Editor's note: This article is based on insights from a virtual event co-hosted by CIO Dive and CX Dive in May. You canwatch the session on demand。

Yum Brands' technology history dates back decades — 32 years to be exact, when the first online restaurant order was completed through Pizza Hut'sPizzaNet.

However, most of the digital strategy for this parent company of Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut has taken shape only in the past few years. Its technology leader, Jim Dausch, said at the virtual CIO and CX Dive event "How AI is Reshaping Business" on Wednesday that Taco Bell's digital sales accounted for only 1% of total sales in 2019, but by 2026 that figure is expected to approach 50%.

"Digital business has become an extremely important part of our business," he said. "So, naturally, the technology supporting it has become a key component of our operations."

Dausch adjusted his role in Septemberto also serve as president of Byte by Yum— the restaurant brand's AI-driven SaaS platform of tools for customers, operations, and internal teams. He also serves as Yum's chief digital and technology officer, having previously spent a year as global chief digital and technology officer at Pizza Hut.

For much of 2025, Yum Brands has been rolling out AI tools to more restaurants and further building out its AI strategy. The company has also partnered with tech giants like AWS, Microsoft, and NVIDIA todeploy voice AI agentsand has built its ownplatformto strengthen AI capabilities.

"Yum firmly believes that future leadership in the restaurant industry will be determined by technology," Dausch said.

Modernization efforts

Dausch said AI is a "novel and powerful technology" that can provide greater intelligence, real-time evolution, and performance on top of the company's existing technology stack. Because the company has decades of technological foundation, it had already begun modernizing its more than 60,000 restaurants well before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Byte by Yum is the company's answer — it acts as the "AI hub" behind core systems such as digital ordering platforms, point of sale, kitchen delivery, back-of-house, and inventory management. Dausch noted that these systems were previously siloed. The platform works alongside consumer-facing apps to enable staff to deliver personalized experiences in restaurants.

Establishing a unified data model across all brand systems to enable smoother data flow is crucial, Dausch emphasized, especially given that some brands have been around for more than 60 years.

"The starting point was a highly fragmented data asset," Dausch said. "For us, it wasn't just about getting all data in one place, but also ensuring that all data means the same thing across all systems and all markets. Those were the two most critical issues we had to tackle."

According to Dausch, Byte software is now used in more than 35,000 restaurants across 150 countries, with its digital ordering platform covering 18,000 restaurants and processing cumulative sales of approximately $20 billion.

Dausch said the company's internal AI strategy has three layers: first, accelerating innovation speed and overall productivity; second, driving customer growth by embedding AI across the traditional customer acquisition, conversion, and retention lifecycle; and third, integrating AI into restaurant operations to streamline processes and improve franchisee unit economics.

Dausch said the company measures return on investment by observing improvements in sales, margins, or costs, and evaluates whether these improvements positively impact customer or team member experiences. He admitted that the third is harder to quantify.

"If we can reduce the burden of administrative or transactional work on employees, allowing them to focus more on serving customers better, that will lead to higher customer satisfaction," he said.

Dausch cautioned that it's easy to forget AI is just one part of an overall business strategy, and he advised other technology leaders not to lose sight of the real problems the business is trying to solve or outcomes it aims to achieve.

"At the end of the day, in my view, AI is just a tool like any other technology," Dausch said. "We focus on serving delicious food to customers with great value and excellent service. That's the business we're in."

Clarification: This article has been updated to more accurately reflect the 2026 digital sales figure, which was provided by the company after the event.