For the remainder of this decade, 10,000 Baby Boomers will turn 65 every day. More than ever, adult care and senior living facilities will be using technology to cut waste and maximize efficiencies so they can manage an influx of new residents. But incorporating tech into an operation can be a challenge for guests and staff alike – particularly in adult care and senior living facilities where some people are comfortable with technology and others may either struggle with change or require extra help in adapting to it.
A recent podcast from Foodservice Director recommended some approaches that can help with the transition. Focus on speed and safety. Digital menus can expedite food preparation and ensure that special needs and requests are accurately recorded and applied to a guest’s order. Offer flexibility. Providing the option of larger print, along with menu photos and the capability to listen back to an order, can help make guests feel more comfortable. Identify ambassadors. Test new technology with focus groups of users (including groups of guests and also groups of staff) and recruit supportive participants to help you spread the word about its functionality and benefits. Involving them in naming the new technology can help them feel a sense of ownership of the platform. Be transparent. What are the costs and potential challenges? Integrate digital food ordering with other functions. Platforms that incorporate other capabilities – like the ability to contact management or nursing support, as well as access information about health data and social activities, can help streamline and simplify the tools residents need in their daily lives. Consult outside help. Independent sources can help you identify possible shortcomings. E.g., what are the potential disadvantages of the technology? Will it dovetail smoothly with existing systems? Is it adaptable enough to last for the long term? Does it provide actionable data that can bring greater efficiency to the operation? What level of support is provided – and has the vendor been around long enough to develop a significant track record in that area? Finally, offer training that can be adapted to different learning styles and generations – and that helps draw out the strengths of various team members. If you can demonstrate how their skills will be needed in new ways once new technology is in use, you can help minimize resistance to its adoption.

The average restaurant wastes 4-10 percent of their purchased food, according to a study by the National Restaurant Association. Foodservice operators who conduct weekly inventory turnover calculations tend to uncover sources of waste, save time and boost their bottom line – and automated inventory management is becoming a commonly used tool to help with this process. But before operators can draw reliable information about their inventory, they need to first understand their menu inside and out – what equipment they need for each item, what ingredients are critical and which can serve as substitutes, how to standardize recipes across locations where specialty ingredients may differ, and where there might be opportunities to innovate, for example. Technology is helpful here too. Modern Restaurant Management reported recently that the bakery chain Le Pain Quotidien adopted an AI tool that serves as a clone of its founding chef, Alain Coumont. The tool, which they call Alain.AI, is used by the bakery’s locations around the world to standardize recipes and get help developing the menu. It has compiled the bakery’s 10,000 historic and current recipes into a closed database that the team can use to develop new recipes more efficiently. Going forward, they plan to plug food and beverage trends into the database so they can develop recipes that reflect those trends, as well as create clones of consumers to better understand and support their food and drink preferences. Tech-driven tools that support recipe consistency and menu management are becoming increasingly common – and can help you ensure that your business prepares a dish to the same high standard each time, all while providing the foundation for you to better manage inventory costs from there. Looking at your database of recipes, how consistently do you include elements such as your yield, portion size, ingredients, mise en place, cooking instructions and methods, plating instructions, photos and other information that ensures consistency?

Foodservice businesses can be in a constant state of having to train new staff and provide ongoing education to employees who have been in their roles a long time. This can drain the trainers’ time, take time away from other critical tasks in the business, and, depending on how quickly training can be delivered, delay the progress of an employee. What’s more, when training is delivered by different people, there is opportunity for food preparation or safety instructions to be inconsistent, creating problems downstream. But increasingly, foodservice businesses are using training modules that deliver lessons via virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality to provide consistent lessons in bite-size chunks. Employees can access the lessons on their own time and have an immersive experience that mimics their real-life work surroundings. Five Guys is one brand that has adopted such tools, though options are available for brands of all sizes. Using the Five Guys example, a new employee who has never worked the grill before can use the restaurant’s immersive training tool to virtually stand in front of the grill, learn how to use the patty press, when and how to use various utensils, when to move the burger along to the next station, and how to maintain the flow of order preparation.

Foodservice operations need every cost-savings opportunity they can get. Chances are, there are wasted dollars lurking in your food waste – even though the industry has made significant strides in this area in recent years. You may already use tech tools in your kitchen at the point of preparation to help guide consistent portioning of ingredients, or to ensure you’re using an ingredient as efficiently as possible. Once a guest has finished their meal, are there additional steps you take to monitor and reduce the items left behind? According to a recent report from Restaurant Technology News, a rising number of restaurants are implementing smart waste management systems that can sort and track waste, streamlining recycling and composting. Others are using technology to convert food waste into energy – a step that has helped participating restaurants reduce their waste by an average of 30 percent, according to a 2023 study by the Waste Management Association. Of course, there may be waste in other areas of your business too – water, energy, paper or other supplies, to name a few possibilities. Considering your largest monthly costs, could tech tools help you monitor your use more closely so you can determine how to minimize some of those expenses?

