MarginEdge, a provider of restaurant management and bill payment solutions, has launched new AI-powered sales forecasting and recipe building tools designed to enhance operational efficiency for restaurant operators. These additions expand the company’s existing AI offerings, which include an AI-powered invoice processing system introduced in 2015.MarginEdge aims to assist restaurants in navigating challenges such as unpredictable sales, fluctuating costs, and evolving menus by providing real-time insights for planning. The company states it is continuing its investment in artificial intelligence, with further purpose-built tools under development.Bo Davis, CEO and co-founder of MarginEdge, commented on the new tools, stating, “After 20 years of running restaurants, I know firsthand how hard it is to plan when sales shift daily. You’re making decisions about purchasing, labor and menus with a lot of guesswork. What excites me most about these new AI tools is how they take the uncertainty out of the numbers. We’re using AI to give operators real-time cost insights, accurate sales forecasts and recipe tools so intuitive that chefs can build and update on the fly; no tech skills required. This is about making restaurant life easier, more responsive, and a whole lot less reactive.”The new AI-powered sales forecasting platform integrates historical sales, ordering, and labor data, along with external seasonal factors, to generate forecasts. The AI algorithm is designed to continuously learn and adapt to each operator’s business rhythm, aiming for increasingly precise sales predictions over time. The platform tracks daily performance against goals and historical trends, with forecasts averaging within 4% of actual sales.MarginEdge’s enhanced recipe builder uses AI to facilitate the digitization of recipes. Operators and chefs can copy and paste recipes from various sources, such as Word documents or spreadsheets, directly into the platform. The AI is designed to instantly recognize and organize ingredients and instructions, which reduces manual data entry and provides access to tools for menu costing and theoretical usage analysis.Additionally, MarginEdge reports an improvement in the speed and accuracy of its invoice processing engine over the past year. This enhancement is attributed to expanded machine learning capabilities, supported by real-time human-in-the-loop feedback from MarginEdge’s Client Services team and analysts.Rise Southern Biscuits & Righteous Chicken, a MarginEdge customer with over 20 locations nationwide, has been utilizing the AI-powered forecast tools prior to their official launch. The company reports measurable gains in operational areas such as smarter scheduling and more precise ordering, leading to operational savings and planning efficiencies.Craig Benner, Area Manager of Rise Southern Biscuits & Righteous Chicken, noted, “We love how easy it is to use. The data is always up to date and displayed in a way that’s digestible even for our new managers. It’s a great tool that we can’t wait to continue to roll out.”MarginEdge describes itself as a restaurant management software and bill payment platform focused on streamlining back-office operations for operators and their accounting partners. Founded by former restaurant operators, with 70% of its staff having hospitality experience, the company integrates automation with AI for tasks like invoice processing and sales forecasting. MarginEdge processes over 10 million invoices annually for more than 10,000 restaurants across the United States and Canada, automating 99% of invoice line item coding. The platform aims to centralize financial data and provide daily real-time insights to support decision-making.