Everything We Heard, Learned, and Launched at RLC 2026

We just landed from Phoenix and we’re still processing it.

The Restaurant Leadership Conference (RLC) has always been one of our favorite weeks of the year, four days surrounded by the operators, executives, and innovators who actually run this industry. But RLC 2026 hit differently. The energy in the room at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge felt less like a conference and more like a turning point.

Here’s our honest take on what we heard, what we shared, and what we’re still thinking about.

Our Founder & CEO Luke Fryer giving a live demo at the Harri booth

 

Leadership Lessons From Yum! Brands

 

The energy at RLC this year felt less like a conference and more like a turning point. The hallway conversations, the panel Q&As, the dinners — all of it kept circling back to the same pressure: how do you run a better operation when the margin for error keeps shrinking?

One of the standout moments was an Operator Spotlight panel featuring the President of Taco Bell North America, the CEO of Habit Burger & Grill, and the President of KFC U.S.—three of the most influential operators in the industry, all from Yum! Brands. They talked openly about the tension between value and speed. Customers want both, and they want them consistently, across every location, every shift. Meeting the customer where they are isn’t a brand exercise anymore. It’s an operational imperative. 

Women dominate frontline roles in restaurants (~70%) but hold just 38% of executive seats and a small fraction of CEO roles. That’s why it was especially refreshing to see these three women leading major QSR brands, real progress where it’s long overdue.

Leadership Lessons from Yum! Brands: Meg Farren President, North America Taco Bell, Catherine Tan-Gillespie President KFC U.S., Shannon Hennessy CEO Habit Burger & Grill

One-Click-Schedule™ Steals The Spotlight

 

We came with a lot to share, and the response genuinely exceeded our expectations.

On the main stage, our CEO Luke Fryer unveiled One-Click Scheduleâ„¢, the world’s first fully autonomous, self-learning AI scheduler built exclusively for enterprise hospitality. One click generates a complete, optimized, ready-to-publish schedule — 57 million permutations, under 30 seconds, 98% accuracy. Early customers are seeing a 93% reduction in scheduling time. The reaction from the room was something we won’t forget.

Our Founder & CEO Luke Fryer on the RLC mainstage

 

Within minutes of Luke leaving the stage, at least 15 operators made their way directly to our booth asking to see it live. That kind of immediate, unprompted response tells you something. Scheduling isn’t a back-office function, it’s the heartbeat of a restaurant. It happens every single day, it touches every person on the team, and it has a direct line to profitability, compliance, employee retention, and the guest experience. When you get it right, everything runs smoother. 

When you get it wrong, you feel it everywhere. That’s why the reaction in Phoenix wasn’t just excitement about a product — it was the relief of operators who’ve been waiting for someone to actually solve this.

 

When Salli Met RLC

 

We also (re)introduced Salli, the AI assistant inside Harri, at RLC to rave reviews. We call it the “Ask Anything, Do Everything” AI platform for restaurant teams for a reason. 

Where most hospitality technology gives you dashboards and reports after the fact, Salli meets managers in the moment decisions actually need to be made. It’s embedded directly into the Harri platform and coordinates a set of specialized agents — labor insights, sales comparison, schedule warnings, compliance oversight, team communications, timekeeping intelligence — all working together and returning one clean, actionable response. No toggling between screens. No hunting through reports. Just ask, and move.

 

The questions operators were asking at our booth tell the story better than we can: 

  • Why is my labor trending over budget on Friday nights?
  • Who’s at risk of hitting overtime this week?
  • Are there any compliance issues I need to fix before I publish this schedule?
  • What were my top performing locations last week compared to the same period last year?

 Salli handles all of it: in plain language, in real time, without requiring a manager to be a data analyst. The reception in Phoenix was a clear signal that this is exactly what operators have been waiting for: technology that works the way their teams actually think. See it in action here or take it for a test-drive yourself. 

 

The Part We’ll Remember Most

 

It’s the people. Customers who flew in from across the country. Partners we’ve been building with for years. Faces we only get to see a few times a year. The conversations that started at the booth and ended two hours later over dinner.

We were overwhelmed by the warmth and the curiosity and the candor. This industry is going through something real right now, and it’s clear that the leaders in it are rising to meet it.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by, watched the reveal, asked hard questions, and shared what’s actually going on in your restaurants. You’re the reason we build what we build.

The conversation doesn’t stop in Phoenix. If you want to learn more about the One-Click-Schedule, Salli, or hear from other operators using Harri to empower their employees, increase their margins and streamline their operations, schedule time with the team here or email me directly. We’ll leave you with some of our favorite moments from the show.Â