BBQ Meets AI: How Shawn Walchef Turned a Restaurant into a Tech-Driven Media Empire

In this special episode of AI First with Adam and Andy, we go global with our first international guest, Shawn Walchef, founder of Cali BBQ and Cali BBQ Media, joining us from Bulgaria. Shawn shares how he’s using AI not just to support operations, but to fuel real innovation across both his restaurant and media businesses.

He walks us through a game-changing Father’s Day activation where a voice AI agent, trained on his own podcast content and voice, answered 150+ customer calls, freeing up his team and driving record-breaking sales. He also explains how AI has become his remote creative partner, helping him turn iPhone clips into full media assets while traveling in Istanbul.

From launching voice tech in his BBQ shops to using ChatGPT for deep market research on potential family investments, Shawn is a masterclass in AI-first thinking. His stories show how any business, no matter how local, can scale globally and strategically with the right AI mindset.