Restaurant tech execs warn against AI overdependence
Restaurant tech execs warn against AI overdependence
Publish Date: 2026-05-26 08:59:00
Source Domain: www.restaurantdive.com
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CHICAGO – At the National Restaurant Association Show, Restaurant Dive made a point of closing our interviews with a simple question: “When people talk about the restaurant sector right now, what’s one thing they’re getting wrong?”
Almost universally, at least among restaurant tech leaders, the answer this year was “artificial intelligence.” This skepticism didn’t correlate, however, with a lack of enthusiasm for the technology on the show floor.
“AI is the biggest thing of this entire show this year,” said James Schonzeit, Square’s head of food and beverage.
Uncertainty abounds over scale and use cases
It’s far from clear how the suite of technologies called AI — large language models, machine learning, computer vision, sophisticated analytics algorithms and other tools — will impact restaurants.
The speed at which AI is changing makes its ultimate use cases unpredictable. Just this month, Google announced it was moving away from traditional links-based search results in favor of AI summaries, while Starbucks killed off its AI inventory control tool.
“No one can tell you what’s going to be in place a year from now. They can tell you what they think, like Microsoft [AI CEO] saying all white-collar work will be done by AI in 18 months, that’s obviously bullshit,” said Brendan Sweeney, CEO and co-founder of Popmenu.
Part of the problem, Sweeney said, is that overadoption of large language models rests on shaky fundamentals. The cost of AI tokens required to operate coding services can exceed the salaries of the workers the technology purports to replace, he said.
At the same time, the slow pace of data structure construction…
