―Accelerating DX in the Foodservice Industry with Insight Lead using Causal AI―
Developing a Scientific PDCA Support System that Turns Restaurant Managers' Intuition into Data-Driven Confidence

VELDT Inc. (Headquarters: Shibuya, Tokyo; CEO: Jin Nonogami; hereinafter "VELDT") announced that it has begun developing a scientific PDCA support system for restaurant managers in collaboration with Insight Lead Inc. (Headquarters: Kasugai, Aichi; President & CEO: Norihiro Kajita; hereinafter "Insight Lead"). The project utilizes the Causal AI Assistant, a new capability of VELDT's causal inference AI platform "xCausal™." The companies aim to develop a store operations support system that enables restaurant managers to consult AI through a conversational chat interface about various aspects of store management. By analyzing the factors that influence sales and profitability, the AI provides actionable insights and recommends optimal improvement measures.

The Causal AI Assistant is an innovative solution that combines the strengths of causal inference AI and AI agents, enabling the expertise and decision-making processes of experienced professionals to be replicated through AI. This approach transforms the experience and intuition accumulated in restaurant operations into data-driven and reproducible decision-making, helping managers enhance and accelerate the PDCA cycle in store operations.

Through this initiative, Insight Lead plans to introduce a new digital transformation (DX) model for the restaurant industry powered by causal inference AI, enabling more advanced and data-driven operational decision-making. The company aims to deploy the system to 2,000 restaurant locations by 2032.

■ Background: Productivity Challenges and Limited Data Utilization in the Restaurant Industry

The restaurant industry faces significant challenges due to a shrinking workforce and worsening labor shortages. In particular, labor productivity in the restaurant sector has been reported to remain at approximately one-third of the average across all industries, contributing to lower wage levels and increasing difficulties in securing talent. These factors are believed to heighten the risk of business closures and bankruptcies. (Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan, among others)

At the same time, while many restaurants track sales, food costs, and labor costs, the KPI and daily report data accumulated through day-to-day store operations are not fully leveraged for management decisions. As a result, managers often do not know why certain results were achieved, are unable to replicate successful initiatives, and struggle to explain the rationale behind improvements to staff members.

■ Transforming Managers' Experience into Scientific PDCA

Against this background, Insight Lead had envisioned the development of a store operations support system that transforms managers' experience into scientific PDCA. To realize this vision, the company sought technology capable of linking store data with on-site expertise to structurally analyze the effects of initiatives. Insight Lead focused on causal inference AI and natural language processing technology, and identified VELDT—with its causal inference AI platform "xCausal™" and Causal AI Assistant—as the ideal partner aligned with its vision, leading to the current collaboration.

■ Conversational AI for Operational Decision Support

With this system, restaurant managers will be able to consult AI about their store management challenges through conversational dialogue. For example, questions such as "How would changes in staffing levels affect table turnover, sales, and profitability?"
The Causal AI Assistant analyzes key drivers based on store data and industry knowledge, infers cause-and-effect relationships, and presents specific recommended actions along with their rationale.

■ Embedding Causal Mechanisms into Store Operations

General data analysis can reveal correlations between sales and various factors. However, it is not easy to determine how changing a specific variable will impact outcomes. Causal AI (causal inference AI) addresses this by organizing cause-and-effect relationships as causal models, enabling simulation of the effects of specific measures under varying conditions. This initiative goes beyond simply understanding causal relationships—it embeds causal mechanisms as an intelligent engine within store operations.

■ Background of the Collaboration

This collaboration was born from a shared commitment to promote digital transformation in the foodservice industry and the framework of open innovation. Insight Lead participates in "STATION Ai," one of Japan's largest open innovation hubs operated by STATION Ai, Inc. (Headquarters: Showa, Nagoya; CEO: Hirotaka Sahashi), and has been exploring partnerships with startups to leverage data and AI for solving challenges in the restaurant industry. Within this context, VELDT's Causal AI Assistant was identified as an AI platform capable of enhancing decision-making in restaurant operations, and its alignment with Insight Lead's vision led to the current collaboration.

■ Executive Comments

Insight Lead Inc.
President & CEO Norihiro Kajita

We are very pleased to take a step forward in foodservice DX through our collaboration with VELDT Inc. Insight Lead has been working on DX support for the restaurant industry, including demand forecasting and AI-based pairing recommendations. However, as rising costs and labor shortages have made the business environment increasingly challenging, on-site data has not been fully utilized in store operations—managers can see the numbers but often don't know why results succeeded, how to replicate them, or how to justify decisions to staff. The key to solving this lies not in simple correlation analysis but in understanding cause-and-effect relationships. We believe that VELDT's Causal AI Assistant holds great potential as a technology that combines data and people's insights to turn a manager's "intuition" into "confidence." Through this collaboration, we aim to bring scientific PDCA to restaurant operations and contribute to improving labor productivity and the well-being of those working in the foodservice industry.

VELDT Inc.
CEO Jin Nonogami

We are honored to join Insight Lead's socially meaningful new initiative to transform the foodservice industry—an industry facing labor shortages and productivity challenges—through scientific PDCA and trustworthy AI. VELDT's Causal AI Assistant is not merely a tool for inferring causal relationships. It is a "knowledge engine" that continuously evolves by incorporating data and on-site feedback, with causal mechanisms at its core. We are confident that the combination of Insight Lead's extensive expertise in foodservice DX and VELDT's Causal AI technology will enable us to deliver scientific PDCA to restaurant operations on the ground. We look forward to this initiative contributing to improved productivity in the foodservice industry and a better future for those who work in it.

■ About Insight Lead Inc.

Insight Lead Inc. is a spin-off from the Maruto Mizutani Group, a company with a long history of delivering alcoholic beverages and food products to restaurants in the Tokai region. Guided by the group's vision of "creating sustainable foodservice businesses," Insight Lead is committed to both improving restaurant productivity and enhancing the well-being of workers. Its main businesses include consulting services for foodservice industry suppliers and new business initiatives centered on DX support for restaurants. In supplier support, the company leverages the Maruto Mizutani Group's expertise in system design, development, and implementation support to provide comprehensive assistance from problem-solving to organizational and human resource growth. In restaurant DX support, the company focuses on enhancing restaurant value through data utilization, including demand forecasting based on POS data and AI-powered pairing recommendations.

■ About VELDT Inc.

VELDT Inc. is a data science company that accelerates social problem-solving and Goodwill Innovation through the power of understanding "why." As a leading company in Causal AI (causal inference AI), VELDT provides the causal AI platform "xCausal™" that elucidates cause-and-effect relationships, and the custom solution "Causal AI Assistant" that transforms expert knowledge and advanced organizational decision-making processes into AI. By delivering "trustworthy AI" with interpretability and explainability to AI systems that tend to be black boxes, VELDT creates a positive spiral for society.

■ About STATION Ai

STATION Ai is one of Japan's largest open innovation hubs, with approximately 1,000 participating companies. In addition to fostering and supporting startups, it promotes co-creation among corporations, universities, and local governments. The hub provides multifaceted support from both hardware (facilities and equipment) and software (proof-of-concept initiatives, commercialization support, and talent exchange) perspectives. It also features a café restaurant and hotel facilities that are open to the general public.
https://stationai.co.jp/

■ Contact

VELDT Inc.
Media Relations: Haruka Tashiro
Phone: 03-6427-4457
E-mail: pr@veldt.jp