Brazilian food service firms Sterna Café and Goomer roll out digital ordering and AI tools

Sterna Café, a Brazilian coffee chain, is expanding digital technologies to speed up the consumer journey in its cafés. The rollout includes QR‑code or tablet‑based digital menus, table‑side Pix payments, self‑service kiosks, integration with major delivery platforms and, at its Jardins‑São Paulo location, a robot server. CEO Silvana Buzzi says the aim is to let customers order faster while preserving the quality of specialty coffee and to free staff for higher‑touch interactions.

Restaurant‑technology provider Goomer is launching version 2.0 of its WhatsApp‑based virtual assistant, which uses in‑house generative AI to handle orders and marketing messages. The company expects at least 25% of its 10,000 client restaurants to adopt the new assistant within a year. The bot routes orders to kitchens, supports Pix or card payments, and can be customized for campaigns. Rafael Laganaro, Goomer’s CPO and CTO, highlights the system’s guardrails to limit hallucinations and its ability to tag customers for targeted offers.