Shake Shack is focused on a tech overhaul that brings AI to the forefront of the customer experience and an internal strategy that scales the company’s digital, data and operational capabilities, according to Justin Mennen, the company’s chief information and technology officer.
Much of Project Catalyst’s rollout, launched last month, focuses on customer experience as it scales to 1,500 locations, but Mennen plans to bring the same sensibility to internal efforts, building a strategy for the company’s 13,400 restaurant team members in pursuit of “better, enlightened hospitality.”
Many other companies in the restaurant and hospitality industry are producing more customer-facing technology, with about a quarter reporting that they use AI in their business strategy as of early 2026. Marketing was the top area that restaurants reported using AI. But Mennen said Shake Shack is taking a bit of a different approach.
For the company’s 450 corporate employees, the tech team views AI as a practical tool in driving productivity and efficiency, especially in systems that are operational in nature, such as analytics and automation.
“We’re taking an approach of really focusing on the practical things that can help our teams free up time so that they can go work, to drive that hospitality in a better way,” Mennen said.
Mennen, who has been in the role since Jan. 2025, said the company’s tech stack includes mostly enterprise AI providers that they work with to monitor trends in the restaurant and hospitality space. Although many startups have attractive AI offerings, Mennen said the scalability and reliability of enterprise offerings have been top of mind in deploying Shake Shack’s AI strategy.
But the company’s tech team will sometimes build its custom products, he said, especially when it comes to AI orchestration.
“It’s a combination of both,” Mennen said. “We buy best of breed, and then when there’s not a capability in the market, we go build it.”
Looking forward
Mennen heads a team that checks in weekly with other key company leaders to talk through the company’s AI roadmap, assessing where they’re going and how they plan to get there, he said. It’s work to keep up with the quickly changing AI landscape, he said, as best practices and best offerings are constantly in flux.
With guardrails in place, Mennen and his team hope to lean on their enterprise partners to democratize AI for the entire organization to “improve their day to day jobs.”
The biggest shift in productivity that AI has given restaurants is its ability to help with decision acceleration and automating operating systems for restaurants, Mennen said. Real-time alerts can help restaurant leaders find inefficiencies and create processes for workers to use their time more meaningfully.
“That’s really where the power of AI has shifted us,” he said. “It gives a lot of capability that was just much more difficult to do in the past. Now, decisions can be made much quicker to address opportunities or focus areas with the right data underlying all of that.”
