The Restaurant Technology Guys Podcast brought to you by Custom Business Solutions
The Restaurant Technology Guys Podcast brought to you by Custom Business Solutions
Restaurant Tech Innovations: AI, Dynamic Pricing, and Future Trends with Joe Gaskowski
Restaurant Tech Innovations: AI, Dynamic Pricing, and Future Trends with Joe Gaskowski
In this episode of the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast, host Jeremy Julian is joined by Joe Gaskowski, Senior Editor at Restaurant Business, to discuss the state of the restaurant industry, especially casual dining, and future technological trends. They talk about the impact of AI in areas such as drive-thrus, back-of-house operations, and marketing. The conversation also delves into the controversial dynamic pricing, voice AI, and the strategic use of third-party delivery services. Additionally, the challenges of integrating new tech with legacy systems and the importance of tech consolidation for seamless operations are highlighted.
00:00 Audio Joe Guszkowski
00:50 Introduction and Guest Introduction
01:14 Joe Gaskowski's Background and Role
02:29 Trends in Restaurant Technology for 2024
03:06 The Rise of AI in the Restaurant Industry
04:49 Dynamic Pricing in Restaurants
15:10 Voice AI and Its Applications
21:50 Third-Party Delivery Services
25:44 Technology in Casual Dining
31:40 Future of Restaurant Technology
33:47 Conclusion and Upcoming Events
This is the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast, helping you run your restaurant better. In today's episode, we are joined by editor and writer from one of the most popular restaurant publications, Joe Gaskowski. Joe and I talk quite a bit about the state of restaurants, the state of casual dining, where things are going. As well as what he sees in the future as he continues to talk to restaurant leaders. If you don't know me, my name is Jeremy Julian. I am the chief revenue officer for custom business solutions, where we sell the Northstar point of sale solution for multiple unit restaurants. Please check us out at cbsnorthstar. com.
Jeremy Julian:Welcome back to the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast. I thank everyone out there for joining us. As I say, each and every time I know you guys got lots of choices. So thank you guys for hanging with us this week. Today I am joined by somebody that I am certain most of our listeners have seen stuff published from Joe, but I'm gonna let him introduce himself here for just a second and talk a little bit about where he, where he's at now and a little bit of his background, but Joe. why don't you introduce yourself to our listeners? Like I said, do probably less video than you do, than you do writing and publishing on that side, right?
Joe Guszkowski:Yeah, much more of a writer. but thanks for having me on Jeremy. I'm Joe Gaskowski, senior editor at Restaurant Business. I cover technology and, casual dining chains. And I've been doing that since, 2020, summer of 2020. So it's been an interesting few years,
Jeremy Julian:especially the fact that you got pegged with the casual dining space through the pandemic. So that, that probably was, was interesting as well.
Joe Guszkowski:Yeah, definitely. It gets more interesting every year, it seems.
Jeremy Julian:It does. Absolutely. for those that are not familiar, like I said, I'm certain most are going to be familiar with your guys publication, but, what is it that, that you guys do you focus on tech, but overall as a brand, what is it that you guys do just for those that, that may not already be subscribers or see the stuff that you guys put out there.
Joe Guszkowski:Yeah, we cover the entire industry from a business perspective, from the biggest chains on down to the mom and pops. we've been around for a long time. I don't know how long. We used to be a magazine, and, now we're just digital, but, yeah, we host some events through our parent company Informa, and, we do podcasts, we do newsletters, so all kinds of stuff. So yeah, restaurant business online. com. That's the website.
Jeremy Julian:Awesome. And, like I said, at the onset, when I did the intro, I know lots of people have probably read some of the stuff that you put out there and definitely the organization as a whole, we're recording this in early, 2025, Joe, and I know you and I talked about, what were some of the biggest trends that you saw happening within 2024? cause that really talk about where it's going to carry into 2025, but as you look at it at a macro level, As it pertains to technology, less so about brands in general, but as it pertains to technology, what are some of the biggest things that you saw out there? that you saw people doing well and some things that people might've gone, I don't quite understand why they're doing this.
