Vendion launches AI visibility for restaurants

Lysekil, Sweden, 17 August 2026 — Vendion today launches AI visibility: a feature that makes a restaurant's opening hours, menu and prices readable for AI assistants such as Claude, ChatGPT and Perplexity. When a guest asks their assistant where to eat, the restaurant can answer with accurate, current information inside the conversation.

The feature launches for all Vendion customers at once, is included in the existing subscription at no extra cost, and is off by default. Every restaurateur decides whether and when to enable it.

The background: a mistake that costs the table

Guest behaviour has shifted quickly. Where people used to search and compare results, they now ask outright — and receive a single answer, with no links to choose between. A restaurant absent from that answer is absent from the decision.

The problem Vendion identified is that the answer is often wrong, and not because information is missing. A restaurant does not have one set of opening hours, but three, and they are independent of one another:

• The restaurant may be open until 22:00.
• Online ordering may be switched off during the evening rush.
• Table booking may be running at the same time.

If an assistant reads only the ordering status, the guest is told the restaurant is closed — in the middle of full service.

Vendion keeps the three answers apart and reports them separately. A closed channel is never omitted; it is reported as closed alongside the channels that remain open.

"Guests have already moved their question. They no longer search and compare results, they ask outright and get an answer. That makes it critical that the answer is correct," says Mikael Selander, founder and CEO of Vendion.

"We are not launching an integration. We are launching the difference between three answers that look identical from the outside — and that difference decides whether the guest arrives or goes elsewhere."

The restaurateur owns the decision

When a comparable feature launched in the United States earlier this summer, every affected restaurant was enrolled automatically, on the same day, without being asked. Vendion's feature stays inactive until the restaurateur switches it on, and can be switched off at any time.

Alongside the public page, Vendion launches a direct connection that lets an AI assistant query the system in real time rather than relying on previously indexed information. The difference shows on the question that matters most: an indexed page knows what was true the last time someone looked — the connection knows what is true now.

No commission, no intermediary

Ordering platforms typically take 15–30 percent of every order. This channel costs nothing beyond the existing subscription, and the guest goes straight to the restaurant — to its own ordering page, booking form or telephone.

No orders and no payments are made through the AI assistants. This launch covers visibility and accurate answers, nothing more. Payments have deliberately been left out while industry standards are still changing.

Availability

AI visibility is available from today for all Vendion customers and is enabled under General ▸ Public profile in the restaurant's administration.

---

About Vendion Vendion is a complete restaurant platform with point of sale, table booking, staff management, marketing and analytics in one system. AI is always included. The company was founded in 2024 and is based in Lysekil, Sweden.

Contact Mikael Selander, Founder and CEO contact@vendion.com · vendion.com