Cava (CAVA) stock is soaring after reporting second quarter earnings that beat expectations. The Mediterranean fast-casual chain saw robust sales growth of 9.5% year-over-year and raised its full-year guidance.

Cava Co-Founder and CEO Brett Schulman joins Morning Brief alongside senior reporter Brooke DiPalma to discuss the company's success and future plans.

Schulman emphasizes Cava's "compelling value proposition" as a healthier Mediterranean chain that meets "the needs of the modern consumer who wants to eat better but doesn't want to sacrifice flavor or fulfillment."

He distinguishes between price and value: "price is what you pay for something, but value is the worth of what you get," noting that Cava strives to deliver on all fronts including quality, convenience, and experience.

Regarding new menu offerings, Schulman highlights the addition of steak and states that a "deep pipeline of innovation" is core to the food chain's goals of enhancing the guest experience.

While implementing AI to improve operations productivity, Schulman underlines the fact that "technology is to enhance human experience, not replace it." He describes Cava's "connected kitchen" technology, which uses generative AI to detect food depletion on the service line. This system then projects to prep cooks on what they should be preparing, "to take all that complexity of the mindshare off our team members so they can be forward-facing, focused on that great Mediterranean hospitality."

"Our mission is to bring heart, health, and humanity to food, and if we lost that humanity piece, I don't think we'd be living up to our mission," Schulman tells Yahoo Finance.

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This post was written by Angel Smith