Joe Guszkowski:Yeah. I think the big one from last year was AI. I think it was the, it was certainly the thing that everyone wanted to talk about, at our, we have a conference FS tech in the fall and AI pretty much, dominated the discussion there. and I can, it means so many things and it's a very general topic, I think what's been interesting about it is how it's really being adopted up and down the industry. a lot of times with new technology. It's the big guys that set the pace and set the curve. And, that's certainly true with AI. I think like the big chains are doing the most with it, but it's also being used very widely among small operators, which is surprising and I think unusual. And so I guess it speaks to the many different things that I can do. a single unit, mom and pop may use it to craft a, an email marketing email or help them come up with new menu items, a large chain, like Taco Bell might use it to automate the drive through, so it's very flexible in what it can do. And everyone. Seems to be extremely interested in, implementing it somehow. and so that was, when I think back on last year, that was the theme that ran through the year and I'm sure we'll. We'll continue, into this year. some of the other things, I did like a roundup at the end of the year, touching on different, the trends, one of the things that came up in 2024 was dynamic pricing. Which had a kind of a up and down year, starting with, the Wendy's saying they were going to use it and getting a bunch of backlash. And I think there's a lot of debate over, the future of that and, where that's going to go. I'd be happy to get into that with you. If you want to talk about that a little, I don't know what your feelings are on dynamic pricing.
Jeremy Julian:Yeah, no, I'd love to talk a little bit about that. Before we jump there real quick, you talked a lot about AI. I agree with you. There's not a podcast that I think I've done in the last 18 months that hasn't had AI mentioned in some way, shape or form. but you talked about some of the ways that you see people using. Is there anywhere else that you see it getting adopted? I agree with you fully automating the drive through creating marketing campaigns, really, I don't say low bar stuff, but good low bar stuff that'll allow people. helping with social media posts, those kinds of things. Are there any other areas that you've seen people adopting AI because AI is so broad that you think is either underutilized where you're like, Oh, these guys really nailed it with AI. And I think more people need to know about it in order to enhance their brand and do the things that they might want to do.
Joe Guszkowski:Yeah, actually I think, The place where AI is being used the most is probably in the back of house for things like inventory and sales forecasting and scheduling and stuff like that. That's actually where it's probably the most mature and the easiest to implement at this point, because you have the data there. To allow it to do its thing. so yeah, that's, that is, the sexy stuff is like the voice AI and things like that, but that's probably a long way off from being totally mature. So yeah.
Jeremy Julian:I agree. I think taking those big data sets that we have,'cause it, most of our listeners know I, I work in the point of sale industry and, we produce so much data, but being able to analyze it for so long was so hard. But now with ai, you can put these things in these models, whether that's how much chicken do I need to prep for tomorrow versus how much chicken do I need to order for tomorrow, and what does that look like? What is, what are my sales trends? Those things used to take. Days to generate these reports and figure out how to do them. Now with AI, it can get spit out pretty quickly to make discernible differences within the lives of your business. And quite honestly, drive some profitability.
Joe Guszkowski:Yeah. It seems to be a very good predictor and it's, the predictive side is well, along, and the generative side is what's still coming into being
Jeremy Julian:Yeah. Yeah. And I, I'd love to, before we get done, talk a little bit about the voice AI, because we've seen some successes and some failures, but before we go there, I. Actually, just last week was on a podcast or I don't even know if it was a webcast that, Sean Walsh out of, out of San Diego put on about dynamic pricing with the former, CEO juicer talking about it. And so I guess. For our listeners lived under a rock and didn't see all the press and didn't see everything that was going on with dynamic pricing. Can you explain what dynamic pricing is? Cause I, I have an opinion for sure. And I think restaurants have been doing dynamic pricing forever. It's just for whatever reason, people got all up in arms when Wendy's just said they were going to. everybody thinks of it as surge pricing. And so I have some opinions, but I'd love for you to define at least, what do you think of as dynamic pricing when you may mention it?
