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Robots, Selfies, and BBQ: Inside the California Restaurant Show
Robots, revenue, and invisible demand: what Palona learned from restaurant operators at the California Restaurant Show.
Read postInsights
What we are building at Palona, what we are seeing across restaurant operations, and where we think AI in the physical world goes next.
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Interaction Understanding: The Missing Layer for Physical AI
Palona's thesis on Physical AI: systems need more than object detection. They need real-time understanding of how people and objects interact.
Read postThe World Cup Was a Revenue Expansion Opportunity for Restaurants. Did You Catch It?
Fine dining rooms and quick-service spots turned into watch parties during the World Cup, and Boston bars saw a 28% transaction jump. Here's why flexi
Read postFrom Pilot to Profit: Shawn AI’s Second Record Father’s Day at Cali BBQ
Cali BBQ's second Father's Day with Shawn AI delivered 18% higher sales, a 26% bigger average check, and $1,905 in orders that would've gone unanswere
Read postWhy Palona Is Not A Dating App
Palona's CEO Maria Zhang on leaving Tinder, choosing restaurants, and building multimodal AI that helps real-world businesses operate smarter.
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How Jersey Mike's Beat Chick-fil-A at Their Own Game
What Jersey Mike’s customer satisfaction results reveal about restaurant technology, operational consistency, and scalable hospitality.
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What the Knicks Championship Teaches Restaurant Owners About Winning
What restaurant operators can learn from the Knicks about building reliable systems, preparing for pressure, and handling the rush.
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Welcoming Jason Jiang to Palona as Head of Product Engineering
Meet Jason Jiang, the former Meta engineering leader joining Palona to build reliable AI for restaurants and real-world operations.
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The Tesla Effect: Why Every Brand Suddenly Wants to Feed You
Why Tesla, Ralph Lauren, and RH are investing in restaurants, and what branded dining experiences reveal about the future of hospitality.
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What I Learned at Domino's Worldwide Rally
Four lessons from Domino’s 2026 Worldwide Rally on restaurant leadership, team identity, operational excellence, and building a strong culture.
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From Research to Real-World AI: Hai Huang Joins Palona
Hai Huang joins Palona from Google to bring AI research into real-world restaurant operations and systems that understand physical environments.
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The Catering Goldmine Most Restaurants Are Sitting On
Learn how missed calls and slow follow-up cost restaurants catering revenue, and how AI can capture inquiries and support managers.
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What Restaurants Taught Me About AI
Maria Zhang shares what building AI for restaurants taught her about closing the technology gap and supporting independent operators.
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What Happens When a Small Restaurant Finally Has a Voice
See how Handcraft Burgers and Brew used Palona to answer calls, capture orders, and give its small restaurant team more time for guests.
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The AI Conversation Has Changed. Here’s Where It’s Going.
How restaurant AI is moving from hype to useful operations: Palona’s perspective on reliable systems that support staff and guests.
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When the Tech Breaks, Your Team Takes the Hit
When restaurant technology fails, staff absorb the cost. Explore why reliable systems matter for employee experience and guest service.
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The Question Restaurants Stopped Asking
Lessons from MURTEC and the New York Restaurant Show on choosing restaurant AI that earns trust and delivers operational value.
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Your Security Cameras Are On. But Who is Watching?
How restaurant cameras can support transparency and operational awareness, and why visibility matters only when teams can act on it.
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Dopamine Discounts: The New Loyalty Strategy for 2026
Why small, unexpected gifts can strengthen restaurant loyalty, and how operators can give staff more time for meaningful guest experiences.
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The "Sonic Seasoning" Secret: Can Sound Change the Flavor of Your Food?
Explore sonic seasoning, restaurant acoustics, and how reducing ringing phones and service interruptions can improve the dining experience.
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Butter, Lip Balm, and the Secret to a Perfect Valentine’s Experience
What a Red Lobster and Vaseline collaboration reveals about thoughtful details, reliable reservations, and memorable restaurant experiences.
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Patriots vs. Seahawks: The "Second Chance" Story
A Seahawks fan’s lesson for restaurants: prepare for Super Bowl demand with reliable ordering, clear workflows, and strong fundamentals.
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The 5 Voice AI Pitfalls Restaurant Operators Can’t Afford to Ignore
Five voice AI pitfalls restaurant operators should review, from payment security and upselling to order timing, opening hours, and upkeep.
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Welcoming Alison Templin to Palona as Our VP of Sales
Palona welcomes Alison Templin to lead enterprise sales, bringing restaurant technology experience and a focus on customer results.
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A Digital Alternative to Drive-Through: How On-Demand AI Ordering Gives Customers a New Way to Skip the Line
How on-demand AI ordering offers a digital alternative to drive-through queues, with parallel calls and flexible ordering for QSR guests.
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Palona AI and Goodcall Partner to Launch Voice AI Built Exclusively for Restaurants
Palona and Goodcall announce a restaurant voice AI partnership combining conversational technology with restaurant workflows and integrations.
