Automation, artificial intelligence and robotics are redefining fundamental concepts — from the difference between full service and limited service to the very meaning of hospitality.

Sweetgreen reports its Infinite Kitchen locations with an automated salad approach have shown improved order accuracy and throughput.Powerful forces are pushing the restaurant industry into the future — rising prices for food and other inputs, consumers’ changing wants and needs, and stronger competition for their dining dollars. 

But above all, a scarcity of workers is behind the push to boost restaurant efficiency through technology. “Labor is the prime issue,” says Juan Martinez, FCSI, founder and principal of industrial engineering consulting firm Profitality Labor Guru. “The workforce will continue to dwindle with an aging population and fewer children, and when we have fewer available workers, we’ll have to pay them more. Those pressures will continue to drive automation and technology.”

Even as it reacts to push factors, the restaurant industry is being pulled toward change by advances in automation, software, artificial intelligence and robotics that promise to resolve all those problems and more.

Among the operators participating in the National Restaurant Association’s (NRA’s) 2024 Restaurant Technology Landscape Report, 60% said they were planning technology investments to enhance their customer experience, 55% to make their service areas more productive or efficient, 52% to enhance efficiency or productivity in the kitchen, and 45% to strengthen cybersecurity.

When asked about what technologies they plan to test or implement, customer-facing solutions remained a priority, a nod to how difficult yet important it is for operators to generate foot traffic. Specifically, 63% said they want to implement digital or location-based marketing, and 57% said they would invest in loyalty reward systems. 

That’s not to say operators are turning their backs on technical solutions to help run their businesses better. Specifically, 52% of the operators participating in the NRA indicated they were planning to incorporate new technology for back-office functions such as payroll, finance, taxes, food safety compliance, or inventory control and management systems. 

Less frequently mentioned targets of tech investments were smartphone apps (34%), ordering and payment systems such as kiosks or tablets (25%), and augmented reality for marketing campaigns or staff training (22%). 

Pizza Hut’s latest prototype includes self-service kiosks and cabinets for contactless pickup. The chain also plans to introduce drive-thrus with a ready-now menu.

Rethinking the Front of the House

Both limited-service (LSRs) and full-service restaurants (FSRs) continue to transform the meal-ordering process. In LSRs, “Customer-facing ordering kiosks are here to stay,” says Mathew Mandeltort, co-founder of ChefWorthy, a web-based foodservice equipment review platform. Chains now have enough data to know that kiosk ordering enhances upselling and meal add-ons and boosts check averages, while reducing order errors. Many chains that offer in-unit kiosk ordering also encourage mobile-phone preorders that customers pick up from a dedicated area, reducing the number of guests waiting for the orders they’ve just placed on a kiosk.

What about table-service restaurants?

“Full-service restaurants are becoming less ‘F’ and more ‘L’,” Mandeltort says, meaning labor shortages are impacting service. Customers are frustrated when waitstaff don’t show up quickly, he notes, so they may welcome technology-assisted ordering. Servers “can focus on customer service, with more table touches, checking the temperature of the table and seeing that everything is going according to plan, instead of taking time away from the floor to input data on a terminal so it can find its way to the kitchen.”

Instead of queuing at a kiosk, “the ordering system may be on the table at a full-service restaurant,” Mandeltort says. “There may be tablets and a place to store them at the table. Or a touch screen built into the wall, or a phone at the table. But nothing to interfere with dining.”

Martinez, too, believes restaurant definitions are changing. But FSRs “still have the service mentality,” he says. “You want to have the feeling of helping guests, and you can do it by changing the service mode. The server can come to the table and take the order on a tablet; the customer can pay on a tablet or at the table. The server doesn’t have to leave the dining area; runners can bring the food. The server now has seven or eight tables instead of four or five and makes more money.”

Martinez advises most operations to “stay away from little robots bringing the food to the tables. It’s not cheap technology. I would never recommend something to a client just because it’s a gimmick.”

Chipotle Mexican Grill continues to be in the forefront of finding new ways to improve production, including adding a makeline for digital orders and testing an automated pieces of equipment.

Guests Want to See Action

“The labor force drives technology, technology drives service, and the operating approach drives design,” Martinez says. “Today’s diners want to see action, activity, a dynamic place.”