Joe Guszkowski:Yeah, quite simply, I think it's just the adjusting of your prices, based on demand at any given time. And, typically that's being supported by some kind of software and maybe some AI. and, I think it's, it. Like you said, it's actually been happening for a long time. The original sort of dynamic pricing is happy hour. Everyone likes to say, and so now you're doing happy hour, but you can do it throughout the day based on whether you're busy or not. And I think it's a, I think it's like a really smart idea. I think it's got, it's just got some perception issues.
Jeremy Julian:And I don't understand why. So I, on the podcast that I was on last week that I was recording last week, I took a trip during the holidays with my family and we drove, a thousand miles for the family deal. It was a long trip, but it was good. Did some sightseeing on the way, but, Me being not so much of a planner and a little bit of a renegade. I just chose to get gas when I chose to get gas. And I happened to get gas in a spot where there was no gas a hundred miles either way. So I paid almost 7 for a gallon of gas because there was no gas a hundred miles either way. And I would have run out of gas had I not gone that well at the end of the day, does that gas station owner deserve to get an extra 4 a gallon for gas because he just happened to put a gas station. In this spot, I think he does and I don't quite understand why There's this mentality of the consumers. You don't have to order it We all know that the third party delivery providers and we'll talk a little bit about them in a little bit But the third party delivery providers don't charge the same price 99 times out of 100 as you would if I walked into the door So why is it any different when i'm coming through the drive thru on a busy friday night? to be able to do that other than the fact that technology now allows us to do that and is capable of doing that so that's I guess my first opinion The second side of it is we also take advantage of it Nobody ever wants to talk about the fact that I got happy hour pricing that they didn't charge me the proper amount for this vodka that I was drinking that I got top shelf, but I got charged the well vodka price nobody wants to talk about that Everybody only wants to talk about the fact that my price might go up on, you know a busy night I'd love to, I'd love to, hear your thoughts on that, Joe.
Joe Guszkowski:at the worst possible time last year because consumers were so focused on price, especially at restaurants that the prospect of a restaurant actually raising prices at certain times, just didn't sit right with them. I don't think they thought about the opposite, Oh, you could actually get a better deal too. And also the fact that we're talking about very sort of surgical pricing changes. this isn't surge pricing it's. maybe cents, maybe a dollar, So I think the perception was that restaurants are trying to like price gouge or something, and that just blew up because consumers were so sensitive. I think it will eventually end up happening. And like you said, it already is, and places are using it to seemingly. Great success, but customers are going to have to get used to it and they have gotten used to it in other industries. So I see no reason why they won't for restaurants. It was just a tough, it's going to be a little bit rocky, especially now.
