In the latest episode of the Tech on Toast Podcast, our co-founder and CTO Ben Dixon sat down to talk about one of hospitality’s biggest (and most misunderstood) challenges: people.
From labour forecasting headaches to the “Super‑GM”, the conversation digs into why workforce management hasn’t really worked for hospitality – and how a new, more human approach to technology can change that.
At its core, hospitality lives and dies by the experience people create for other people. But as costs rise, margins tighten and expectations increase, operators are being asked to do more with less, often armed with tools that weren’t built for the reality of frontline work.
Ben explains why Sona didn’t start with the idea of “building another workforce management platform”. Instead, it started with a much more important question:
What would it take to help every manager make the same great decisions as your best GM?
That shift – from managing people to supporting better decision‑making – underpins everything discussed in the episode.
What happens if you put your best manager into your worst‑performing location?
Most operators know the answer. Performance improves quickly.
That insight matters because it proves something powerful: results aren’t random. They’re driven by thousands of small decisions – how shifts are scheduled, how new starters are introduced, when managers intervene, and where attention is focused.
Sona’s approach is about capturing what “good” looks like in your best sites and making that knowledge available everywhere – without burning out your best people or relying on tribal knowledge locked inside someone’s head.
The podcast digs into why traditional, top‑down forecasting fails modern operators:
Rather than forcing every site into the same model, Sona takes a bottom‑up, location‑level approach, focusing on what makes each site different – and using that to anticipate issues before they hit the P&L.
The goal isn’t perfection. It’s early visibility.
One of the biggest shifts discussed is moving away from dashboards no one has time to check, towards timely nudges that actually change outcomes.
Instead of telling managers what went wrong last week, Sona is designed to say:
“This might go off track next week – here’s why, and here’s what you can do about it.”
That difference is huge. It’s the difference between reporting and support. Between firefighting and looking in control.
There’s plenty of honest talk about AI too. Not the hype. Not the rebadging. But the genuinely new capability: technology that can handle the fuzzy, contextual decisions we’ve always assumed only humans could make.
Ben shares Sona’s view on agentic AI – systems that don’t just analyse data, but:
The long‑term vision? A world where managers spend less time wrestling spreadsheets and more time leading teams, developing people and delivering great guest experiences.
👉 Watch the full Tech on Toast Podcast episode and hear how Sona is rethinking workforce management from the ground up.
🎧 Listen here (Spotify)
📺 Watch here (YouTube)