Those expectations apply to all segments. For example, Profitality consulted on the redesign of a full-service pizza concept to include a kitchen fully visible from the dining room. “It just begged to be opened up,” Martinez says. His firm also advised on a Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar redesign that has an open kitchen: “If you can do it for an upscale steakhouse, why wouldn’t you? Open kitchens create more dynamics and get service closer to the dining room.”

One chain rolling this all together under one roof is Pizza Hut, which rolled out a new restaurant prototype that embraces both on- and off-premises customers. 

The design includes self-service kiosks, cabinets for contactless pick-up and a guest-facing pizza making station to showcase. In addition, the restaurant will introduce a drive-thru featuring a “Hut ‘N Go” menu that offers a select list of “ready-now” items that customers can quickly order and pick up at the window.

The new location also includes sustainability-oriented features, including energy-efficient lighting, energy-efficient ovens with in-vent hoods and Energy Management System (EMS). The chain is also using auto lift fryers in this location.

Pizza Hut debuted the design in Plano, Texas, and it replaces a decades old prototype. Pizza Hut first rolled out the design internationally. It is in use in nearly 2,000 units in roughly 80 countries, per a Pizza Hut release.

New Voices in the Drive-Thru

One part of the restaurant where new technology has been moving fast is the drive-thru, where a number of large chains have trialed or adopted AI voice ordering.

Wendy’s and White Castle have had some success in this area. And over the past summer, Bojangles began deploying AI voice technology to about 50 units with a partner that claims to have achieved 95% order accuracy.

“Voice recognition in the drive-thru has come a long way, but the number of applications is still not that big,” says Martinez. “To get the system to work, you have to work on it. You can’t just turn it on. The system has to learn language, how people order your menu items. Restaurant brands and suppliers have to invest time and money.”

The critical issue, Martinez notes, is how often the system gets the order right, and how many orders have to be shifted back to a human. Orders that AI can handle without help “have to be a large percentage — above 90%. If customers are struggling and staff have to jump in, it’s an operational inefficiency,” he says.

Because of the significant investment required, AI voice ordering will be limited to major chains for some time, Martinez believes. “Technical innovation is moving along well, but I don’t know about customers,” he says. “People will accept it eventually.”

Automation and Tech in the Kitchen

There are also changes going on in the back of the house. “Co-bots — primarily robotic arms — are the biggest changes we’re starting to see,” says Mandeltort. 

Chipotle Mexican Grill has been in the forefront of experimentation in food prep automation, conducting in-unit tests of tools like an “Autocado” avocado peeler and guacamole maker, a tortilla chip making machine, and an automated robotic makeline for bowls and salads.

But Chipotle’s innovations are far from a robotic kitchen. “They’re less like self-driving cars, more like cruise control,” Mandeltort notes. “There are limits to these things; you still need somebody to oversee production.”

Martinez of Profitality sees things similarly. “Robotic arms moving things around, robotic fryers are fine, but automation offers better payback,” he says. He points to Sweetgreen’s Infinite Kitchen — where salad bowls move down a conveyor as chutes dispense individual ingredients — as an example of foodservice automation that duplicates Henry Ford’s original auto assembly line. Sweetgreen has said that units where the system has been installed have shown improved order accuracy and throughput, with average tickets 10% higher than those at other units. But these systems do require space to operate. 

Don’t Forget About Downtime and Servicing 

“The challenge of automation is payback,” Martinez says. “The biggest unknowns are maintenance and repair.” These costs are good reasons to keep solutions simple: “The fewer bells and whistles, the better.”

“If the equipment breaks, you need somebody in the neighborhood,” Mandeltort says. “It doesn’t work if you’re in Chicago and the guy who can fix it is in Salt Lake City. You can’t assume that service will be readily available. And even if it is, will that be employees of the manufacturer or stringers who have minimal control or influence over response times?” 

There aren’t good workarounds for a shortage of service personnel. Servicing of reputable brands generally can’t be outsourced to technicians who are not factory authorized, Mandeltort says. 