Jeremy Julian:and the funny thing is we have all, I've been working in this space for over 25 years. There's the opposite effect of I'm trying to drive business between two and five. Sonic has always had this, happy hour for their slushies before the peak hours and after their peak hours to drive that behavior. So to me, Dynamic pricing is dynamic based on the volume that's coming into the restaurant. So it may mean that slushie is at full price, but at 10 PM it's at a dollar less or at 2 PM it might be at a dollar less. not during the lunch period, not during the dinner period. And why do you think that the press didn't pick up on that? you happen to live in the press world, but why did the press not pick up on it, I think it was the wall street journal or the New York times that was the big one that kind of roasted the Wendy's group, but why do you think that the press? Picked up on only the fact that we were going to increase pricing and didn't consider the opposite
Joe Guszkowski:That is a great question. And it gets into the media industry and what, our issues are these days. But, To put it simply like publications need readers and readers will respond to a headline that says, Wendy's is going to do surge pricing, much more than the actual nuanced truth of the matter. so I, I think that's probably it, outrage and anger fuels a lot of, attention and much more so than the actual nitty gritty of the
Jeremy Julian:of what's really happening. yeah, it was, and quite frankly, it was unfortunate from my perspective, because I do see it as an opportunity for restaurants to be more successful in the times that they can be more successful. And, the other piece I would ask Joe is in the world of restaurant tech, a lot of people put a lot of point solutions out there. I don't think dynamic pricing and or surge pricing, whatever you want to call it, was really something that was capable with some of the legacy systems that were out there. and I guess I would ask you your thoughts on, where technology is at to be able to enhance these things and truly make these changes, because I think. All too often people have been limited by their previous choices, whether it's the point solution that they have in house or even their point of sale that doesn't allow them for the capability to be flexible, to have these things change during the day. Do you think that's why it's something that's capable again, even hotels, it was, it's mostly web, and you can change web a lot easier than you can change in store systems. And so a web order is coming in for these hotels or the airlines, They've got really legacy tech in the airlines. We saw Southwest and American Airlines a couple of years ago go down and really kill their brand. But the online orders would be able to do that. But in restaurants, they've always had a lot of them have store centric systems that don't have that capability. I see that as a, as people are migrating to newer systems, it certainly gives them the capability to, to do that. Is that something that you're seeing with the brands that you're talking to?
Joe Guszkowski:absolutely. I think every tech supplier wants to become more integrated and more connected. And, I've seen a lot of restaurants overhauling their entire stack in the name of Integration, and so that should create opportunities to do more things digitally, that, integrates better with the overall operation. where prices are reflected, across every interface, menus are matched across all your touch points, et cetera. yeah, I think a dynamic pricing should become easier to do when you have a system that's set up.
Jeremy Julian:Yep. Yeah. And I think when I talk with CMOs and different marketing groups around the country, it's like one of their biggest pain points is they want to come out with a campaign next week and it takes weeks for them to get all of their systems updated. And so to your point, Being able to take advantage of what you talked about earlier with AI, as well as some of this new dynamic pricing pieces, it's next to impossible without systems that are talking to each other, because you just have to have so much human capital to be able to go deploy it versus some of the newer stuff that's out there. What else, you talked about voice AI, Joe, where have you seen that kind of hitting and what are your thoughts on voice AI? Because that is another piece of the puzzle. We've seen some big brands that have talked about doing it for the drive through some people that have talked about doing it for their, for the dining room, talk to me a little bit about what does that even mean? and I have my opinion on it. We've done a little bit of integration with some different providers for it. and I think, I think it has a lot of promise, but I'd love kind of your thoughts from a macro level at the industry level.
Joe Guszkowski:Yeah, I would say like the place you're most likely to encounter a voice AI bot would be when you like call a restaurant to order a pizza. I think that's the place that's being most quickly adopted. And I don't want to put a number out there, but I think it's becoming much more common. and, the employee no longer has to answer the phone, et cetera, et cetera. the drive through is the next place that I think this is going to happen. And this is. certainly picking up. we're seeing some of the biggest chains doing it now. Taco Bell, notably. I know McDonald's is looking at it, trying to figure it out. that raises a lot more difficulties than the phone. you have, ambient noise that creates issues. and you have a lot higher volume too in the drive thru. Needless to say for fast food. but I think this year, I think we're going to continue to see more of that. And I would imagine that the technology, improves as AI is intended to do. Gets, learns and gets better.
Jeremy Julian:better as time goes on. That to me is the big thing that I, so I was just on with, I just recorded a podcast with the CEO of Donato's pizza. and he and I were talking about, so pizza, he's a former Domino's guy and has been in the pizza space for a lot of his career. And he and I were just talking through a lot of that for those that are naysayers and say, there's two pieces of. AI that oftentimes head, it's Oh, you're just replacing, you're trying to get rid of all of the employees that are in the space, for, and then there's the second side of it is I don't want to get in that infinite loop where I have to scream representative at the top of my lungs, 14 times to get, 14 times, to get what I'm looking for, help me understand what, What would you say to those people that are out there that are listening to this going, have no idea, they have no idea how much it's grown and how well it's actually being adopted and how, quite frankly, even the guests are happier with it oftentimes than they are even when talking with the staff member.
