In this episode of the Restaurant AI Podcast, host Matt Wampler, Co-Founder and CEO of ClearCOGS, sits down with Deborah Matteliano, Global Head of Restaurants and Food Tech at AWS. A founding member of the Uber Eats sales organization who scaled the platform to over 200,000 restaurants across the US and Canada, Deborah later led Uber’s Virtual Restaurants segment to 700% global growth before joining Amazon Web Services, where she now advises the world’s largest quick service restaurants, food tech brands, and delivery platforms on AI and cloud strategy. 

Matt and Deborah dig into why 90% of the world’s largest QSRs run on AWS and what that actually means for how AI gets deployed at scale. Deborah breaks down the two stats dividing executive boardrooms right now, shares what it really takes to build the digital GM assistant every operator wants, and explains why the biggest obstacle for most restaurants isn’t missing data but missing connectivity between systems. 

The conversation goes deep on buy vs. build, data standards, and why so many AI pilots stall before reaching production. Deborah also draws on Amazon’s own supply chain, Rufus, and Alexa Plus to illustrate what AI looks like when it actually earns consumer trust at scale, and closes with her full vision for the agentic restaurant: orchestrated AI agents handling supplier negotiations, inventory, GM-level decisions, and employee support all at once. 

Whether you’re a multi-unit operator figuring out where to start with AI, a restaurant tech executive weighing build vs. buy, or a founder designing a concept from the ground up, this episode gives you one of the clearest pictures yet of where the industry is heading and what separates the brands that will win.