Marc Lore says that AI will soon enable anyone open a restaurant

So here’s a wild idea that’s actually closer than you think. A company called Wonder is building kitchens run mostly by robots and AI, and their vision is that someday soon you could basically describe your dream restaurant — the cuisine, the vibe, the menu — and the AI figures out the recipes, the pricing, the branding, and the operations. No chef school required. Think of it like how Shopify let anyone open an online store without knowing how to code. Same energy, but for food businesses. You’d be the idea person; the machines handle the messy execution.

The way this works in practice is that the AI acts like a very experienced restaurant consultant who never sleeps and never charges $400 an hour. It can look at what’s selling in your area, suggest a menu that fits a specific kitchen’s equipment, handle the logistics of getting food to customers, and even help you test whether people actually want what you’re offering before you spend a fortune finding out they don’t. The robot kitchen then makes the food consistently, which solves one of the biggest headaches in the restaurant world — the fact that things fall apart the moment your best cook calls in sick.

Now, what does this mean for regular people with a dollar and a dream? Three ideas worth thinking about. First, if you’ve always had a family recipe or a cuisine you’re passionate about, this kind of platform could eventually let you launch a virtual food brand as a side hustle with very low upfront cost — no lease, no staff, just your concept plugged into someone else’s infrastructure. Second, if you’re already in the food business, pay attention to how these AI tools describe and market their menus, because that same logic for writing compelling food descriptions and targeting the right customers can be applied with free or cheap AI tools like ChatGPT right now to improve your own takeout listings on DoorDash or Uber Eats. Third, for anyone who does social media or marketing, restaurants are going to need help translating their identity into AI prompts and brand concepts — that’s a real skill gap you could fill as a consultant before the big players figure it out.

The restaurant industry is one of the hardest businesses in the world, and AI won’t change that overnight, but the people who understand how these tools work will have a real head start when the door opens.