Joe Guszkowski:Yeah. on the labor side, I think you have to remember that restaurants have a labor problem. And I think that is the impetus behind adopting some of this AI. but again, it's new, it's nuanced. It's not, it's certainly not, we're going to replace every employee in the restaurant. I think what restaurants will say is we put the AI in the drive thru and then that drive thru order taker can do other things that are a little, maybe a little more rewarding and more focused on the guests and the hospitality. I've heard some chains say that they've been able to trim their overall labor hours a little bit, basically to pay for the technology, but they're not going down to. one person in the restaurant or anything that extreme. And I don't think that's the ultimate goal. I think it's, it's to, it will have numerous benefits, not only labor, and that I guess gets into the customer side, I think there will always be a subset of customers that just want to order from a person. but I think the AI is getting better. And one thing that you could say for the AI is that it's never going to be in a bad mood. never going
Jeremy Julian:shows up for work.
Joe Guszkowski:exactly, it's going to be there. it's going to be prompt and, I'm sure we've all dealt with. Drive through employees who just seem like they don't want to be there and that's not nice either. I think There's gonna be some frustrations Here in the early goings and there's always like I said, there's gonna be people who don't want to use it And, and that's fine, but there are some, there are benefits to it too, that maybe don't get talked about as much.
Jeremy Julian:and I think in general, one of the things that I heard a CEO say, and it actually at the show you talked about FS tech. I think that the CTO of Taco Bell had talked about it's hard to hire people and when they get hired, they don't want to work that drive through job because that drive through job is one of the hardest jobs in quick service to operate in the phone operators at a time. Pizza place is also one of the hardest jobs. Delivery driver is not a huge challenge to get. Even pizza maker is not a huge challenge to get at a pizza place. the people that are working the line at Taco Bell, not a, not as hard to staff versus the drive thru that is having to deal with the order and the taking payment and the whole nine yards. It's just, it's a tough deal. I was just at a brand yesterday having lunch and the guy that was taking my order at the counter. Was also trying to deal with the drive through and it was just, it was a tough situation. And so I think all too often it's hard to staff that position. And even if you do find somebody that can staff it, you don't always get the best, team member. And so being able to figure out how to automate some of that, is huge. And then repurpose that labor to something that they're going to do well, that's going to add value versus something that might not add as much value. The other thing that I hear from AI and really the advent of digital ordering and kiosks and things like that. Is it always asks for the upsell? It always does what you ask it for. It always asks if you want to drink without it, you want to add fries. You want to do this, you want to do that. Whereas a human, you can train them and train them and train them. And sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't. And so making sure that they do that.
Joe Guszkowski:Yes. Yeah. That's one of the many benefits that, AI is promising here is that not only is it maybe going to save you some money, but it's also going to increase your revenue because it always asks for the upsell. pretty much all the chains that have used it have said something like that.
Jeremy Julian:Yeah, no, I was just at Portillo's. There's a Portillo's that opened near me, in grapevine, Texas. And, it upsold me. It upsold my son and I, to, they're not using voice AI. It was a kiosk, but it was same kind of idea. And it was one of those things that I didn't realize. Cause I'm, I it's the first digital it's their digital kind of store. And it was quite frankly, it was a very good experience for me as a guest, but it was different than my traditional Portillo's experience. And then I looked at my receipt afterwards. I was like, I didn't know I got the large fries and it had upsold me to the large fries. Cause my kid was ringing up on the kiosk. And again, I wasn't, I take accountability for that because it was my choice to go and do it digitally, they would allow me to go to the front and with most, with most, even in the voice AI space, they have operator assisted, something there. so I'm going to pivot real quick. You talked about some third party, a little bit earlier. Where do you see third party trending? a lot of people rush to get third party. I think, just before you got into the space, I would say that, especially even in casual dining, there was a lot fewer that were doing third party delivery with the pandemic, everybody rushed to get on Uber Eats and DoorDash and Grubhub and all of the different platforms. And as it started to normalize, I. See more and more press about people trying to figure out what is third part? Is it additive? Is it taken away different? talk to me a little bit about the landscape of third party and where do you see it at today? the beginning of 2025 and where do you see it going?
