8 Best AI Automation Tools for Toast in 2026
Toast IQ is genuinely good now. Ask it which items sold best at lunch, why a ticket isn’t hitting the grill KDS, or who is working Friday night, and it answers from your live Toast data. It can edit menu items, adjust a shift, and draft an email or SMS campaign for you to review.
What it doesn’t touch is your inbox. The 40-person rehearsal dinner inquiry, the produce invoice with a price jump buried on page two, the server texting that she can’t make Saturday, the one-star review waiting on a reply, and the weekly numbers your partners expect every Monday all still land on you.
TL;DR: Keep Toast IQ for questions about Toast. Add Carly for everything that arrives by email and text: it answers catering inquiries, logs invoices, chases deposits, and sends your partners the weekly Toast numbers on its own, and it connects to thousands of apps.
| Tool | Works from your inbox | Plain language, no builder | Reads Toast data | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carly | Yes | Yes | Yes | From $35/mo |
| Toast IQ | No | Yes | Yes (native) | Included (U.S.) |
| 7shifts | No | No | Sales, for scheduling | Free Comp plan; paid per location |
| Owner.com | No | Managed service | Online orders | From $249/mo + 5% per order |
| Claude / ChatGPT | Only when asked | Yes | Via a community connector | From ~$20/mo |
| Zapier | Fixed trigger | No (builder) | Only via API steps you build | Free; from ~$19.99/mo |
| Make | Fixed trigger | No (builder) | Only via API steps you build | Free; from ~$12/mo |
| n8n | Fixed trigger | No (builder) | Only via API steps you build | Free self-hosted |
1. Carly
Carly is an AI agent with its own email address, connected to your Gmail or Outlook, your calendar, and your Toast data. You reach it in the browser, by text, by email, or in Slack.
Toast IQ owns the POS. Carly owns everything around it:
- Catering and private events. Emily emails asking about a Saturday buyout for 40. Carly checks the event calendar, replies with the available dates, your minimums and the deposit terms, puts a hold on the calendar, and follows up when the deposit hasn’t arrived by Wednesday.
- Vendor invoices. Your produce supplier emails a PDF invoice. Carly reads it, logs it to QuickBooks, Xero, or your food-cost Google Sheet, and flags that romaine went up 18% since last week.
- Staff messages. Josh posts in Slack that he can’t cover Saturday brunch. Carly checks who is off that day, messages the two best fits, and tells you who took it.
- Review replies. Review notifications land in your inbox. Carly drafts a reply in your voice, ready for you to approve and post.
- Weekly numbers. Every Monday at 8am, Carly pulls last week’s net sales, labor percentage and top items from Toast for each location and emails the summary to your partners.
What makes it different: Toast IQ answers when you open it. Carly acts when the email arrives, and it runs overnight, so the morning inbox is already handled. You describe the job in plain English and Carly builds the agent with you.
Best for: Owners and GMs whose POS is dialed in but whose inbox, invoices and partner reports still eat the hour after close.
Pricing: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month
Connect Toast: In Toast Web, go to Integrations > Toast API access > Manage credentials, create Standard API credentials with the read scopes, and paste the client ID, client secret and restaurant GUID at carlyassistant.com/integrations under Custom API Keys. Standard API access comes with Restaurant Management Suite Essentials or higher for U.S. customers. It is read-only, so Carly reads Toast and does the work in your inbox, calendar and books; if you need write access, Toast arranges it through your account rep and Carly uses it as soon as it’s on. Predictable steps, like logging every invoice to a sheet, run as free Zapier-style workflows.
2. Toast IQ
Toast’s own AI assistant, in Toast Web and the Toast Now app. It answers plain-language questions about sales, labor, menus, modifiers and guest trends, and it makes changes with your confirmation: editing menu items, marking items out of stock, adjusting shifts, and fixing KDS routing. It also drafts email and SMS campaigns, though it won’t send or schedule them on its own. Toast IQ Grow adds a Marketing Agent (in limited release) and a human Marketing Success Manager.
What makes it different from Carly: it is the best tool for questions about Toast, and it is native. It works on Toast data; catering threads, supplier invoices and partner emails are outside its lane. More in our Toast POS AI guide.
