MONKI, a foodservice foodtech company led by CEO Kim Hyuk-gyun, known for his "Midas touch" and experience at Auction and iRiver, is moving beyond shared kitchens to transform the restaurant industry with AI-powered sales solutions. MONKI's experiments, which integrate fragmented data to predict tomorrow's sales and automate management with the push of a button, are now moving beyond New York City and toward becoming a global standard.
“Even if business is good today, I’m afraid of tomorrow.”
"The domestic restaurant industry is a massive market worth 200 trillion won. Yet, small business owners have been struggling in a digitally underdeveloped space."
The biggest pain point in the restaurant industry that Kim Hyuk-gyun, CEO of Monthly Kitchen, observed before starting his own business was its "unpredictability." Despite being an essential industry where people consume daily, self-employed restaurant owners were constantly forced to manage in the dark, unable to know who was coming or what they were interested in, constantly worrying about tomorrow's sales.
"The cause of the tragedy wasn't a lack of data, but rather fragmentation. Because the POS, table ordering, kiosk, and delivery app all operated independently, there was no integrated data to describe the entire store. In a structure where data flow was stagnant, efficiency improvements and sales forecasts were merely wishful thinking."
CEO Kim began redesigning this massive inefficiency from an IT and AI perspective. His strategic acumen, which had previously helped build Auction into Korea's leading platform and led iRiver to its heyday, centered on "data integration."
Monkey combines customer, order, and sales data to build store-specific AI models. At the heart of this model is its proprietary "Monkey Order."
"We defined table ordering as more than just a simple ordering device, but a 'sensory organ' where AI agents collect data. We rejoined forces with hardware experts from our iRiver days and developed everything from tablets to batteries, enhancing reliability."
Monkey Order has set the standard for ‘luxury table order’ by winning the Red Dot Design Award.
Solved with a single 'button'
Since the introduction of the Monkey solution, the daily lives of self-employed individuals have changed dramatically. Beyond providing analytical reports, "executive AI" has been implemented, enabling AI to directly manage business operations.
Monkey's "AI Sales Boost Solution" operates in four steps. It collects and learns data, then derives specific "prescriptions" to increase sales. Marketing and operational optimization can be implemented immediately with the click of a button.
Even self-employed individuals in their 70s, without the need for complex statistics, can now operate their stores reliably with the help of AI. The confidence that "tomorrow will be fine too" is now proven through technology.
Starting out as a shared kitchen model, Monkey has now fully evolved into an "AI food tech solutions" company, transcending space constraints. Their strategy is to integrate efficiency-enhancing know-how, proven through shared kitchen operations, into IT technology and expand it to all restaurants.
Challenges toward global standards
This innovation is already underway in New York. Monkey, which entered the US market four years ago, has secured its own payment license and is implementing AI models tailored to the local market.
"Securing a local payment service provider license directly is an unprecedented achievement for a domestic food tech company. It proves that the reliability of the 'AI sales business' model, built in Korea through collaboration with the government and public sector, can be applied in the global market."
CEO Kim asserts that even in a market dominated by large corporations, "in the AI restaurant industry, where there is no right answer, Monkey's unique quick judgment and nimble execution can seize the opportunity."
While Monkey's current global roadmap is still in the initial stages of Phases 1 and 2 of a 10-step plan, its goal is clear: to establish a standard for "future restaurants," where owners worldwide, not limited to a specific country, can conduct business using Monkey's POS and table ordering system.
CEO Kim envisions a world in which the restaurant industry in 10 years' time is no longer a fearful business but a predictable one.
"When the owner orders AI to meet a sales target, the AI manages the store, while the owner focuses solely on his core duties: serving food and serving customers. Creating a rational structure that empowers honest people to believe in a better tomorrow than today—that's the social responsibility and goal of technology as defined by Monkey."
CEO Kim's determination to "make tomorrow a place where honest people can trust" is now poised to spread beyond the streets of New York to the global restaurant industry.
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