Joe Guszkowski:Yeah. it's gonna, it continues to be a something that you just can't really ignore as a restaurant because it continues growing and, against all odds, customers continue to be willing to use it and pay for it.
Jeremy Julian:But they complain about adding 10 cents to my, my, my double Wendy's burger, but they're going to pay an extra 3 to get a door dash. Sorry. I don't mean to interrupt you, but it's like, it doesn't make any sense to me, but, they're consumers and that's the way it works.
Joe Guszkowski:yeah, it's a bit of a
Jeremy Julian:huh.
Joe Guszkowski:but, I think as with a lot of technology that restaurants quickly adopted during the pandemic and didn't really think about much. I think brands are getting much more strategic and they need to be thinking much more strategically about how they use third party and, what it's for and I think there are different ways to look at it. some just look at it as a marketing channel, you get, maybe you can attract some first time users that way and hopefully, convert them to order first party, which is hard. but it's, it can also be a sales channel. you are likely to charge extra on third party to make the margins better. And, so it could be, at the end of the day is similar to a, an in store sale, but I think it, you need as a restaurant, you need to be thinking about what you want to. to do for you. You can't just be out there on the third parties. And it's almost like a whole separate line of business that you need someone to be focused on. And it's very, it's complicated and it's always changing. now, one of the things the apps are doing is really leaning into the discounts and promotions and they want restaurants to buy into this stuff and offer. buy one, get ones, et cetera, et cetera. And so that's a whole nother line in your formula that you need to be aware of. So it's going to require more focus, from restaurants now that things have normalized a little.
Jeremy Julian:and I think that they need to resource it to your point. They need to resource somebody that's going to manage it. I was just dealing with a brand here locally who back to your couponing, they'd had whatever it was, free, 5 off or whatever. And they actually had a problem with the taxes cause it was taking the. 5 off and taxing on the net amount, not on the gross amount. And, so even little things like that, we've had some guests on before, the founder of loop AI, who does a whole bunch of reconciliation. Cause you got to deal with the reconciliation side of it. There's another group that has been on the show before dealing with dispute management and did the guests really get that? And so the board. I would agree with you that it is not something you can just put your head in the sand and ignore, so you do have to resource it, and it is a very different business model. No different than takeout or delivery is a different business model. every one of these third party. Partners, you've got to have staffing. You've got to have somebody to deal with the accounting side of it. You've got to have packaging, you've got to have products. You've got to, you've got to do pricing. You've got to make sure you deal with all of that stuff. So I love that. And for those that kind of either put their head in the sand or just launched it and said, I hope and pray that it works. I would encourage you all to consider some of the stuff that Joe had talked about, because I think it's something. That, that really needs to be resourced appropriately because it can be a channel that can grow your sales if done properly. It can also hit your brand, hurt your brand significantly if you don't do it properly. or it can hurt you financially if you're not managing the financial side of it. The last thread I wanted to go down, Joe, is just, where do you see, we've talked a lot about AI and how it's enhancing back of the house. It's enhancing front of the house for voice and quick serve, but I know you also cover the casual dining space, which obviously from a total, chain business perspective is a lot smaller market, a lot less. Units, but where do you see technology? Not only enhancing, but, really accelerating casual dining's gotten punched in the mouth the last 18 months, it's been hard. There's been a lot of bankruptcies. There's been a lot of pain and suffering in the casual dining space, but some are doing it really well. some are doing it well, and some have figured it out and some are using technology to their advantage to get a leg up on their competition, help our listeners that. Are out there to understand what those things are. you know what those things are out there and, what should they be considering? And now a word from one of our sponsors every restaurant operator understands the chaos of a Restaurant kitchen during the meal rush restaurant technologies, oil, total oil management solutions, and end to end automated oil management system that delivers filters monitors and recycles your cooking oil, taking the dirtiest jobs out of your kitchen and letting your employees focus on more important tasks. Control the kitchen chaos with restaurant technologies and make your kitchen safer. No upfront costs to learn more, check out rti inc. com or call 888 796 4997.
