ESB Restaurant Technology’s groundbreaking AI solution, OLIN, is transforming Indonesia’s food and beverage (F&B) sector by increasing business revenues by up to 40%. This significant impact highlights the transformative potential of AI and Generative AI (GenAI) in enhancing micro-enterprises in emerging markets like Indonesia, where many businesses struggle to access traditional financial resources.
A recent report titled “Harnessing the Power of (Gen)AI in Indonesian Financial Services,” published by AC Ventures in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), its tech unit BCG X, and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin Indonesia), explores GenAI’s adoption and influence in Indonesia’s financial sector. It provides strategic insights into integrating GenAI into business operations.
Among the standout case studies featured in the report is ESB Restaurant Technology, which leverages AI and GenAI to promote financial inclusion and economic empowerment for Indonesian F&B businesses.
The report indicates that while many Indonesian financial institutions are still in the early stages of GenAI implementation, 61% are confident in their technological infrastructure to support GenAI integration. ESB’s OLIN exemplifies how AI can bridge gaps in financial access and foster business growth.
OLIN has become an indispensable tool for F&B merchants aiming to improve their financial stability and operational efficiency by offering predictive insights, menu recommendations, pricing strategies, and fraud prevention measures.
Gunawan Woen, Co-founder and CEO of ESB Restaurant Technology, discussed OLIN’s impact during an episode of AC Ventures’ podcast, Indonesia Digital Deconstructed. He highlighted that OLIN helps F&B businesses increase revenue by up to 40% and secure critical access to working capital from local banks and financial institutions.
“ESB is a leading provider of F&B software in Indonesia, delivering end-to-end solutions that integrate in-store automation with backend operations,” said Gunawan Woen. “Beyond offering software as a service, we support our merchants in managing supply chain relationships.
“Our acquisition of a payment gateway last year has enabled us to handle crucial transaction and cash flow data, enhancing financial stability for our merchants and their suppliers.”
Gunawan further explained that ESB started integrating traditional AI solutions into its products before the GenAI boom in late 2022. Initially, ESB’s AI offered technical insights, but the user experience was less intuitive.
However, with the rise of ChatGPT and the GenAI wave, ESB combined its AI technology with GenAI to create OLIN, an in-app assistant. Represented as an on-screen female colleague, OLIN allows F&B enterprises to gain actionable insights by asking simple questions, eliminating the need for manual data analysis.
“Currently, we are in the early phase of our AI implementation, focusing on five key areas,” Gunawan noted. “We’ve achieved 90% accuracy in forecasting merchant sales. OLIN offers recommendations on menu combinations, pricing strategies, promotional activities, and fraud prevention measures while monitoring overall business health.”
The implementation of OLIN has significantly boosted revenue for F&B merchants, enhancing earnings and contributing to financial inclusion in Indonesia’s growing economy. ESB is also developing new credit scoring models to facilitate access to bank loans and working capital for numerous F&B micro-businesses previously considered unbankable by traditional financial institutions.
“While we do not act as lenders, we facilitate connections between financial institutions and merchants. We’ve identified a strong demand for supplier financing, which we address through our AI,” Gunawan added.
He concluded, “Our SaaS offerings are at the core of our business, but our future revenue streams will increasingly be driven by AI. Our supply chain and procurement system has been successful since its launch, and our end-customer ordering system simplifies transactions while providing valuable data on customer behavior.”
