Stevan Premutico, co-founder of me&u, has introduced Hey Buddy, a voice AI system designed to answer missed calls and convert inquiries into bookings for busy restaurants. In Australia, around 30% of calls to restaurants go unanswered, resulting in millions of lost revenue opportunities and customer frustration.
- Approximately one-third of restaurant calls in Australia go unanswered, causing substantial revenue loss.
- Hey Buddy’s voice AI answers calls and converts inquiries into bookings without disrupting restaurant staff.
- Over 1,000 venues are already using Hey Buddy, signaling rapid adoption in hospitality voice AI.
Market signal
The Australian hospitality sector faces a persistent problem with missed phone calls, with more than 22 million calls going unanswered each year out of an estimated 77 million. This represents a significant revenue leak for venues, as many customers still prefer booking or inquiring by phone despite the rise of digital ordering. The shortage of staff bandwidth during peak dining hours exacerbates the issue, leaving phones unattended and potential business lost.
Hey Buddy enters this space as a specialized voice AI solution aiming to plug this communication gap. By automating call answering and handling booking processes, it addresses a widespread inefficiency that has been historically expensive and labor-intensive to manage. The traction Hey Buddy has gained across over 1,000 venues reflects growing operator interest in agentic AI tools that improve operational resilience and customer experience in real-world settings.
Operator impact
For restaurant operators, Hey Buddy offers a practical means to alleviate one of the most mundane yet critical bottlenecks: managing inbound calls during busy service times. Staff members no longer need to interrupt ongoing table service to answer calls, which helps maintain service quality and reduces stress. The AI-driven call handling converts inquiries directly into bookings, enhancing operational efficiency and limiting revenue loss from dropped calls.
The solution also helps venues maintain customer satisfaction by ensuring that callers receive timely responses instead of being met with silence or voicemail. By automating repetitive phone interactions, Hey Buddy frees teams to concentrate on guest-facing tasks that define hospitality. This balance supports both operational productivity and the human-centric nature of the industry.
What to watch next
The adoption rate of voice AI platforms like Hey Buddy in hospitality will be an important indicator of how rapidly agentic AI technologies integrate into traditional service workflows. Monitoring how well these technologies scale beyond initial Australian venue deployments and how operators quantify improvements in call management and booking conversion will provide valuable insights.
Additionally, developments in AI conversational capabilities and integrations with broader restaurant tech ecosystems, such as reservation management and customer relationship platforms, will shape future value propositions. Observing partnerships and feature expansions will reveal how these solutions maintain the essential balance between automation and the personalized hospitality experience.