Joe Guszkowski:Yeah, I think in casual dining tech can really help with that sort of end of meal friction point of the bill paying the check. and a lot of places now you'll see have the tablet on the table where you can pay. this could also be accomplished just through a QR code on the receipt that allow you to scan it with your phone and pay and leave. I think generally casual dining wants to get faster and act more like a Almost like a fast, casual experience where you could get in and out in a reasonable time. And I think tech is going to have to be part of that. stuff at the table, even ordering on your phone or on a tablet, although I know, like I personally don't like that, places are going to offer that too. The other side is more working in the background with, customer data. Casual dining, you don't see a lot of casual dining loyalty programs just less frequent occasions. Starbucks, people go to Starbucks every
Jeremy Julian:Yep.
Joe Guszkowski:natural dining chain. You might go twice a year, but there are brands now that are testing loyalty programs and looking to make use of that data to drive people in. And that's a novel idea for that segment. so that's another, a big area of. where technology I think is going to have an impact for full service.
Jeremy Julian:Yeah, one other thing that I'd love your opinion on Joe is we've talked to a couple different vendors that are trying to help with some of the workforce management in casual dining. We've all been at the property where our. our drink hasn't been refilled or we're waiting for our check and we can't, there's always friction points. it's my food has taken too long. It took too long for somebody to get me a drink. It took too, I wanted to reorder a drink or I wanted to order dessert. I couldn't order dessert. Now I got to go get to the movie. So to me, you talked about both the ordering and payment process. Definitely huge there. But in the sequences of service, we've seen some different, vision AI type companies coming around to see what's going on within the dining room. And try and prompt. Have you seen any of that? Have you seen anybody adopting that? I've seen the tech. I haven't necessarily seen any case studies yet, but it's cameras that are around that say. You need to go refill the drink at table 12. They should be in that section. They should be doing it at table 12, but it's computers now prompting them to make sure that they get table 12 drink refilled and an opportunity to upsell and or to get them another beer or whatnot.
Joe Guszkowski:Yeah. So I've heard of this technology and I have not seen it implemented or I've not talked to anyone who's implemented it, but we were just actually talking, yesterday about basically the idea of cameras in restaurants and how that's becoming a thing now, both in the back of house and the dining room. Like you said, I think that's. Something that I probably going to look into this year and if I could find, an example of someone, if you're out there listening, using cameras, like the way Jeremy just described to prompt employees. that's a fascinating, area of tech that is certainly coming and, but I don't know if we've seen a lot of, examples of it yet.
Jeremy Julian:Yeah, no. And the other one on that, vision AI pieces, food quality, making sure that the right items get prepared. And we've seen a couple of different companies. I know there was some people that, that were at, FSTech, you guys trade show that were there. I'm heading to NRF this week, and that's a retail show, but, I'm going to go put my feet on the ground and go see what's going on in the retail space. Cause they've always got robots and things that are trying to get in and help.
Joe Guszkowski:step ahead of us, aren't they?
