Mexican restaurant company Wahaca signs on to deploy Sona AI powered workforce management technology
Sona, an AI platform for frontline enterprises, has inked a deal with Wahaca, a restaurant group selling Mexican style street food that is based in London, England.
In a LinkedIn post, Gemma Glasson, CEO at Wahaca, said: “Efficiency has always been something I value hugely; how do you get an answer to problem's with clarity and in a timely way. Even better, when it comes to people, how can I do that in a way that feels creative, engaging and fun, and for bonus points can I nail multiple objectives at once!? We have always been pretty conventional in the way we plan and flex our rotas. All our restaurants are unique and we have a back of house, front of house, bar and manager crew we need to ensure are deployed correctly to drive SUPERFAN sales.”
She added: “As a business we are very in the detail - sometimes with daily discussions on sales and flex labour - but we knew there were smart cookies out there who had solutions that would allow us to spend less time in our rotas and more time driving our Guest Superfans. We also know with the Employee Rights Act and beyond; we are going to be up against even more on people compliance and reinforcing our Employee Value Proposition. So we are very excited to welcome Sona to the Wahaca family.”
“Pulling on a pool of historical PoS, bookings and sales info and using AI to smart forecast and deploy. I am excited to see what we can do together! We ran the team through a demo last week and there is lots of excitement. Plus the team interface is intuitive and adaptable for our business.”
Funding
Sona recently bagged $45 million in Series B funding led by N47, with participation from existing investors Felicis, Northzone, Gradient, and Italian Founders Fund, bringing its total funding to over $100 million.
The cash will accelerate its US expansion and drive platform enhancements. Sona's forecasting and scheduling enables businesses like Popeyes to better manage how their business is staffed, helping them to have not just the right number of people but the people best suited to the shift working at the busiest times.
This is combined with its labour AI platform, which takes real-time data about bookings, revenue, weather and every shift ever worked - along with any other factor which may impact a business, from box office takings to road closures - and builds models which evolve in real-time to predict not just what will happen but, based on historical productivity, what optimal operations look like and where there are opportunities for improvement.
"Every other enterprise software category has been transformed by AI, but the tools managing the world's largest workforce are still fundamentally the same systems that were built 20 years ago," says Steffen Wulff Petersen, Co-founder and CEO at Sona. "We had a ten-year plan. AI made it a one-year plan. The old SaaS model delivered one-size-fits-all applications that companies had to adapt to. The next generation delivers the infrastructure and agentic layer organisations build on, giving them the power to create the exact software their business needs. That's what Sona is becoming for the frontline economy."
2026 RTIH Innovation Awards
AI will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.
The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.
Check out our 2025 winners here.
Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.
In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”
“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”
He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”
Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.
