The first of its kind for restaurants, Fourth’s new platform harnesses real-time predictions to optimize scheduling, inventory management and talent acquisition.

Fourth, the leader in workforce management, inventory management and recruitment solutions for the restaurant, hotel, retail, and leisure industries, today announced the launch of Fourth AI built and trained on the largest data set in the industry. The new capabilities are available as part of the HotSchedules, MacromatiX and PeopleMatter solutions.

“The complexity of operating a restaurant or hotel has exploded,” said Clinton Anderson, CEO of Fourth, “which has kept managers chained to their laptops instead of out on the floor with their guests and staff. The new set of AI capabilities lets managers focus on people, service, and creativity, rather than on constant firefighting. With our AI models trained on the industry's largest dataset, we believe Fourth is uniquely positioned to embed AI across our customers entire restaurant operations.”

The Fourth AI Platform is the first of its kind with a set of AI-based workforce, inventory, and recruitment solutions purpose-built for restaurant, retail and hospitality operators. Companies like Papa Johns, Pizza Hut, Whataburger, and Bloomin’ Brands are among the many businesses enjoying the competitive advantage this technology delivers.

Brinker International has deployed HotSchedules on the Fourth AI platform across a number of their US sites to power their workforce deployment. Brinker’s Jason Noorian, Senior Director of Finance, explains, “Our managers have seen a significant uplift in the accuracy of scheduling, taking the guesswork out of making a busy operation profitable.”

The power of Fourth AI is available throughout its entire suite of solutions for automating and optimizing back-office operations in the restaurant, hotel, retail, and leisure industries:

• Workforce Management: HotSchedules is now generally available with AI Forecasting, which provides highly accurate demand forecasts and recommended shift patterns. By harnessing the AI-driven insights, businesses can make informed decisions to optimize labor spend while continually meeting customer demand in a way that was never possible before.
• Inventory Management: MacromatiX leverages AI to optimize all aspects of effective back-of-house inventory management: purchasing, preparation & production, and stock control, eliminating the manual effort to identify what to order and how to avoid waste directly impacting the bottom-line every day. AI Forecasting for MacromatiX is currently available in limited beta.
• Talent Acquisition: Users can take advantage of AI with PeopleMatter to improve recruiting in a way that hasn’t been possible before. Users can leverage AI-based programmatic bidding to optimize the times during which jobs ads are displayed on various job boards – thereby increasing applicant flow by 3x, lowering cost to hire by a factor of five and significantly reducing administrative overhead.

"Investing in our AI platform has proven to be a game-changer for our customers, enabling them to rapidly deploy AI in their businesses without the need for technical expertise or infrastructure," said Christian Berthelsen, Chief Technology Officer of Fourth. “Harnessing AI through the Fourth platform gives them a substantial competitive advantage in the industry."

Christian continues, "Gone are the days of tedious spreadsheet calculations for predicting schedules, managing inventory and sifting through data and applications. Our cutting-edge platform continuously learns from each customers data and recommends the next best actions. Senior leaders, managers and frontline workers can simply review and approve the platform’s AI-driven suggestions, freeing up valuable time to focus on business growth and delivering exceptional service to customers. AI has the power to genuinely transform our industry for the better.”

The Fourth AI Platform is generally available today, offering AI for scheduling and AI-driven bidding for talent acquisition. A strong pipeline of new capabilities is planned in 2024, including further advancements in real-time insights and actions, events and forecasting algorithms, back-office automation and above-store insights in HotSchedules, MacromatiX and PeopleMatter.

Find out more by visiting fourth.com/solution/ai

About Fourth

When every hour of each shift matters, Fourth helps restaurants, retailers, and hotels conquer the day with data-driven workforce and inventory technology. The Fourth AI Platform leverages more than 20 years of rich data and advanced analytics to deliver actionable insights and demand forecasting for optimizing operations, maximizing margins, and empowering employees. With a streamlined business powered by the Fourth AI Platform, industry operators can act with certainty and conquer with confidence whatever comes their way every day. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Fourth serves more than 15,000 customers across 100,000 locations globally. For more information, please visit fourth.com.

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