Jeremy Julian:That's part of why I go to NRF every year is for those that don't go to NRF or, big brands for sure. And a lot of the big brands, we'll run into McDonald's and Chick fil A and Taco Bell and some of those guys, they'll have a lot of their people there. But, some of the smaller brands, it's in New York city, it's always in January, but retailers, the volume that they do, they've always got some different things that are interesting. And I always try and go and talk to those different providers to figure out what the Walmart's and the targets and the, Costco's are doing and how can that relate back to what's happening within the restaurant space and bring some of that tech back, they've, they've had digital, digital shelf tags for a long time, talk about dynamic pricing, we've got digital menu boards already, but very few restaurants have implemented digital shelf tags. So you're now in a. the Chipotle case, how do we change those prices for those sodas that are in the front there and those kinds of things. especially in the States that, that require it. Last question, Joe, where's, where is all of this going? I know that's the 10 million question and, where is all of this going? if you're to look out in your crystal ball and say by the end of 2025, I think these are the one or two things that are going to really hit and something that we're going to see lots of adoption. That is really, either less adopted or, you talked a little bit in our pre show about tech consolidation, maybe it's that, but where is it going
Joe Guszkowski:Yeah. Oh, man. It's such a tough question to answer. I think that At the pace that, voice AI is developing and the investment that's getting behind it now. I think by the end of this year, we're going to see one of the biggest chains, really dig their heels in on it and start pushing it out quickly. And I would imagine that within five to 10 years, it will be. Like the default drive through ordering mode.
Jeremy Julian:in phone ordering mode for that matter?
Joe Guszkowski:for sure. Yeah. the benefits we talked about are just too many to ignore. if you run a fast food chain, and then there will always be those concepts that don't do it and that's there. the other thing, and we touched on this, but there's going to be, there's going to continue to be a lot of consolidation on the vendor side in, in the name of, integration and systems that talk better. because I think ultimately that's. That's what it's going to take to be a kind of modern, restaurant, and to give consumers what they expect now. given that they're so used to, e commerce and how that works, restaurants need to work a little bit like that, and it's going to require a lot of, streamlining on the backend. So those are the two things. One, voice AI. The other voice is very easy to understand and imagine. The other is a little bit messier, but those are the two things,
Jeremy Julian:And it's the hardest thing to do in the world that I live in, we've got over a hundred integrations to our platform and every day it's a constant conversation with our partners to just make sure that we can serve customers where they need to be served. Joe, for those that aren't connected to you already and want to subscribe to what it is that you guys do, we're, you talked about it early, but, give them a place to connect and, How, where should they connect with you? What, what's the best form of engagement to, to support the work that you guys are doing?
Joe Guszkowski:Yeah. We'll go to restaurant business online. com. you can see all the stuff we do. You can, sign up for our newsletters. I send out a weekly tech newsletter. That's just a roundup of the news. I also do a column called tech check. About once a week, that's an opinion column and just my thoughts on what's going on I'm also on linkedin pretty active on there. So feel free to connect and be happy to Connect with you there. So yeah.
Jeremy Julian:Awesome. Joey, I appreciate you coming on. And obviously if people are listening to the show, they're into the tech, they're into trying to figure out, how do they make their restaurant better? And that's ultimately where, why the show exists is to help restaurants to make. Better decisions with, with the tech solutions that they have out there and to get informed about the things that are going on. and I guess one last piece that I would say is that your parent company does have quite a few trade shows around, around. Is there any particularly that you're planning on going to that they might be able to, to see in person this year?
Joe Guszkowski:Yeah, we've got restaurant leadership conference coming up in april I will be there that's in phoenix and that's always a really good one. So yep. I'll be there.
Jeremy Julian:Awesome. to our listeners, guys, we know that you guys got lots of choices. So guys for spending time with us. If you haven't already subscribed, please do Joe, thank you so much. And to our listeners, make it a great day.
Thanks for listening to the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast. Visit www. RestaurantTechnologyGuys. com for tips, industry insights, and more to help you run your restaurant better.
