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In May 2026, during the NRA Show in Chicago, Chowbus hosted its 2026 Summer Launch Event and Summit Forum — "Welcome to the AI Digital Worker Era."
Chowbus Co-founder & CEO Linxin Wen, alongside Co-founder & CTO Suyu Zhang, took the stage together to unveil Chowbus's brand-new brand positioning and major strategic deployments such as the Restaurant AI Digital Worker, presenting Chowbus's vision for the "next generation of restaurant POS."
"We hope to walk alongside restaurant owners to witness the next era — an era where doing business is simpler, an era where more people can succeed." Opening the event, Linxin Wen framed the discussion with "The Three Generations of POS Evolution" — officially announcing the arrival of the third-generation POS era.
"What restaurant owners need is not another Chatbot, not another Copilot — but an AI Digital Worker that can proactively take action." — Linxin Wen, Co-founder & CEO of Chowbus
This is a clear paradigm shift: from "providing tools" to "delivering labor"; from "paying for software" to "paying for results."
Chowbus — the POS 3.0 era has arrived.
Beyond the paradigm lies the technological foundation.
"Almost every restaurant product on the market today flying the AI flag is just stuffing a chat entry point into an app. You ask a question, it answers; at most, it summarizes a report. That's an AI wrapper, not an AI Agent. What we want to build is an AI coworker that can both proactively get work done and possesses skills specific to the restaurant industry." — Suyu Zhang, Co-founder & CTO of Chowbus
Chowbus Co-founder & CTO Suyu Zhang further pointed out that the true differentiation of AI products has never been about which large model is used, but rather whether the capabilities of large models can be deeply integrated with restaurant operational scenarios. Over the past year, Chowbus has continuously refined its work along this path, translating the industry's most cutting-edge AI capabilities into products that merchants can use in real time.
"The most remarkable thing about AI is that it grows smarter every month — something no human employee in the past has ever been able to do."
As for what the truly "proactively working" AI Digital Worker looks like, what its name is, and what it can do — the two founders said everyone will soon see it within Chowbus's product lineup.
The AI Digital Worker is the distant horizon Chowbus is moving toward; the comprehensive upgrade of seven flagship products is the present that Chowbus has steadily delivered over the past year.
Over the past year, Chowbus has continued to advance steadily.
Completed a new $81M funding round, with cumulative funding reaching $209M — #1 in the Asian restaurant POS sector; 2025 Gross Payment Volume (GPV) surpassed $4 billion, doubling year over year; Asian restaurant POS transaction volume continues to rank #1.
More solid numbers are written in the core Asian restaurant business districts — New York 71%, Boston 80%, Seattle 80%, Chicago 65%, Houston 58%, Los Angeles 55%.
Chowbus has continued to maintain a "weekly release" cadence, rolling out 200+ new features and improvements over the past 12 months. On average, it saves merchants approximately $8,000 in labor costs per month and increases revenue by 15–25%.
1)From front of house to back of house, full-channel upgrades.
Kiosk 2.0 has been fully revamped in visuals and gameplay, supporting brand-customized homepages, loyalty malls, and coupons.
The all-new KDS has been restructured into a waterfall display, defined as "the most user-friendly KDS in North America"; customer-facing screens and order-call screens have been upgraded across the board.
The core POS functions have introduced Table Overview floor plans, card-style order lists, and a smoother check-splitting experience.
2)Branded App — from ordering tool to brand storefront. The all-new Story Teller mode turns the App into the merchant's "online flagship store" — vertical storytelling, component-based orchestration, and content as conversion. The Interactive Spinning Wheel helped Molly Tea climb to #170 on the App Store North America chart.
3)Membership and marketing — from "casting a wide net" to "precision outreach."
Gift cards usable across stores, the all-new Membership 2.0, and Membership 360° + CRM precision coupon distribution — from member acquisition to reactivating consumption, every upgrade to Chowbus's products is made with what merchants want in mind.
4)From scheduling to tip distribution — leave the tedious parts to the system. On the employee management side, Chowbus has not only achieved deep integration with the 7shifts scheduling system but also updated and upgraded Tip Allocation 2.0 for automated tip distribution — built-in with 48 mainstream allocation models, thoroughly solving the hassle of manual calculations after closing.
Alongside the product launches, an industry-level dialogue also took place.
20+ leading brands attended, including Molly Tea, Niu Wushi, UG TEA, Shanghai Auntie, Nayuki, Wallace, and Yang Guofu. Guests including Zhaimen Group & Tomato Capital founder Bob Qingyong, SiPod, and Hestia Technology engaged in deep conversations on topics such as "Pathways to Building a Super Brand," "Chinese Restaurants Expanding into the U.S.," "New Paradigms of Restaurant Automation," and "How Restaurant Owners Can Break Free from Back-of-House Dependency."
Beyond that, the "North America Restaurant Circle" was also officially launched — an ecosystem platform co-built by Chowbus and industry partners, systematically uniting the strengths of Chinese and Asian restaurant brands.
The POS 3.0 era has just begun. To help more merchants "get on board" right away, Chowbus is simultaneously releasing limited-time signing benefits!
🎁 Free Upgrade to the Third-Generation AI POS Are you still using a second-generation functional POS? Then you're one era behind. Sign now to upgrade for free to the Chowbus third-generation AI POS — and step onto the POS 3.0 starting line ahead of everyone! Limited spots, first come, first served.
