Wonder Launches AI Tool Allowing Anyone to Create Virtual Restaurant Brands for Its Automated Kitchens

Wonder is turning its network of robotic kitchens into AI-powered restaurant factories that let anyone launch a virtual food brand with a single prompt, founder Marc Lore said this week. The company announced Wonder Create earlier this year. The platform lets users employ AI to design and launch their own restaurant brand in under a minute, according to TechCrunch reported.

Typing a prompt into Wonder Create causes AI to build the restaurant name, branding, description, pictures, pricing, health information, and all recipes. Marc Lore described Wonder Create as something like a Shopify front-end with an AI prompt. "You type in what kind of restaurant you want to build.

It builds the restaurant — AI does — in under a minute. It does the name, branding, description, pictures, pricing, health information, and all the recipes for your restaurant," Lore explained during an interview at the WSJ event. The would-be restaurateur could then refine the prompt if changes are needed.

Once launched, a Wonder Create restaurant goes live across all of Wonder’s locations. Wonder currently operates 120 tech-enabled kitchen locations. The kitchens are programmable cooking platforms capable of operating as 25 different types of restaurants.

These kitchens have a 700-ingredient library. Wonder kitchens currently have a staff of up to 12 people plus cooking tech including conveyors and robotic arms. The company has a throughput capacity of about 7 million meals with 12 people.

Wonder sees a path to 20 million throughput out of 2,500 square feet with 12 people. By 2035, Wonder’s goal is to have 1,000 unique restaurants operating out of 2,500 square feet. Wonder expects its kitchen locations to reach 400 next year.

Wonder Create is intended to let restaurateurs test recipes and gauge customer reaction before adding dishes to brick-and-mortar locations. Wonder Create can be used by influencers to monetize their following through their own restaurant brands. It can also be used by private trainers, not-for-profits, or companies like Disney for marketing.

Marc Lore, the veteran e-commerce entrepreneur who sold his previous startups to Amazon and Walmart, is the founder of Wonder. Wonder kitchens cannot toss and stretch pizza dough or slice and roll sushi. Instead the company focuses on simpler basics like burgers, chicken wings, fried chicken, and bowls.

Wonder bought Spice Robotics, a maker of an automatic bowl-making machine previously used by Sweetgreen. The company plans to offer an infinite sauce machine next year that can make about 80% of all sauces found in recipes on the internet. Marc Lore spoke at The Wall Street Journal’s “Future of Everything” conference this week.

The whole plan comes together with Wonder’s other acquisitions. Wonder acquired Grubhub, which has a business of 250 million deliveries per year. Wonder acquired Blue Apron. 5 million in February.

Marc Lore said buying a brand with 10 or 50 locations and putting it in 1,000 locations overnight creates incredible arbitrage. "When you buy a brand — and you can buy a brand that has 10 locations, or even 50 locations — and then overnight put it in 1,000, there’s just an incredible arbitrage there," Lore noted.