Smart restaurants enabling real-time interaction featuring full integration with a network of apps, services, and personal digital assistants will grow in 2030.

FREMONT, CA: Innovations are everywhere and is no doubt for restaurants. Technology profoundly impacts the food industry, especially in the areas of payments, food delivery services, and the labor force. Automation could compensate for the less-available human labor. Technology is projected to modify the very core of the business, playing with the structure in ways that will demand the operators to be more agile. The rise in fresh formats like virtual restaurants and ghost kitchens will lead to stronger growth. These advancements will bring a new, hybrid restaurant model by mixing full-service, fast-casual, and quick-serve styles with ultimate carryout and food delivery convenience.

In 2030, it is believed that the supply chain operations will rely on machines over people with most ingredients shipped and equipped with a barcode to facilitate monitoring. Digital cooking equipment will play a significant role in the kitchen, especially in the back-of-house operations resulting in decreased employee count working there. This will transform the layout and labor elements while reducing preparation times.

Besides, automation will lead to increased mobile payments, handheld payment terminals, and digital orders. The upcoming years will employ kiosks and video menu boards in restaurants with confined service spaces for digital orders and is more likely to place through smartphones and the internet. Also, with the emergence of better technology on both sides of the restaurant counter, including the employee and guest, the foodservice industry is expected to keep up with the 2030 customers. A shift to waste-minimizing, energy-saving, and water-saving practices is also likely to happen. Technology will help to reimagine the brand-customer experience.

Different purchasing methods using app offers customers frictionless ordering and payment options, and brands now are looking for creative ways to either partner with or compete with third-party channels with the booming third-party delivery services. Driverless autonomous vehicles for delivery services will be a boon for the food industry in the near future. Although technology causes a largescale shift in the industry, the employees should be tech-savvy to accept the change readily.