The Future of Restaurant Technology

Several technologies are being adopted in the restaurant business now. In the near future, trends such as automation, the Internet of Things, and AI will disrupt the way restaurants operate. Restaurants that will not be using these technologies in one way or another in the coming days will observe significant drops in their business.

As a restaurant owner or manager, you should move with the changing times. In a few years, restaurants will explore more technologies to get more customers, improve efficiency, and bring down costs. With no further ado, here are the top restaurant technologies to succeed in 2020 and beyond:

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence has already been implemented in various functions across all major industries. Restaurants are among the businesses that spearhead AI use in increasing customer convenience. Perhaps, the most significant AI implementation in food services is chatbots. These bots work as virtual assistants that help take orders from customers and even answer their questions.

There are also AI applications that assist customers in picking menu items based on their preferences. These smart recommendation engines help to deliver better customer experiences. AI is also being used to personalize services at self-service kiosks and drivethroughs. Artificial Intelligence has a lot of potential uses that are still being explored.

Food Delivery Apps

Thanks to the emergence of food delivery applications, you can now order food straight from your phone. UberEats, Doordash, Grubhub, Postmates, Delivery.com, and goPuff are some excellent examples of these applications. Going into the future, we can expect to see more restaurants developing applications as they seek out innovative ways of improving customer service.

Typically, these applications leverage geolocation technologies. They use latitude and longitude coordinates to relay useful information such as the pickup location of the order, the dropoff location for the customer, and the delivery person’s location. That said, due to the rapid embrace of technology in the hotel industry, having a geolocation app for food delivery is no longer a reserve for the tech-savvy. Today, restaurant owners can contact any reputable software developers to get suitable applications for delivering meals.

Robotics

Going into the future, we can expect to see an increase in the use of robots in the hotel industry. Streamlining of food orders, processing of payments and management of daily culinary activities are some of the tasks that robots can perform. Moreover, robots can be used to create customer profiles, thus enabling restaurants to keep records of their customers as well as loyalty programs.

WiFi Technology

Many restaurants across the planet are already providing free WiFi to their customers. All this is in a bid to offer better services to diners by allowing them to work or communicate with others while having their favorite meal on the side.

By embracing this technology, customers will be more inclined to dine at your restaurant. However, even as you seek to provide the same, it is essential to avail high-quality WiFi to avoid irritating your customers with connectivity issues.

Virtual Reality

You can take your service a notch higher by implementing Virtual Reality in your site or app. VR can, for instance, help customers in booking their seating area online. Customers can access the dining space plan and pick their preferred table from their smartphone or computer. Some businesses are also using VR to make virtual presentations of their meals to attract new customers.

Online and Mobile Payments

If restaurants are to keep up with modern technologies, they need to look beyond cash and credit card payment for food. In 2018, Statista estimated that more than one third of internet users in the US used mobile payment in the last month, with the figure higher in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Mobile payment is attractive to customers because of the convenience it brings. Even when customers are eating at a restaurant as opposed to ordering food, they still want to have the option of paying online on a site or through a mobile app.

Many restaurateurs have already added mobile and online payments into their operations. These methods increase efficiency as customers can pay for food faster and don’t have to wait on servers to complete payments.

Final Thoughts

As stakeholders test out different technologies, you can expect the restaurant industry to evolve dramatically in the coming years. So, if you want to survive and remain relevant to your customers, you must also keep up with these technological innovations and changes. AI, robotics, VR, and the IOT are among the top technologies you should watch out for as a restaurateur.

By: Anzhela Sychyk, BOSS contributor