The technology reshaping restaurants today wasn’t even the stuff of imagination a few years ago, agreed the future-shocked specialists who inventoried the industry’s state of automation for nearly 900 peers gathered in Dallas. So how, a few lamented, could anyone predict with accuracy what the next few years will bring?
That didn’t dissuade the tech experts at FSTEC from offering their best hopes and speculation. The conference is intended to provide an immersion in the state of restaurant technology. But how can a snapshot be captured when the transformation of the business is a moving image in fast motion?
“We’re in for a pretty wild ride,” observed Paul Brown, the CEO of Arby’s and a keynote speaker during day two of the conference.
Here are some predictions from the conference centered around what that ride might involve.