Our roadmap is built around three goals: new ways to drive revenue, greater efficiency running the estate, and more peace of mind for operators. Here’s what we covered.
The first half of 2026: what we delivered
Driving revenue
Before Scout, getting a meaningful answer from your operational data meant pulling reports manually, briefing an analyst, or skipping the analysis altogether. Most questions just stayed unanswered.
Scout, our AI analyst for QSR, changes that. Embedded directly in VM Hub, it already knows your entire operation across all sites, channels, and time periods. Ask a question in plain language and get an answer you can act on. No setup, no data exports, no context required. And it shows how it thinks about the problem, so your team can interrogate the answer rather than just accept it.
One example from the pilot: analysing which sites actually make money in their last trading hour, rather than assuming everywhere should stay open until close because that’s how it’s always been done. Operators who asked that question reshaped their trading hours around data rather than habit. That’s the kind of decision Scout makes possible.
We also integrated loyalty with Deliveroo and Uber Eats, helping operators drive guest engagement on third-party orders.
Increasing efficiency
VM Hub is now the single place to manage the estate and understand performance through analytics and Scout. On 18 May, we retired Management Panel 1 and Management Panel 2.
That shift is a big step toward self-serve. Operators can update settings on their own schedule, without raising a ticket and waiting for a reply. Changes can be scheduled in advance, so there’s no need to wait until after trading hours. History and restore means a mistake can be rolled back quickly.
We also shipped Kitchen Management System (KMS) driver status helping make sure deliveries get picked up on time.
Peace of mind
The most significant delivery in this pillar was a new offline capability for POS and KMS. The two systems now communicate directly over the local network. If the internet goes down, orders still get placed, sent to the kitchen, and bumped automatically. No manual reconciliation. No lost orders.
We also added kiosk observability, which measures tap-to-load speed at kiosk, store, and brand level, so performance issues can be spotted and resolved faster.
The next six months: what’s coming
Driving revenue
Smart Menu is the next major investment in driving revenue by leveraging AI.
Today, a guest sees the same menu whether they’re ordering at Liverpool Street station in the rain at two degrees, or at Clapham Common in 25 degrees of sunshine. Same interface, same layout, no matter the context.
Smart Menu changes that. It draws on inputs like weather, time of day, store location, and known guest behaviour, then adapts the interface to nudge guests toward the outcome that works best for the business.
In practice, that could mean changing hero images depending on the weather or time of day. Inserting extra shelf space to promote what’s popular that morning, using badges to nudge guests toward simpler drinks during high footfall to protect throughput, or toward higher-value products during quieter periods.
We’re also adding catering functionality, including business accounts, credit line workflows, and invoice enhancements; plus payment improvements that will give franchise businesses more control over payment flows.
On loyalty: we’re improving rewards visibility across Self-service Kiosks, Click & Collect, and the mobile app, so guests can see exactly what rewards they have the moment they log in. We’re also introducing product tags so operators can nudge guests toward best-selling or higher-margin items.
Increasing efficiency
Smart KMS improvements are coming, alongside deeper self-serve tools: menu scheduling and a bulk menu editor to keep menus optimised for revenue. We’re also introducing a one-to-many printing capability, so a single POS order can route to multiple prep stations.
Peace of mind
Custom rules and permissions will help operators manage the estate with more control. Audit logs will show everything that’s changed, across the estate or at individual store level, and when.
Want to hear Chris walk through the full roadmap? Watch the Customer Collective roadmap session below…