How Toast’s New AI Retail Workflows At Toast (TOST) Have Changed Its Investment Story

In early January 2026, Toast announced new retail-focused updates to its Toast IQ AI assistant and broader platform, adding real-time inventory actions, catalog optimization tools, AI invoice scanning, cloud-enabled scales and labeling integrations, and AI-supported digital advertising capabilities. A particularly interesting development is Toast IQ’s ability to execute operational changes directly from a chat interface, such as marking products out of stock or generating item descriptions, which could meaningfully change how retailers manage day-to-day workflows. We’ll now explore how these new AI-driven retail capabilities, especially Toast IQ’s real-time operational actions, may influence Toast’s existing investment narrative. Find companies with promising cash flow potential yet trading below their fair value.Toast Investment Narrative RecapTo own Toast, you need to believe it can extend its restaurant-focused platform into adjacent verticals while maintaining improving profitability. The new retail-focused AI updates support that broader platform story, but they do not materially change the near term focus on sustaining transaction and software growth while managing rising competitive pressure and hardware cost risk. Among the recent announcements, the expansion of Toast IQ into real time retail inventory and catalog actions stands out as most relevant here. If retailers adopt these tools at scale, Toast could deepen its role in customers’ day to day operations, which may reinforce the existing catalyst of higher ARPU from additional software and fintech modules rather than altering the current risk profile. Yet for investors, the bigger question is whether these new AI and retail tools can offset the ongoing risk that... Read the full narrative on Toast (it's free!)Toast's narrative projects $8.9 billion revenue and $738.5 million earnings by 2028.Uncover how Toast's forecasts yield a $47.75 fair value, a 35% upside to its current price.Exploring Other PerspectivesTOST 1-Year Stock Price Chart Fifteen members of the Simply Wall St Community currently see fair value for Toast between US$30.03 and US$60.85, with views spread across that full range. As you weigh those opinions, it is worth considering how much you think Toast’s push into AI powered automation can really support its effort to grow higher margin software and fintech revenues over time.Explore 15 other fair value estimates on Toast - why the stock might be worth as much as 72% more than the current price!Build Your Own Toast NarrativeDisagree with existing narratives? Create your own in under 3 minutes - extraordinary investment returns rarely come from following the herd.A great starting point for your Toast research is our analysis highlighting 3 key rewards and 1 important warning sign that could impact your investment decision.Our free Toast research report provides a comprehensive fundamental analysis summarized in a single visual - the Snowflake - making it easy to evaluate Toast's overall financial health at a glance.Ready For A Different Approach?Every day counts. These free picks are already gaining attention. See them before the crowd does:The best AI stocks today may lie beyond giants like Nvidia and Microsoft. Find the next big opportunity with these 28 smaller AI-focused companies with strong growth potential through early-stage innovation in machine learning, automation, and data intelligence that could fund your retirement.The end of cancer? These 29 emerging AI stocks are developing tech that will allow early identification of life changing diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's.Trump has pledged to "unleash" American oil and gas and these 22 US stocks have developments that are poised to benefit. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.