Shake Shack is adding more artificial intelligence to the burger chain’s menu.
On Wednesday, the company announced “Project Catalyst,” a four-pillar initiative that will prioritize technology investments on digital systems, AI, and data to improve service speed and accuracy, generate insights that will make it easier for operators to run their restaurants, and offer more AI-driven personalized promotions to lure diners. Shake Shack says these investments are critical to help the business as it plots an expansion of the concept to 1,500 company-operated locations.
“We’re opening a lot of new Shacks,” says Justin Mennen, who has served as chief information and technology officer at Shake Shack since January 2025. “What brought the company from one to 400 Shacks is probably a little different than what’s going to bring it from 400 to 1,500. We need to have a very efficient technology stack to power operators.”
Mennen says he’s especially focused on what he calls practical AI, which will include use cases that can simplify workflows for the corporate team, eliminate manual tasks, and help restaurant operators make better decisions. These new tools include Ask Shack, an internal knowledge-based AI chatbot that’s currently in pilot. One way that Ask Shack is currently being used is to help the real estate team analyze new restaurant locations.
Within the restaurant itself, Mennen says he intends that AI will be used to monitor data from disparate parts of the business—drive-thru orders, the queue at the kiosk, and in-store demand—and then make recommendations to shift labor to prioritize the most urgent tasks. When making these investments, Mennen says he wants to see a better guest experience, more accurate and faster orders, and more precise promotions through Shake Shack’s newly launched loyalty program.
Ideally, restaurant team members won’t even know that they’re working closely with AI. “They shouldn’t have to understand whether it’s an AI agent,” says Mennen.
Another pillar of Shake Shack’s Project Catalyst involves integrating a new vendor, Qu, a restaurant technology company that sells a consolidated, cloud-based point of sale system to handle all orders across online, app, and kiosks. Mennen says that Shake Shack tested Qu in the company’s restaurant labs in its Atlanta and New York offices, where the chain tests various technology solutions. He’s now piloting the technology to ensure all POS use cases are covered and anticipates making adjustments before Qu is fully rolled out.
Qu’s technology will make it easier for Shake Shack to add limited-time menu items to the chain’s digital menu boards, give operators more visibility into order flow, and help handle the massive swell in orders that are made at kiosks. Shake Shack, like many restaurant chains, made a big investment in kiosks after the pandemic and that channel is now larger than in-person ordering with a cashier.
The two remaining areas of focus for Project Catalyst are the chain’s new loyalty program rollout and an effort to unite operational data, guest behavior, and analytics. Mennen declined to quantify whether the investments in Project Catalyst were an increase from Shake Shack’s baseline IT spending.
Shake Shack’s efforts to lean on technology to more efficiently run restaurants comes as the broader industry faces increased expenses that have been exacerbated by tariffs, higher rents, and increased wages. Over the past two years, restaurant and takeout costs have climbed at a faster pace than grocery channels, according to consulting giant McKinsey.
Larger chains including Starbucks, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Burger King have also unveiled AI initiatives that have included AI-enabled headsets, using the technology to help predict when equipment maintenance issues occur, and to support drive-thru orders. The latter has been a particular popular AI use case, though results have been very mixed.
Another technological area of focus for the industry has been robotics, autonomous systems that can whip up fries or salads, serve as a waiter, or more commonly, be used for food delivery. Shake Shack has explored some partnerships in this space, including leveraging Serve Robotics’ autonomous robots to handle online deliveries from apps like Uber Eats in select markets like Los Angeles and Jersey City, New Jersey. But Mennen says that robotics aren’t a core priority.
“Project Catalyst is really, from an AI standpoint, focused on practical use that’s going to drive more immediate ROI for us,” says Mennen.
John Kell
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NEWS PACKETS
OpenAI's massive fundraising round. The ChatGPT maker on Tuesday announced it closed a $122 million funding round—the largest ever in Silicon Valley—at deal that values the AI startup at $852 billion post-money. Fresh funding included $110 million from Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank, though Bloomberg reports that demand for OpenAI's shares on the secondary market have cooled in favor of rival Anthropic. The new funding comes as OpenAI makes some tough decisions about its product mix: it shut down its video-generating app Sora last week. Then, Bloomberg reported that developers aren’t pleased with ChatGPT’s app store, citing issues with a prolonged approval process and limited functionality.
Software giant Oracle lays off thousands. Oracle is reportedly laying off thousands of employees, a move that comes after Wall Street has been punishing the technology company's stock due to concerns about how much it is spending on AI infrastructure. Business Insider published the email that was sent out to affected colleagues, which had scant details, only saying roles were being eliminated as "part of a broader organizational change." In February, Oracle disclosed it planned to raise $45 billion to $50 billion in 2026 to fund its AI ambitions. If it were to trim 20,000 to 30,000 employees, Oracle could save up to $10 billion in incremental free cash flow, analysts at investment bank TD Cowen estimated earlier this year, according to CNBC.
Anthropic spooks cyber firms; eyes IPO. After Fortune on Friday reported that Anthropic was testing a new AI model with a “step change” in performance—but also believed it poses unprecedented cybersecurity risks—shares of cybersecurity stocks including Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, and Netskope took a tumble as the rise of AI put additional pressure on those companies to keep pace with more advanced attacks. Separately, Anthropic scored an early win in court when a U.S. district judge blocked the Trump administration from labeling the AI startup a “supply chain risk” in a legal squabble over AI guardrails. Then, the Information and other outlets reported that Anthropic is in early discussions with Wall Street banks to go public as soon as October.
