Toast introduced Toast IQ Grow, a complete marketing solution designed to take on the day-to-day work of marketing a business, from identifying a lunch slowdown to automatically launching a campaign to address it. The announcement includes more than 20 updates across marketing, payroll, inventory, and operations, with a stated goal of reducing the operational burden on restaurant and retail operators.
At the center of the launch is the Marketing Agent, a cornerstone of Toast IQ Grow that builds audiences and automates campaigns across channels, including email, SMS, social media, and paid advertising. Bundled at $499 per month, Toast IQ Grow pairs the AI-powered agent with a dedicated human Marketing Success Manager who helps guide campaign direction and align efforts with each operator’s brand and goals. In a pilot program, restaurants working with a Marketing Success Manager saw sales grow more than 8% on average compared to similar Toast restaurants, with the top 25% of performers seeing more than 40% growth in the first month.
Toast also unveiled a reimagined version of its Toast Local consumer app, now featuring integrated Resy reservations and expanding the number of bookable locations to more than 20,000. The enhanced app allows operators to push targeted offers and loyalty programs directly to diners, while maintaining full ownership of guest data. Additional platform updates span AI-powered menu upsells, multi-location performance analysis, AI invoice scanning, automated payroll, and a new drive-thru solution designed for enterprise operators.
One early adopter, Keita Okugawa, manager of Matoi in San Diego, said the platform transformed how his restaurant tracks marketing performance. Since mid-February, Matoi has generated $3.4K in attributed email revenue over just two months, more than three times the cost of Toast IQ Grow over that period, alongside a 4.5x return on ad spend.
KEY QUOTES:
“The work of growing a business can often get pushed aside by the work of running it. We think AI agents can change that by actually doing a lot of that work, starting with marketing. Our customers shouldn’t have to choose between being busy today and building for tomorrow.”
“Our vision is for the Toast IQ ecosystem to become an agentic platform that handles the heavy lifting, giving our customers the tools to get busy, stay busy, and own their growth.”
Steve Fredette, President and Co-Founder, Toast
“Before Toast IQ Grow, our marketing was more expensive and we couldn’t really track what it was driving. Now, because everything is integrated, we can see what we spent, what it drove, and even who came in from a given marketing initiative, like email campaigns or ads. It gives us real accountability for our marketing spend.”
Keita Okugawa, Manager, Matoi, San Diego
“The loyalty math is simple: a third visit is, from our experience, the tipping point where a guest is likely to become a lifelong customer. When you look at it that way, a ‘Spend $40, get a free side of fries’ offer is a worthwhile investment to get more eyes on our brand and help convert new guests into predictable, repeat revenue.”
Tyler Paolini, Owner and Chef, Holdfast Specialty Seafood
