Podcast Spotlight
The restaurant industry has a traffic problem. And the solution isn’t more discounts.
It’s relationship.
In this episode of AI First with Adam & Andy, we sat down with Zach Goldstein (CEO of Thanx) to unpack what restaurant leaders are quietly realizing:
Loyalty is no longer a “marketing program.” It’s how you protect your guest relationships, drive repeat traffic, and compete in a world dominated by marketplaces.
And with AI, the best brands are about to leapfrog everyone.
The Moment We’re In
Third-party marketplaces (DoorDash, Uber Eats, etc.) didn’t just add a channel.
They re-shaped demand. They trained customers to think: “I’m hungry → I open DoorDash,” not “I’m hungry → I choose a restaurant.”
That’s the real power: owning the first click.
But here’s the twist Zach flagged in our discussion — it’s the part most leaders aren’t pricing in yet:
AI may break the demand-side monopoly.
As consumers shift from “opening apps” to “asking an agent”. What should I eat? What’s fastest? What’s healthy? What’s my usual? The starting point moves out of the marketplace and into a neutral layer (the AI).
In that world, the new fight isn’t DoorDash vs. your app. It’s who your agent trusts, understands, and can transact with instantly.
And that’s where first-party wins.
Because the brands with:
clean guest identity (not anonymous orders),
strong preference signals (what I like, when I buy, what I avoid),
direct ordering rails (fast, reliable, personalized),
and a reason to choose you (value, access, experience)
…don’t just “market” to customers.
They become the default answer when the agent is making decisions on the customer’s behalf.
Same meal. Same customer. New gatekeeper. And the brands with the strongest first-party relationships will have a very different seat at the table.
The Mental Model: AI is Intermediating the Relationship
Think of “loyalty” as one job: Drive repeat traffic profitably.
To do that, you need three things working together:
First-party ordering (app/web) — capture the relationship
Loyalty + CRM — know the guest, earn repeat behavior
Marketing automation — message the right guest at the right time
Historically, restaurants got stuck on #3.
Not because they didn’t want to personalize…
but because it was too much manual work.
Zach nailed the real constraint:
Operational burden is what forces “spray & pray.”
AI removes that burden.
This is the shift from “loyalty as campaigns” → to loyalty as an always-on, personalized system.
What AI Changes (In Plain English)
AI makes it dramatically easier to do what great operators already know they should do:
segment precisely
personalize messaging + offers
test quickly
recover guest issues instantly
improve hospitality (not reduce it)
This aligns with our broader Forum3 view that AI is most powerful when it becomes a daily operating utility—“digital teammates” across the entire business.
Join the Conversation
It’s no too late to learn.
At last week’s AI First Restaurant roundtable, one theme came through loud and clear: agents are no longer theoretical. Leaders are already experimenting with them across marketing, analytics, operations, and customer experience.
But the playbook is still being written.
Next week, we’re hosting another restaurant-only roundtable — an intimate discussion for operators and executives who want to better understand what’s changed, what this new world of agents means for restaurants, and how leaders should be thinking about the next wave of AI.
Please join us.
Onward,
Adam