Research released by the National Restaurant Association this year found that 60 percent of restaurants plan to make technology investments in 2024, while 76 percent of operators say technology gives them an edge. That adds up to a whole lot of operators who are trying to identify the right technology to help them thrive in current market conditions. If you’re among them, it’s not likely that you will be able to implement all of the changes you desire at once, so developing a carefully thought-out roadmap can help ensure you’re making the right incremental changes along the way. What are your restaurant’s most pressing needs? How can you make sure that each new investment you make builds on the previous one in a way that streamlines processes across your operation? Once you zero in on your biggest pain points and goals, you can create a list of priorities — and from there, you can assess associated costs, determine how much staff training is required for the smooth adoption of new processes, and plot out the necessary phases and time frames for implementing changes.

In the past few years in particular, restaurants have become especially valued for their experience factor — their ability to effectively bring people together and provide an enjoyable experience that feels seamless. Your technology can make your interactions with groups (and your guests’ interactions with each other) feel more smooth. But according to 2024 State of the Industry: Future of In-Restaurant Dining, a report produced by Incisiv in partnership with Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, restaurants are leaving a number of opportunities on the table here. For example, only 13 percent of the restaurants surveyed offer digital experiences to simplify group dining — to include the ability to split bills easily or streamline ordering. Just 25 percent of restaurants have integrated proximity sensors and AI to help manage dine-in, collection and delivery services. Less than one-quarter of restaurants have interactive digital menus that track choices and preferences for future personalization. Only 5 percent of restaurants use augmented reality experiences to help guests understand the journey of their meal. If you’re in a position to fine-tune your tech, how might you remove some of the logistical hurdles around order placement and payment, as well as the overall enjoyment of the dining experience, so you can better manage traffic and build loyalty?

​Internet connectivity has become critical to restaurant functions as diverse as payment processing, inventory management, loyalty program administration and labor scheduling — but what happens when the Internet cuts out? There could be negative consequences for your sales, reputation and employee morale. At a time of the year when extreme weather is common, internet outages can be too — and employees may not have the training to handle tasks manually when that happens. Having a backup plan to keep business moving when your connectivity is shaky is a good idea. How does your internet service provider guarantee uninterrupted service? How will they communicate with you if and when problems arise? Some providers bundle their services from a range of carriers so if one experiences a outage, another can pick up the connection. As for your staff, make sure they can handle core tasks in an analog way — just so business doesn’t come to a standstill in case of an outage.

Restaurant operators have to manage an ever-shifting list of requirements to comply with the law. From food and beverage safety regulations to specialty licenses to labor compliance laws, there are many priorities (as well as changes) for operators to track. If they don’t, the legal or financial consequences can be steep. But as a recent report from Modern Restaurant Management explains, AI-supported tools are making compliance tasks easier (and simultaneously removing some tedious responsibilities from employees’ to-do lists). AI-powered workforce management is helping restaurants automate compliance tasks while bringing insights from them into clearer focus, so operators can know more readily what areas of the business need attention. For example, workforce management can provide a labor-management plan that includes predictive scheduling so you’re able to adequately staff your business to uphold safety regulations and minimize your food safety risks. In the process, staff gain greater flexibility to plan around shifts and operators can better avoid burning out staff. These tools can also keep accounting tasks current. This technology is becoming an industry standard, so if you’re in the majority of restaurants making technology investments in the near future, these capabilities are likely to be woven into them.

​Food and beverage organizations are upgrading software 50 percent slower than businesses in other industries, according to recent research from tech.co. This is often due to the cost required to make the upgrades for the business, though there may be work-arounds on that – and the cost of delays may end up creating new problems. Software upgrades are generally the result of enhancements that were made to the product or defects that needed to be corrected. When a restaurant changes something about a workflow or other operational process, this could expose a problem that has been addressed in an updated version of the software. Delaying the upgrades means defects can mount, that you’re not able to serve guests as smoothly as you could, or that you have a pileup of changes that need to be made once you get around to upgrading. As you incorporate new technology into your business, it’s worth looking ahead strategically with software maintenance and support in mind. You may be able to get a software-as-a-service plan that allows you to upgrade as often as needed so costs aren’t an obstacle when issues arise, as well as support that minimizes how much manual effort you have to put into the changes.

​Tech-driven automation can conjure lofty thoughts of robotic cooks and waitstaff, but the reality is that the new tools coming to market are just as impactful in automating the back-office tasks that restaurant operators are happy to delegate. A report from Nation’s Restaurant News shared how the recent National Restaurant Show featured many examples of how restaurants are enhancing their tech stacks by merging various functions to save time and money. For example, they mention a partnership between a point-of-sale system from Mad Mobile and sales tax software from Avalara. Together, these companies make it possible for restaurants to pull their total transactions at the end of the day, automate the calculation of their sales tax due to state and federal agencies, and then deposit the funds into a withholding account to ensure their taxes are paid on time. As a result, the restaurant sets itself up to avoid tax penalties, but it also helps its staff offload a tedious task and gain time that they can use to support guests. What back-office tasks could still be automated in your business?