A big week for banks and AI. New updates were rolled out from some of the world’s largest financial institutions, including the AI tool called Meeting Journey at Bank of America’s wealth management businesses, which it says can cut the time financial advisors spend on client meetings by up to four hours. At Wells Fargo, the San Francisco-based bank says that Fargo, its AI-powered virtual assistant, has assisted customers with more than one billion transactions. Bloomberg reports that French banking giant BNP Paribas has been in the process of progressively rolling out new generative AI tools, including a new AI assistant that uses different large language models, depending on the use case.
French AI startup raises $830 million to build European data centers. Mistral AI, one of Europe’s most prominent AI model developers, on Monday announced its debut debt financing to fund the construction of Nvidia-powered data centers, including its first facility near Paris that will start operations before the end of June. The Financial Times says that Mistral’s financing was supported mainly by French banks and that Mistral plans to secure a total of 200 megawatts of AI computing capacity across Europe by the end of 2027. While it lags behind the big spending on AI infrastructure that has been announced by Silicon Valley rivals OpenAI and Anthropic, Mistral’s efforts will better position it to serve European-based companies and governments, where there is some discourse around over reliance on U.S. technology.
ADOPTION CURVE
Investments in AI surging, even without a clear path on ROI. Large organizations project average AI spending of $207 million over the next 12 months, nearly double what they spent a year ago, according to KPMG’s Q1 pulse survey of 237 U.S.-based C-suite and business leaders at enterprises with $1 billion or more in annual revenue. Yet even with those lofty spending projections, leaders say the biggest barriers to demonstrate AI's value are growing. 65% cite difficulty scaling AI use cases (up from 33% the prior quarter) and 62% point to skills gaps (up from 25%).
Rahsaan Shears, a principal at KPMG, tells Fortune that some C-suite leaders are seeing efficiency gains, new ways of working, and expanded workflows—but those gains don't always align with traditional definitions of ROI.
Organizations are making progress on AI agents, with deployments furthest along in operations and technology. Nearly three-quarters of businesses say they now use AI agents to automate workflows that span multiple functions, and 57% of leaders expect employees to manage and direct them.
Leaders need to “make some decisions around agents with significant agency that start to feel like a teammate,” says Shears. “What management infrastructure and governance must be there, and how do they expect humans to interact with them? Many organizations are beginning to sort that out.”
Courtesy of KPMG
JOBS RADAR
Hiring:
- PVH is seeking a SVP of enterprise technologies, based in New York. Posted salary range: $350K-$400K/year.
- Calibrant Energy is seeking a CTO, a remote-based role. Posted salary range: $275K-$300K/year.
- Jukebox Health is seeking a VP of technology, based in New York. Posted salary range: $22K-$250K/year.
- Ferrotec is seeking a director of technology, based in Livermore, California. Posted salary range: $150K-$200K/year.
Hired:
- S&P Global appointed Firdaus Bhathena as its new chief technology and transformation officer, effective April 27. Bhathena joins the financial information services provider from financial technology company FIS Global, where he served as CTO. He also previously served as enterprise chief digital officer at CVS Health and co-founded several venture-backed startups, including WebLine Communications, which was acquired by Cisco Systems.
- Virgin Atlantic announced the appointment of Alex Alexander to the new role of chief digital and information officer, where he will lead technology, digital development, data, and AI for the British airline. His prior technology leadership roles include serving as CTO at Emirates Group, chief product and technology officer at Adevinta, and group CIO at Yoox Net-a-Porter.
- CBRE appointed Anuj Kadyan to the role of chief technology and transformation officer, effective May 15. Kadyan joins the commercial real estate services and investment firm after most recently serving as a senior partner at McKinsey. He spent 17 years at the consulting giant in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
- UiPath has expanded Raghu Malpani’s role, now serving as chief product and technology officer to oversee the company’s product and engineering team and continuing to report to CEO and Chairman Daniel Dines. Malpani joined the software company in 2024 as CTO and previously held leadership roles at Microsoft and Meta.
- RGP named Prashant Lamba as SVP and CIO. Lamba joins the consulting firm after previously serving as senior managing director at Ankura Consulting Group. He also led product strategy at Oracle and advised organizations while at Publicis Sapient.
- Charlie Health named Ashok Balakrishnan as CTO, where he will be responsible for the virtual mental health provider’s digital and AI innovations. Prior to joining Charlie Health, Balakrishnan served as CTO at virtual primary care provider K Health. He was previously CTO at Skillshare, SVP of product management and technology at Sportradar, and spent 11 years at Nike, where he served as a technology director.
- JR Automation named Farid Bichareh as CTO, joining the integrator of automated systems for manufacturing that is a subsidiary of Japan-based Hitachi Group. Bichareh joins JR Automation after most recently serving as a senior director at Tata Consultancy Services. He also previously served as co-founder and CTO at IT services provider AASA.
- Locality appointed Kouros Esfahany as CTO, where he will steer its AI-powered tool, Darwin, and technology that underpins the company’s local video advertising platform. Previously, Esfahany held technology leadership roles including as CTO of XR Extreme Reach, SVP of engineering at FreeWheel, and a divisional CTO at eBay.
