: "Every morning at 7 AM, pull yesterday's sales from Toast, today's labor % from Gusto, and today's weather forecast. Send it to the #managers channel with a warning if projected labor is >28%."

2. Stop Overtime Before It Happens

The Problem: You don't realize a staff member is in overtime until after payroll is run, and it's too late.

The Solution: Let the AI cross-reference your schedule with your timesheet data *in real-time*.

Prompt: "Scan all active staff clock-ins. Alert me via SMS if any employee is projected to hit 38 hours for the week *before* their shift ends."

3. Automate Your Inventory & Food Costing

The Problem: You know your food cost is high, but you don't know if it's because of theft, waste, or simple over-ordering.

The Solution: Connect your product mix (P-Mix) data from Toast to your inventory system.

Prompt: "Analyze my P-Mix from last night. We sold 80 'Classic Burgers.' Compare this to the inventory depletion of 'Ground Beef' and 'Buns.' Flag any variance greater than 5%."

4. Find and Fix Financial Drift Instantly

The Problem: Your accountant spends 10 hours at month-end figuring out why the Toast daily deposit doesn't match the bank statement or the entry in Sage Intacct.

The Solution: Have the AI do the reconciliation daily.

Prompt: "Compare yesterday's credit card batch total from Toast with the deposit transaction in Sage. If they do not match exactly, create a draft journal entry for the variance and flag it for my review."

5. Turn Voids and Comps into Training Opportunities

The Problem: You see a high number of "Comp - Service Error" but don't have time to see who or why.

The Solution: Let the AI find the pattern.

Prompt: "Analyze all voids and comps from this week. Which employee has the highest void percentage? What's the most common reason for comps?"

Result: You discover one new bartender is voiding 15% of their cocktails due to "Wrong Item," indicating they need more training on the menu.