Hakuhodo Technologies Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Yuzo Tanaka; hereinafter "Hakuhodo Technologies") announces the launch of an integration feature between its AI-powered customer service solution "Bonappetica" and SmartEC Inc. (Headquarters: Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture; Representative Director: Ryuhei Miyazaki), a provider of the high-functionality cloud-based POS register system "SmartEC". This integration feature is now available through SmartEC's application platform "SmartEC App Market" and can be used upon application. ■ Background and Objectives of SmartEC Integration Currently, store-based businesses, especially in the food and beverage industry, face severe challenges due to chronic labor shortages and increasing demand for multilingual support driven by the rapid recovery of inbound tourism. While traditional mobile ordering and tablet-based ordering systems have improved operational efficiency, they have also reduced opportunities for direct communication between staff and customers, weakening personalized hospitality and diminishing upselling opportunities. "Bonappetica" is a next-generation ordering system that, while offering standard tabletop ordering functions, uses AI to understand customers' dining behaviors and proactively recommends menu items, introduces products, and suggests additional orders at optimal moments. Unlike generic AI applications, Bonappetica learns the unique characteristics of each store and service, enabling a store-specific AI avatar to deliver appropriate product names, explanations, and personalized communication tailored to customer behavior patterns. By integrating with SmartEC, order data received by the AI avatar can now be transmitted in real time to the SmartEC POS system (or SmartEC Waiter), enabling seamless coordination from customer-facing service to automated order processing, kitchen operations, and payment, thereby significantly enhancing store productivity and ROI. ■ Key Benefits of