Best for: Every Toast operator. Turn it on first.
Pricing: Included for U.S. Toast customers; Toast IQ Grow is $499/month
3. 7shifts
Restaurant scheduling that pulls real-time sales from Toast, projects sales automatically, and uses AI forecasting to recommend how many people to schedule. Shift Pool lets staff swap and pick up shifts with manager approval.
What makes it different from Carly: the right place to build the schedule. It works on shifts inside 7shifts; the “can anyone cover” texts and the week’s other email still reach you. Carly can sit on top of 7shifts too. See Claude + 7shifts.
Best for: Restaurants that want labor forecasting tied to Toast sales.
Pricing: Free Comp plan; paid plans priced per location
4. Owner.com
A restaurant growth platform with an AI-optimized website, direct online ordering that sends orders into Toast, AI-powered email and text campaigns, a reviews engine, and AI phone ordering.
What makes it different from Carly: it brings in new guests and direct orders. Carly handles what those guests and your suppliers send you afterward. Many operators run both.
Best for: Independents shifting orders away from third-party delivery apps.
Pricing: $249/month + 5% per order, or $499/month flat
5. Claude or ChatGPT with a Toast connector
Toast has no official Claude or ChatGPT connector. Community MCP servers wrap Toast’s read-only Standard API, so with your own credentials and a server you host, Claude or ChatGPT can answer “what were net sales last night” in a chat. Details in Claude + Toast POS.
What makes it different from Carly: a good analyst when you open the chat. Nothing happens when a catering email arrives, and you host and maintain the connector yourself.
Best for: Operators who like to dig into the numbers conversationally.
Pricing: From ~$20/month, plus hosting
6. Zapier
Connects thousands of apps with trigger-action steps. Zapier has no Toast app of its own, so Toast data comes in through webhook or API steps you build with your Toast credentials.
What makes it different from Carly: every Zap is plumbing you define and maintain, and it fires on every match. See Zapier alternatives.
Best for: Simple syncs between the other apps you run.
Pricing: Free plan; paid from ~$19.99/month
7. Make
A visual canvas with branching, loops and data transforms, usually cheaper than Zapier for multi-step scenarios.
What makes it different from Carly: more power and more canvas to build and debug. Carly trades the canvas for plain words. See Make alternatives.
Best for: A technical manager who enjoys building scenarios.
Pricing: Free plan; paid from ~$12/month
8. n8n
Open-source and self-hostable with AI and agent nodes, for groups that want data on their own servers.
What makes it different from Carly: the most flexible option, and you host, build and maintain it. Carly is managed, with nothing to wire. See n8n alternatives.
Best for: Multi-location groups with a developer on staff.
Pricing: Free self-hosted; cloud from ~$20/month
How to Pick
Turn on Toast IQ first. It comes with Toast for U.S. customers and it is the fastest way to answer a question about your own sales. Add 7shifts if scheduling is the headache, and Owner.com if you are paying too much in delivery commissions.
If the pain is the inbox, go with Carly. Catering inquiries, supplier invoices, staff messages, review replies and partner reports are where an owner’s evenings go, and Carly handles them end to end. Not sure how it fits your group? Book a call with the Carly team and they will set it up with you.
FAQ
What is Toast AI? Toast’s AI is called Toast IQ. It answers questions about your sales, labor and menu, makes changes like editing items or shifts with your confirmation, and drafts marketing campaigns. It works on your Toast data. For the email and admin around Toast, add Carly.
Can AI answer catering inquiries for a Toast restaurant? Yes. Carly reads the inquiry, checks your event calendar, replies with dates and terms, holds the date, and chases the deposit.
How do I connect Toast to Carly? Create Standard API credentials in Toast Web under Integrations > Toast API access, then paste them at carlyassistant.com/integrations.
Can AI send my partners the weekly Toast numbers automatically? Yes. Toast IQ answers when you ask it. Carly pulls the numbers from Toast on a schedule and emails them itself, every week, without you opening anything.
More: AI tools for restaurants · Toast POS AI · Claude + Toast POS · Best AI workflow automation tools
Automate other POS systems: Square · Clover
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