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Out of 500+ exhibitors, one stood out. Certus AI won the Innovation Award 2025 at the Restaurant & Takeaway Innovation Expo in London, beating hundreds of restaurant tech solutions competing for recognition.
But here's what matters more than the trophy itself. The award signals something bigger: the award points to something bigger: the restaurant industry is finally ready to fix a long-ignored problem.
Why this award matters for Certus AI
Every year, hundreds of new tools launch for restaurants. Scheduling apps. Payroll systems. Inventory trackers. Most fade into the background because restaurants already have too many tools. They're short on real solutions.
The phone line is the perfect example. It's been a choke point for decades. Every missed call means someone who didn't order, a table that didn't get booked, and money that never came in.
Restaurants find it frustrating. Staff find it stressful. Customers find it inconvenient.
Most restaurants still struggle with this today. Or they've switched off their phone entirely because it became too big of a hassle to handle.
Certus AI handles this problem by fully replacing the restaurant phone line.
The Innovation Award panel at Europe's leading restaurant business event recognized this fundamental shift. Among 500 exhibitors presenting solutions, Certus AI stood out for tackling a problem nearly every restaurant faces, one that costs the industry billions each year.
What Certus AI does
Certus AI is a voice AI system that handles restaurant phone operations completely:
- Answers every call instantly with zero hold times.
- Takes complex orders with modifications across multiple languages and accents.
- Processes payments securely during the call.
- Sends orders directly to kitchen displays without manual entry.
- Handles unlimited simultaneous calls during peak hours.
- Upsells naturally, increasing average order values by 15-20%.
- Operates 24/7, capturing after-hours orders when staff have gone home.
For restaurant operators, this means recovering lost revenue and letting staff focus on guests in front of them instead of managing phones during rush hours.
The personal story behind the solution
Gurveer Singh, co-founder and CEO of Certus AI, knows the phone problem firsthand. As a child helping in his parents’ restaurant, he watched staff struggle to balance phone orders with in-person service during rushes.
‘When we started Certus AI, the goal wasn't to build another tool,’ Singh explained. ‘It was to change the way restaurants operate forever.’”
That mission resonated with judges Rob Grimes, Amanda Mason, Peter Lloyd-Jones, and others who evaluated innovations at the Restaurant & Takeaway Innovation Expo. The Innovation Awards recognize solutions that rethink how restaurants work, not just small upgrades to existing systems.
What makes Certus AI different from other voice AI
The restaurant tech market includes various AI phone solutions. What set Certus AI apart in the Innovation Award evaluation:
1. Failsafe backup ordering
When POS integrations fail, most AI systems stop working. Certus AI includes a Failsafe feature that automatically calls the restaurant and manually places orders with staff if digital connections drop. Revenue doesn't get lost during technical failures.
2. Lifetime conversational context
The system remembers returning customers by phone number and voice. When someone who ordered last week calls back, Certus AI recognizes their order history and preferences. This creates genuinely personalized service that builds loyalty.
3. 45+ platform integrations
Deep integration with major POS systems, delivery platforms, and reservation tools means orders flow seamlessly into existing workflows. Staff see familiar ticket formats without adjusting kitchen operations.
4. Intelligent upselling
The AI learns which suggestions work based on order context and customer history. Recommendations optimize automatically without constant manual adjustment.
These capabilities reflect technology built specifically for restaurant complexity, not generic voice AI adapted for food service.
Real results from restaurant operators
One pizza restaurant went from missing 60 calls daily to capturing every order, generating $400,000 in additional annual revenue.
Small restaurants with limited staff see an immediate impact from never missing calls during rushes. Multi-location operations benefit from consistent service quality across all locations without scaling phone staff proportionally.
The consistent feedback centers on operational relief. Owners don’t have to worry about missed revenue. Staff focus on in-person guests instead of constant phone interruptions.
Understanding how to choose the right restaurant voice AI helps operators evaluate solutions based on reliability, integration depth, and proven results rather than marketing claims.
Why restaurant phone automation makes sense now
Labor shortages continue to pressure operations. Customer expectations for instant service keep rising. Traditional phone operations can't scale when you can't find staff.
Restaurant order automation with AI phone agents solves this by handling what human staff struggle with during peak hours. Multiple simultaneous calls get answered. Complex orders get processed accurately. Revenue gets captured instead of lost.
The technology has matured beyond early adoption into proven, reliable solutions. The Innovation Award confirms this shift.
For independent restaurants wondering whether AI phone technology is ready, this third-party validation from industry experts provides the answer. Among 500 exhibitors at Europe's leading restaurant event, Certus AI was recognized as the standout innovation.
Best AI phone ordering systems for small restaurants now offer capabilities originally accessible only to large chains. The economics work at any scale because the investment directly captures revenue previously lost to missed calls.
The next chapter for restaurant phone service
"I'm grateful to the judges, to the Restaurant & Takeaway Innovation Expo, and most importantly to the early customers who believed, and continue to believe, in us," Singh said. "This award is validation that we're solving a problem that really matters to restaurant operators."
The win puts Certus AI at the top of the list of companies that use restaurant technology as voice AI goes from being a test to being a must-have. The focus is still on making things better all the time based on what customers say. More language support, deeper analytics, and more integrations are all in the works.
For decades, restaurants have mostly used traditional phone lines. That era is ending. Voice AI has reached the reliability needed to handle phone operations completely. As more operators experience the results, adoption will accelerate. Phone AI will shift from a competitive advantage to a baseline expectation.
For restaurant operators still managing phones traditionally, the question is changing from "Should we automate?" to "How quickly can we implement?"
Experience the Innovation Award-winning solution transforming restaurant phone operations. Book a demo with Certus AI and see how voice AI captures every order without adding work for your team.
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