Butler

Kitchen View and Voice AI Ordering View of Bulter POS
Landing Page of Bulter in English Language
Landing Page of Bulter in Japanese Language
Dashboard View of Butler POS
Menu View for Bulter POS Admin
Trello Inpsired Kitchen View with orders for Bulter POS - Kitchen Screen
Bulter POS Logo

Inspiration

I’ve noticed that while QR code menus became popular, they often create a frustrating experience for customers, scrolling through long lists of items, hard-to-read layouts, and no one to actually ask questions. At the same time, many restaurants are actively trying to automate ordering, but often at the cost of customer experience.

That’s when I had the idea for Butler, a voice-first POS system powered by AI that makes ordering feel natural, personal, and even profitable. With voice AI getting really good at conversation and upselling, I saw a unique opportunity to bring this into real-world service environments like restaurants.

What it does

Butler is a modern, voice-first POS system for restaurants.

Customers place their orders by simply speaking to an AI voice agent, powered by ElevenLabs, which captures their request, suggests upsells, and confirms the order. That order is then automatically updated in real-time on the kitchen display screen, ensuring smooth communication with kitchen staff.

It's designed to be extremely reliable, easy to set up, and to help restaurants boost ROI through better upselling, faster ordering, and a seamless customer experience.

How we built it

I built Butler using:

Vite and Bolt.new for a fast, modular frontend and UI setup
Node.js for backend APIs
ElevenLabs AI Agent SDK to build the voice-first conversational layer
Custom WebSocket channels to instantly reflect orders on the kitchen screen

The voice AI is the heart of the experience. It handles the order, suggests combos or add-ons, and updates the system in real time.

Challenges we ran into

One major hurdle was with the ElevenLabs conversational agent. Their system doesn’t support dynamic knowledge bases per user session, meaning I had to manually pass all restaurant-specific data in the system prompt.

At first, I resisted this approach and spent days trying to find a workaround, but eventually accepted that, for now, this was the most reliable path forward. That decision helped me move past a speed bump and continue building momentum.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Building such a complete, multi-layered system solo is something I’m genuinely proud of.

Butler isn’t just a demo, it’s a real, voice-powered POS that could be deployed in an actual restaurant tomorrow. Seeing it take and process an order end-to-end, with a natural voice, is a rewarding moment. Knowing that it can increase revenue through upselling is even better.

What I learned

This was my first time building something this big, and it taught me the importance of planning, staying consistent, and pushing through roadblocks.

Technically, I learned a lot about:

Integrating and customizing ElevenLabs agents
Using clientTools to give the agent interactivity beyond just speaking
Managing real-time system updates between the voice layer and the kitchen display

It also gave me a solid understanding of the potential of voice-first interfaces and how much better they can make the user experience, especially in service environments.

What's next for Butler

There’s so much more I want to build.

I'm planning to add natural language data analysis, so restaurant owners can ask questions like “What were my top-selling items last week?” and get instant insights without needing to dig through dashboards.
I’ll build AI-powered forecasting for sales, staffing, and inventory—using simple language interfaces so owners can make smart decisions without complexity.
Payment processing integration is also on the roadmap, making Butler a complete end-to-end POS system.
I’m exploring other industries, like retail and hospitality where voice-first AI could significantly improve service. POS system or Ordering system like Bulter also has huge potentials in hotels replacing the traditional intercom, with Voice AI tech becoming advance, many hotels will likely subtitute their intercom system, with AI agents, equipped for everything guest need from recommending places, to taking orders or booking tickets of nearby attractions or transportation on behalf of the guest. Opportunities are enormous here.

Also, In Japan, POS systems are especially trending. Many restaurants are eager to adopt modern, AI-driven systems, and the market is still wide open—unlike in other regions where POS tech is already saturated. I see this as a major opportunity.

That’s why I plan to take Butler forward as a startup—not just as a project, but as a real solution with commercial potential.

Butler is just the beginning of a much larger vision for AI in real-world customer experiences.