The news: Toast introduced an AI labor-management tool and expanded its AI-powered marketing solution for restaurant and retail owners, per a press release.

• Toast IQ Team helps owners manage staffing around high demand periods; schedule employees based on availability, sales data, and overtime risk; and gamify team performance with menu-item contests.
• Updates to Toast’s marketing tool include an SEO agent that reviews business discoverability, a Reviews Agent that prompts customers to contribute feedback about their experiences, and Offers and Marketing Agents that win clients through personalized email, social, and SMS services.

How we got here: Restaurant POS providers are competing for loyalty through AI updates that reduce manager stress and boost sales through personalized marketing strategies. 

• Square released SquareAI and Managerbot to support owners’ day-to-day operations.
• Fiserv released Unknown Shopper, an AI tool that lets merchants connect card activity to customer profiles for vendors without rewards programs for better targeted marketing opportunities.

Why this matters: Small business owners are operating on tight margins and are stretched thin running operations, management, and marketing. AI tools can free up owners’ time on overhead tasks to focus on core restaurant services.

Toast can help streamline owners’ day-to-day work with centralized tools. SMBs report using an average of 2.2 tools to manage daily operations, per a PYMNTS Intelligence report. Toast’s updates put more of restaurants’ needs with one vendor, saving time and potentially costs with fewer tools.

Implications for POS providers: Small businesses owners are facing rising costs under tariffs and fears about their own survival. Forty-three percent of owners said financial pressure increased their personal stress, and 68% worried their business would fold last year, per Revenued’s 2025 Year-End survey.

Rolling out AI features that reduce overhead costs and drive deeper customer engagement could help win loyalty from SMB owners trying to slash costs. More than 50% of surveyed SMBs want AI solutions for marketing, inventory, and expanding into new business lines, per Marqeta.

Dive deeper: Read our Point-of-Sale Hardware and Software Trends 2026