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Pizza Cloud + Palona = Pizza Tomorrow
How Pizza Cloud and Palona combine restaurant phone systems and voice AI to support pizza ordering, accuracy, and busy teams.
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The Nation's Restaurant News Market Leader Report Is Here: 80% of Operators Are Increasing AI Investment
Key findings from the 2025 Restaurant AI Playbook on operator investment, measuring value, and deploying AI without overwhelming teams.
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The Three Questions That Define Restaurant AI Success
Evaluate restaurant AI with three questions: does it improve the team experience, the guest experience, and profitability?
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Beyond the Screen: Bringing Multimodal AI to the Heart of Hospitality
Explore how voice, vision, and multimodal AI can reduce restaurant friction and give teams more time for human hospitality.
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Southern California Stories: Food, Culture, and the Heart of Hospitality
Explore Southern California’s restaurant culture with Palona, from Irvine to Anaheim, and the people and experiences that shape hospitality.
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Welcome Tim Howes as our new CTO of Proactive AI! 🎉
Palona’s announcement welcoming Tim Howes, LDAP co-creator and technology leader, to help develop the company’s AI products.
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FS/TEC 2025 Recap: From Ironing Tablecloths to Tech That Sells
Lessons from FS/TEC 2025 on restaurant AI that supports staff, improves guest experience, and delivers measurable business value.
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Introducing Palona AI Catering Manager Agent
Explore Palona’s Catering Agent announcement, covering inquiry capture, manager oversight, integrations, and automated catering workflows.
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Turning Catering into a Reliable Growth Engine
How restaurants can build catering into a reliable growth channel with consistent systems, better inquiry capture, and AI support.
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Keeping AI Honest: Safeguards Every Restaurant Needs
A pizzeria’s experience with AI errors shows why restaurants need safeguards that protect order accuracy, customer trust, and operations.
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5 Things I Learned at the Prosper Forum 2025
Five lessons from Prosper Forum 2025 on restaurant leadership, culture, community, and scaling a business with purpose.
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Why Pizza Becomes Wedding Cake: Catering is the Key to Improving Margins
What wedding pizza reveals about catering demand, restaurant margins, and the systems needed to scale large orders without straining staff.
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How KPop Demon Hunters Captures the Magic of Korean Food and Community
How KPop Demon Hunters celebrates Korean food and community, and what restaurants can learn about memorable shared dining experiences.
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When AI Takes the Reins, Hospitality Gets to Shine
How AI can handle repetitive restaurant tasks and give staff more time to cook, connect with guests, and deliver thoughtful hospitality.
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The Drive-through decline: Why more customers are skipping the lines of drive-throughs
Explore the 2025 shift away from drive-through ordering and why restaurants need flexible digital options alongside in-person hospitality.
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Palona partners with Mila to Accelerate the Future of AI in Sales and Hospitality
Palona’s partnership with Mila explores conversational AI, richer context, and research for customer interactions in sales and hospitality.
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The Smoking Success of BBQ—and How AI Is Fueling the Fire
How barbecue restaurants can use voice AI to handle calls and orders while preserving the personal service and traditions guests value.
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Where Hospitality Meets Results: This Is Why We Built Palona
Cali BBQ’s Father’s Day 2025 story shows how Shawn AI handled calls and supported restaurant staff during one of their busiest days.
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Is Your AI Order Agent Safe? Putting Out Fires Started by Wild AI Agents in Your Restaurant
AI ordering agents can streamline restaurants, but only if they are secure, grounded, and ready to escalate when the conversation leaves safe territory.
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AI Finds Its Voice
How restaurant voice AI evolved from automated phone systems to conversational agents that help handle calls, orders, and guest questions.
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From Rotary Phones to Robots: Pizza’s Longstanding Love Affair with Technology
Trace pizza’s technology journey from rotary phones and delivery to online ordering and AI agents that support restaurant teams.
Read postBenchmarking Pizza Ordering AI Agents
Can pizza-ordering AI handle real-world customer behavior? Palona benchmarked leading models against restaurant ordering scenarios to understand where reliability breaks.
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AI-Powered Pizzerias: A Guide for 2025
A 2025 guide to how pizzerias can use AI ordering agents to address rising costs, staff workload, and customer experience challenges.
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New Ways of Shopping in the Evolving Retail Landscape
Maria Zhang’s 2025 perspective on AI agents, social commerce, and the changing role of personalized conversations in retail.
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Palona: Unlocking the Potential of Customer-Centric AI Agents in Sales
Explore Palona’s early research on emotionally intelligent AI sales agents, including personas, memory, workflows, and interaction benchmarks.
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Proactive AI CEO Maria Zhang and Domino’s Chief Digital Officer appear on Prosper Forum Podcast
Maria Zhang and Domino’s digital leader discuss AI, brand personality, and customer interactions on the Prosper Forum podcast.
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The Value of AI Quality for Enterprise Ready AI Agents
Lessons from the AI Quality Conference on data quality, responsible risk-taking, and building reliable AI agents for enterprise use.
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