In this episode of the Restaurant AI Podcast, Matt Wampler, CEO and Co-Founder of ClearCOGS, sits down with Brandon Barton, CEO of Bite, to explore how kiosk ordering, AI, and deep restaurant experience are shaping the future of guest interactions.

Brandon shares his 25-year journey from bussing tables in Brooklyn to running the dining room at a Danny Meyer restaurant, making the leap to restaurant tech at Avero, and eventually leading Bite—a software company bringing “e-commerce on a touchscreen” into restaurants nationwide. He explains why Bite focuses on software over hardware, how kiosk ordering can be as (or more) hospitable than face-to-face, and why technology should be an additive part of the guest experience, not a replacement for it.

They dive into how AI-driven recommendations can adapt in real time to weather, regional trends, and guest behavior, the concept of “unified guest identification,” and why hospitality at scale often comes down to simple gestures—like giving away fries when you don’t have to. Brandon also shares his perspective on the fractured state of restaurant technology, why costs dropping will lead to more niche players (not fewer), and the importance of working with tech leaders who have restaurant roots.

From hands-on stories about catching escaped roosters to forward-looking ideas about AI agents and data co-ops, this conversation blends humor, operational wisdom, and a candid look at the next wave of restaurant technology.

Links:

Bite: https://www.getbite.com

ClearCOGS:⁠ https://www.clearcogs.com/⁠

Connect with Brandon on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandoncbarton

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewjwampler/

00:00 Intro

02:25 Welcome Brandon Barton

03:03 Understanding the business of kiosks in restaurants

7:00 Why kiosks work for an ordering experience

10:55 Point of sale in 2025

14:46 Technology renaissance in the restaurant industry

19:13 Brandon’s background in technology

23:13 Remaining a restaurant person despite a pivot to technology

27:16 Brandon’s calling is to help restaurants embrace technology

29:50 The future of ordering and the guest experience

37:26 The psychology of kiosk ordering

40:05 Using AI to help you order

41:13 The future of the restaurant technology industry

44:34 Restaurant brands building technology

47:15 Ex-restaurant people make better technology

49:07 Relationship between technology and restaurants

52:33 What Bite is doing with AI today

55:40 Learning about how people order

57:25 The best conversations about kiosks

58:40 Advice for choosing technology

1:01:08 Best curated customer experience

1:01:30 Favorite wine

1:01:33 Favorite LLM

1:02:06 Advice for restaurant technology companies

1:02:27 The future for Bite

1:02:44 Outro