Image provided by Yum! Brands.

For years, Shift Lead Ana Linares donned a parka, scarf and hat when she closed her Taco Bell for the night. Although Fullerton, California, is warm year-round, the walk-in cooler, where she counts her end-of-day inventory, is always set to a cool 33-40 degrees Fahrenheit.

But in early 2024, Linares shed her winter gear and opted for a light jacket more commonly worn by her peers. The cooler was still set to less than 40 degrees, so her area coach, Carmen Solis, wondered what had changed.

"Was she doing Polar Bear plunges, did she eat ghost peppers, what?!" Solis said. "But then she told me that ever since we implemented Byte Inventory in her restaurant, it takes her half the time to take the same inventory, so she doesn't have time to get cold."

A year later, Taco Bell's parent company, Yum! Brands, announced that it launched a comprehensive collection of proprietary Software as a Service (SaaS), AI-driven products called Byte by Yum!™. Stories like Linares' are becoming the norm across Yum!'s brands as the Byte platform is quietly revolutionizing restaurant operations, making life easier for team members and delivering faster, smarter service to customers - while driving record digital sales across KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger & Grill.

Part of that platform includes Byte Inventory, which uses AI-driven forecasting to track inventory in real time - simplifying and streamlining operations for restaurant team members around the world.

"The time savings that we've experienced thanks to Byte by Yum! has been enormous," Solis said. "Team members are happier because we've eliminated many tedious administrative tasks, freeing up their time to do other things - like, not be uncomfortably cold and having more face time with our customers."

Currently, Byte Inventory is in approximately 80% of all Taco Bell U.S. locations, with plans to expand to Taco Bells across the United States and other restaurants within the Yum! family by 2026. Powered by Yum!'s proprietary artificial intelligence platform, Yum! Crave AI, the technology also alerts nearby restaurants of food shortages, so that those with a surplus can supply their neighboring locations, ensuring that each restaurant will have customers' favorites on hand.

"Byte Inventory removes the headache of managing stock for the restaurant general managers - our Crave AI models recommend ordering before the restaurant is aware they are even running low," said Byte by Yum! Head of Product Catherine Kromkowski.

Another product in the platform, Byte Coach, is the most pervasive, implemented across nearly 30,000 KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants worldwide. Byte Coach incorporates feedback from a variety of different data sources including sales forecasts and consumer reviews to tailor operations routines, streamlining restaurant operations and taking the guesswork out of running a restaurant for restaurant general managers and team members. These dynamic routines have translated to up to a 10% improvement in customer satisfaction in some markets.

"Happier team members lead to happier guests," said Kromkowski. "In Byte Coach, we've made it easier for restaurant teams to share and apply best practices from our top-performing restaurants across the system."

Byte Inventory and Byte Coach are just two products in the Byte by Yum! platform powering thousands of Yum!'s restaurants worldwide, each designed to take the guesswork out of running a restaurant. Because of its AI-powered automation and predictive insights, Byte by Yum! provides restaurants with increased order accuracy and product freshness, greater inventory forecast accuracy, higher team member satisfaction and the ability to deliver elevated, personalized guest experiences - all driving more profitable growth for franchisees.

Behind these results is a talented team. Yum! has steadily recruited leading software engineers, data scientists and product managers in recent years, making Digital & Technology the company's largest function. In early 2025, Yum! hired Jim Dausch as the Pizza Hut Global chief Digital & Technology officer, who brought with him decades of digital and business transformation experience. In September, Yum! CEO Chris Turner added Dausch to his leadership team, promoting him to Yum!'s chief Digital & Technology officer and president of Byte by Yum!.

Yum! also pursued acquisitions and opened RED Labs (stands for Relevant, Easy and Distinctive) in its Plano, Texas, campus to prototype and test restaurant automation and other innovation. In March 2025, Yum! announced a partnership with NVIDIA whose software helps power Yum!-built AI agents in the Byte by Yum! suite of products.

"We are the only restaurant company with an end-to-end platform like Byte by Yum! and the only quick-service restaurant business that NVIDIA has partnered with - ever," said Dausch. "We've steadily been building our strategy, and now, it's coming together. It's really exciting to see."

It's coming together so well that in 2024, Yum! reported over $30 billion in digital sales, and 2025 is tracking to surpass that figure, recently exceeding $10 billion in digital system sales in the third quarter with a record digital mix of 60%. Currently, there are more than 25,000 restaurants with at least one Byte by Yum! product. With Byte by Yum! and the NVIDIA partnership, many franchisees have access to world-class technology capabilities with advantaged economics made possible by the scale of Yum!.

Byte by Yum! is powering the future of restaurants today, and for team members like Linares, that future looks exceedingly bright.