In the news. Consumers taking GLP-1 medications may be eating less—but they aren’t necessarily spending less when dining out, Nation’s Restaurant News reports. Data show that GLP-1 users are still visiting restaurants and, in some cases, spending more per visit, even as they cut back on alcohol and retail grocery purchases. Croissants, soft pretzels, fruit smoothies, hot tea, and diet soda are especially popular among GLP-1 users, pointing to emerging opportunities for food service providers to cater to these customers’ preferences. [Nation’s Restaurant News]

“The restaurants that succeed over the next several years [will] be the ones willing to ask harder questions about who they’re trying to serve, what experience they’re really offering, and which outdated axioms they need to unlearn to get there.”

—Ben Mathews, senior partner, McKinsey

On McKinsey.com. Smaller portions and higher-protein options driven by the adoption of GLP-1s are just the beginning of how restaurants may change in the future. In McKinsey’s latest installment of The Next Normal on the future of restaurants, Alex Rodriguez, John R. Moran, Katharine Mattox, Luis Salcedo, and Xin Huang explore how health trends, automation, and AI are remaking restaurants, including 3D printed food, robotic kitchens, and drone delivery. Coming soon: AI-powered personalization through apps and loyalty programs, alongside automated prep that trims repetitive tasks and frees staff to focus on hospitality.

Reimagine restaurants

In the news. Technology companies are urging retailers to weave AI into nearly every step of the shopping journey, The New York Times reports, including search and product recommendations, inventory planning, and checkout. Some companies are testing AI shopping assistants that answer questions, compare products, and tailor suggestions in real time. The promise? Higher conversion and lower costs. But risks include hallucinated answers, brand misrepresentation, and handing over customer relationships to third-party platforms. [NYT]

On McKinsey.com. In “An update on US consumer sentiment: Embracing AI-supported shopping,” McKinsey’s Christina Adams, Kari Alldredge, and Tom Kilroy find that 68% of US consumers report using at least one AI tool in the past three months, and 62% of AI-enabled shoppers used it to compare brands, models, and prices. Notably, 44% of AI-search users say it is now their preferred source of information—ahead of traditional search engines. To meet this moment, leaders can ensure their products appear accurately in AI-generated results and rethink how loyalty is built when the first point of contact is no longer a retailer’s front door.

Compete in AI-powered shopping

Growth and scale

In the news. America’s largest companies are pulling further ahead, The Wall Street Journal reports, while many smaller businesses face shrinking margins and job cuts. Profits at big, publicly traded firms rose nearly 13% year over year in the third quarter. By contrast, firms with fewer than 50 employees shed 120,000 jobs in November alone, according to payroll data cited by the Journal. Small companies’ thinner cash buffers make it harder to weather disruptions such as tariffs. [WSJ]

On McKinsey.com. Scale alone doesn’t determine success. In “Inspired for business growth: How five companies beat the market,” McKinsey’s Andy West, Dago Diedrich, David Schiff, Greg Kelly, Jill Zucker, Kate Siegel, Rebecca Doherty, and Sascha Lehmann analyze the nearly 15% of global companies that outperformed peers on both revenue growth and profitability from 2019 to 2024. These leaders invested through downturns, built diversified growth engines, and embedded technology into strategy, operations, and decision-making. Regardless of their size, companies aspiring to outperform can look to these actions as a blueprint.

Engineer growth beyond scale