My colleague Jonathan Maze wrote a great column last week that asked “Where is all this technology getting the restaurant business?”
He pointed out that, despite all of the tech restaurants have invested in over the past six years, industry traffic and profits are worse than they were in 2019.
That’s not a ringing endorsement for tech, which is supposed to be helping restaurants increase their sales and operate more efficiently.
Of course, there are plenty of examples in which tech has done those things. And the economy has not been doing restaurants any favors lately, either.
But, by and large, tech has not translated to a more productive industry, as Maze notes.
I agree with him on that. But I’d argue that tech hasn’t failed restaurants. They’ve just adopted it in the wrong order.
Over the past six years, restaurants have been through two distinct waves with technology: The pandemic, and AI. Both events accelerated the usual process for adding tech, for better and for worse.
When dining rooms closed in March 2020 and customers hunkered down at home, tech became one of the only ways for restaurants to reach them and in turn keep their doors open.
This led to rapid adoption of online ordering and delivery, QR codes, ghost kitchens and virtual brands, even robots. And when I say rapid, I mean timelines were sped up from months or years to days.
In the near-term, this was a good thing. Tech was a life-saver for restaurants in those difficult early months of COVID and opened up a whole digital side of the business that was ripe for growth. Without it, the pandemic would have been even more devastating for the industry than it was.
But the problem was, all of this new technology got rolled out in a hurry, often on top of older systems, and without a long-term plan in mind. There was simply no time to think about any of that in those desperate days of spring 2020.
That had consequences later on. It saddled restaurants with fragmented tech stacks that were not as effective as they could be. And it upset the delicate balance between tech and hospitality.
Restaurants are still working to unwind some of that technical debt. By 2023-24, after the pandemic dust had settled, companies had a chance to take a step back and start untangling all the wires that had gotten crossed since 2020. A more measured approach took precedence over adding the hot new tool or feature.
At the same time, they began shifting their focus back to the service and experience in their actual restaurants as customers returned. In some cases that has meant paring back technology, or tempering it with a human touch. Chili’s ditched its server robots, for instance. Starbucks is revamping many of its cafes to make them feel more inviting, Applebee’s is asking managers to spend more time in the dining room, and Panera Bread is hiring Guest Experience Champions to provide more hands-on help.
Indeed, if 2020 was the start of restaurants’ tech era, it feels like the pendulum has swung back to service and hospitality in 2026.
But even as that course correction got underway, another tech wave was crashing on the industry, one that has been arguably just as disruptive as COVID: Artificial intelligence.
Suddenly, operators’ focus was divided again. Restaurants felt pressure to figure out their AI strategy, and fast, because the technology was evolving on a near daily basis. What was AI, anyway, and how could it help the business?
What has happened since has mirrored the pandemic tech rush: Restaurants have layered AI atop patchwork systems or pressed it into action before it was ready, leading to some high-profile failures like Starbucks’ recent walk-back.
Meanwhile, tech suppliers have been scrambling to catch the wave by incorporating AI into everything they’re doing, not all of it constructive. This has created a lot of noise and frustration for operators.
All of that has limited AI’s impact. According to POS supplier Qu, just 9% of fast-food chains that have invested in AI have seen a meaningful return on it.
In an ideal world, restaurants would have spent the past six years building more modern, thoughtful tech stacks from the ground up, allowing digital tools like online ordering and loyalty programs to work in tandem with the on-premise experience. And it would have put the industry in a better position to meet the AI revolution.
Instead—and through no real fault of their own—many restaurants are still building the plane while flying. And that is holding them back.
On a more fundamental level, though, technology was never going to be a cure-all for restaurants’ problems. If we’ve learned anything over these past six years, it’s that success in this industry still comes down to the basics: good food and service in clean and well-maintained restaurants.
Tech can certainly help. But if the foundation is weak, the results will be too.