Fourth Announces the Next Generation of Fourth iQ Including an AI-powered App for Helping Managers Make Great Operational Decisions

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ahead of the MCA Hostech event in London, Fourth announces the next generation of Fourth iQ - their Artificial Intelligence for the Hospitality industry – with the mission to transform how restaurant managers make effective decisions in real-time.

The major news is the announcement of the Fourth iQ App, providing restaurant managers with real-time recommended actions, powered by AI. The App supports critical functions spanning HR, scheduling and inventory management. With AI-driven alerts and actions delivered directly to their device, managers can react quicker to ensure their restaurant always runs efficiently, enabling them to spend more time on the floor rather than the back office. The App is currently offered to customers in a limited Beta, with general availability slated for Autumn 2025.

“Restaurant managers have a lot on their plate - balancing guest experience with profitability, and managing their team. They have to make hundreds of operational decisions daily," said Clinton Anderson, CEO of Fourth/ HotSchedules. "The new Fourth iQ App serves up recommendations for managers for their next best action - speeding up decision making and giving back the time they need to focus on what matters."

Numerous major restaurant operators are already benefitting from Fourth iQ – with brands including PizzaExpress, The Big Table Group, BKUK and Thai Leisure Group achieving significant results.

For example, BKUK (master franchisee for the Burger King brand within the UK) utilise Fourth iQ Auto-Scheduling to reduce labour costs by 1% while absorbing a significant increase in the 2024 minimum wage. Similarly, Thai Leisure Group is utilising AI-driven scheduling to both increase sales by 15% and reduce labour costs by 1%.

Drew Brodnax, Director of Finance at Brinker International shared, "Fourth iQ helps our restaurant leadership teams by allowing them to be more effective in their day to day and has the potential to increase profits and improve operations at each Chili's location."

The latest release introduces the following new capablities:

• The Fourth iQ App: Now in limited Beta, this AI-powered App delivers actions and alerts straight to managers’ devices, helping them react faster and spend more time on the floor.
• Sales and Labour Modelling – the ability to model the impact on labour costs of different sales forecasts and labour rules, comparing scenarios against each other.
• Forecast Manager – A centralized hub to connect and manage AI-powered labour and inventory forecasts.

“I am incredibly proud of our latest release – not only does it showcase the incredible skill and determination of my wonderful colleagues to deliver cutting-edge AI tech at pace – it delivers exactly the capability our customers need to help their managers thrive,” said Christian Berthelsen, Fourth CTO. “We are now entering a ‘new dimension’ where AI is powering restaurant operations – in fact, it's happening now and Fourth’s customers are already reaping the benefits. ”

If you would like to learn more about what Fourth iQ can do for your business, the Fourth Team will be attending MCA Hostech in London on the 22^nd May. Alternatively please reach out to us.

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About Fourth

When every hour of every 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 optimising operations, maximising 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. Fourth serves more than 15,000 customers across 100,000 locations globally. For more information, please visit uk.fourth.com.