Kristen Hawley

📱 OpenAI showcased its new AI product, Operator, last week, which can book restaurant tables, demonstrated with OpenTable. Operator is an AI agent in early development stages, still requiring user login details to operate. It suggested an alternative booking time when the requested time was unavailable. Currently, Operator is accessible only in the US to ChatGPT Pro subscribers at $200/month, with plans to expand to more users and regions like Europe later on.

📢 In San Francisco last weekend, Toast ads were spotted in the Castro Street Muni station. Within the last week, Toast released a three-minute short starring chef-turned-actor Matty Matheson at Manhattan's Marea restaurant. The marketing campaign by Toast's CMO, Kelly Esten, aims at restaurant people and also seeks to increase brand awareness with the general public. Toast retracted a controversial 99-cent charge in 2023 after backlash from restaurant customers. CEO Aman Narang announced last summer that Toast is expanding from restaurants to grocery and convenience stores. The latest ad involves actors and Marea's executive chef, PJ Calapa, but the waitstaff was not acting.