Even if a reputable servicer can show up quickly, relying heavily on one piece of workhorse equipment makes the operation vulnerable, Mandeltort cautions: “You might have an automated hamburger production system, but when it goes down, you don’t want that to be your only way to make a hamburger. You have to be able to roll out a flattop grill and plug it in or hook it up to a gas line.”

The New Casual Dining: A Case Study

Bartaco integrates technology into the guest-ordering experience but continues to create moments where diners interact with staff.One casual-dining chain Martinez praises for its contemporary approach is the 34-unit bartaco. “It’s a great example that shows that technological innovation, excellent service and employee acceptance can coexist very nicely,” he says. The concept features an open kitchen and a hybrid service model for a busy, bustling energy. Customers order food and beverages and pay their bills on their phones via a QR code on their tables, and runners bring food and drink to tables throughout the dining occasion upon request. 

“Post-COVID, we saw an opportunity to increase our level of technology to give our staff more time to create interactive moments with guests and give them a better experience,” explains Anthony Valletta, president of Arlington, Va.-based bartaco. When guests enter the restaurant, a host greets them and asks if it’s their first time visiting the restaurant; if so, the host explains the ordering system. New or returning guests who say they prefer not to order on their phone have the option of using a paper ordering sheet or giving their order to a server.

The system makes for quick service, if that’s what the customer desires. But those who want to make their meal a leisurely occasion also have that option. “Diners for years have been frustrated whenever they want to order another drink or to pay their check, but can’t find their server,” Valletta says. Now, staff respond to guests quickly when they raise a card with the concept’s dragonfly logo to signal for additional service.

The new system has been a hit with customers: Average guest ratings of their meal have increased from 3.8 to 4.6 on a 1-5 scale, Valletta reports.

The concept has also made other operational changes.

Tip pooling: Since servers no longer are responsible for individual tables, tips are pooled, with front- and back-of-house workers receiving equal shares. “It’s created a great sense of teamwork,” Valletta says, “but it also means that employees coach themselves. If someone isn’t holding up their part, other workers recognize that they need coaching or need to be gone.”

Customer data collection and loyalty management: Online ordering allows bartaco to collect information on each customer to “build a great profile,” Valletta says. “We know if they have allergies, we know their historical orders and whether they want the same items every time, and we can customize experiences, such as offering guests new ‘secret menu’ items — or if a diner has visited four times in the past six months, we can offer her a taco that’s only for her, or a chance to skip the line on Saturday night. Personalization makes the guest experience better.”

Remote-access combi ovens: Bluetooth-enabled combis allow chefs to upload new recipes to all units remotely, adjust cook times and other recipe parameters, and check how units are being used and when they’re cleaned.

Kitchen display system: “We’re implementing that right now,” Valletta reports. “Our tapas-style, small-plates menu means so many tickets, so much going on, that this will really help to organize cooking sequences, improve efficiency, lower food costs, get food out faster and consolidate orders to improve the guest experience.”

Predictive prep: Custom software boosts back-end efficiency and accountability and allows for sales forecasting with a smaller margin of error. The software tracks purchasing, manages inventory, monitors the shelf life of ingredients, maximizes labor efficiency and alerts managers when a worker is underperforming and requires further training. 

Data warehousing: Customized software centralizes and warehouses a wide variety of data and analyzes guest trends, daypart trends and financial trends. “We’re not spending time looking at three different systems to pull together data that makes sense,” Valletta says. “We can make decisions faster.” The biggest surprise? “We may think new menu items are doing well, but we’ve been able to drill down and learn that one item has changed other things — the complexity of the menu, the way guests react to it,” Valletta says. “We offered a limited-time, premium bowl and saw lunch frequency and the number of items in each order rise. It was a direct line of dominoes falling.”

Carbon-neutral operation: Another software platform compares bartaco’s operational data with sustainability benchmarks to create real-time visibility, actionable insights and tools to meet climate goals. One simple but ingenious technology: “We’ve placed cameras in our trash cans to monitor waste disposal and pickup,” Valletta says. “If disposal service trucks leave our units half full, emissions go up.”

Bartaco’s way of approaching casual dining can be widely reproduced, Valletta believes. “The foodservice labor market is broken, and casual dining is the hardest-hit segment,” he points out. “A lot of restaurants are starting to use our hybrid service model, and we’ll see even more adoption in the next couple of years.”