The restaurant industry is evolving at a breakneck pace, driven by shifting customer expectations and the rapid adoption of technology.
Once a traditional sector, restaurants are now embracing high-tech solutions to streamline operations, enhance guest loyalty, and deliver faster, more memorable dining experiences.
As we move into 2025, high-tech dining is no longer a concept of the future. It’s here, transforming everything from marketing to sales to dining experiences.
The following mark the top restaurant tech trends for the year, and possibly years to come.
By understanding these trends and forecasts, restaurant owners, managers, and marketers alike can stay ahead of their competition and of their guests’ needs.
Why restaurant technology trends matter
There are a few benefits to keeping up with restaurant and hospitality industry trends.
By embracing the various forms of restaurant technology, restaurateurs, managers, and owners can:
Gain a competitive edge
Increase operational efficiency
Make data-driven decisions
Reduce and optimize costs
Boost sales and profits
Boost guest loyalty and satisfaction
Restaurant technology trends for 2025
Let’s look at the top technology trends in the restaurant industry we expect to see in 2025 and beyond.
Restaurant tech and software
One of the top restaurant trends for 2025 is the growing interest in the different types of restaurant technology. Concepts are constantly looking to have a restaurant tech stack so they can streamline daily operations.
Whether it’s reservation management software, kitchen operations and metrics software, operations management tools, or even restaurant marketing automation software.
Reservation and seating solutions
Besides looking for restaurant tech, more dining concepts are looking for advanced reservation, table management, and waitlist software. The idea is to have a system that can integrate with various tech in the restaurant.
Many concepts are looking for restaurant management software that helps them manage multiple venues, can integrate with restaurant POS system, and grow with the business.
Hyper personalized experiences
Personalization isn’t just adding the guest’s name in your restaurant’s email campaigns or newsletters. Although that’s a simple example of what personalization is.
McKinsey defines personalization in marketing as “when seller organizations use data to tailor messages to specific users’ preferences.”
There are two types of personalization and both are gaining attention in the restaurant industry.
The first is in-house personalization. It looks like this:
A hostess greets a guest at the reception, welcoming them back to the restaurant.
The host/hostess seats them at their favorite table or section.
The waiter makes a recommendation based on the guest’s previous order, upselling or cross-selling some menu items.
Personalized restaurant marketing
The second type of personalization in the restaurant industry is marketing personalization.
Research by McKinsey indicates brands can reduce their customer acquisition costs (CAC) by “as much as” 50% and boost revenues by 5% to 15% using personalization.
In terms of marketing restaurant tech trends, we expect more F&B brands to use marketing tools to personalize marketing campaigns.
For example, personalized email marketing for restaurants can include creating seasonal campaigns, a restaurant newsletter, among others. SMS and WhatsApp marketing also offer personalization opportunities and have a higher open rate than email.
Restaurants using Servme create hyper personalized experiences with auto-tags. Concepts can create their own tags like VIP, Monday Regular, Chocolate Lover, among others or use built-in tags to segment guests.
They can use the tags to create email, SMS, and WhatsApp marketing campaigns from their Servme dashboard.
Contactless payments
Contactless operations, including ordering and payments, continue to be at the top of restaurant owners’ list of tech to explore.
One reason is that guests are adopting technology faster than restaurants are using them. To keep up with consumer trends and needs, more concepts are turning towards contactless ordering.
Using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to enable payment solutions like Apple Pay and Google Pay continue to be of interest to restaurants.
It’s one of the features Servme plans to release in 2025 to help concepts accept reservation deposits and increase payment options for guests.
Contactless ordering
Besides payments, contactless menus including digital and QR code menus, will continue across the restaurant industry.
Restaurant tech streamlines operations, especially pen-and-paper orders, reduces human error, and helps venues reduce operating costs like print menus.
That said, we don’t expect this to hinder human hospitality operations. The human element remains essential to restaurant success. However, hosts’ interactions with guests can be better suited to create memorable dining experiences that keep guests coming back.
Loyalty programs
More restaurants are looking for ways to boost guest loyalty and retention for their dining concepts. Dubai-based Bla Bla, a 21-in-1 dining concept, has been considering a restaurant loyalty program to increase guest engagement and retention.
While we’ve seen many coffeeshops launch loyalty programs in 2024 across the Middle East and the world, in 2025 we expect restaurants to jump on the bandwagon.
Research shows a 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by 25% to up to 95%.
Restaurant loyalty programs can help concepts retain guests, boost engagement, generate analytics, and increase restaurant sales.
QR codes and digital menus
Another technology trend in the restaurant industry that’s been gaining interest and will continue to in 2025 is QR codes for digital menus.
Research shows 63% of dining concepts in the United States plan to invest in QR code technology for their menus, ordering, and payments.
QR codes and digital menus allow concepts to create limited-time menu items, create fear-of-missing-out (FOMO), among other benefits.
For example, one trend that’s been getting a lot of hype is healthy menus and vegetarian menus.
Restaurants can cater to guests’ needs by creating digital menus offering healthy choices, vegetarian or vegan items, based on their needs.
Advanced point-of-sale systems
A restaurant tech trend food concepts will be focused on in 2025 is abandoning legacy point-of-sale (POS) systems.
Today, the restaurant POS isn’t just for collecting online and offline payments. It’s much more than that. Especially when integrated with restaurant reservation management systems like Servme.
POS integrations can help restaurants uncover guest behavior such as previous order, favorite dishes, along with top dishes sold…etc.
Further reading: 7+ POS Systems for Restaurants & F&B Operators to Help Grow Business
Websites and SEO
More concepts will be building their websites, adding their menus, and using search engine optimization (SEO) to rank on Google.
SEO is important for any business and website that aims to generate organic, unpaid traffic.
We expect more restaurants to create websites that showcase their venues, locations, menus, and other criteria. Websites are great for building authority and can increase online reservations.
For example, concepts using Servme can easily add their reservation widget and collect online deposits and prepayments via their website.
AI in F&B
Another interesting restaurant technology trend we expect to see more of in 2025 is the use of AI in restaurants.
It’s no surprise that artificial intelligence (AI) has become a part of our everyday lives. Restaurants aren’t going to be an exception. The most common use for AI thus far continues to be chatbots on social media platforms and on websites.
Self-order kiosks
While more common among fast food and quick service restaurants (QSR), self-service kiosks are among our restaurant technology trends for 2025.
This QSR technology trend means guests can use touchscreens to place their orders and personalize their orders based on their preferences.
Self-service or self-order kiosks speed up ordering, reduce wait times, and can mean more accurate orders. Many kiosks offer paying at the kiosk, reducing the visits to the cash register. They also mean fewer delays till servers come back with the check, which can improve table turnover rates.
AR and VR dining experiences
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are expected to play a big role in years to come, transforming the dining experience.
AR can enhance menus with 3D visualizations and interactive elements, while VR can create immersive dining experiences and offer unique training opportunities for staff.
AR and VR can offer more opportunities for personalization, engagement, and experiential dining for guests. They can attract curious guests and boost retention in the competitive hospitality industry.
Predicative inventory management
Last but not least, predictive inventory management is a key restaurant tech trend for 2025. By leveraging data analytics and machine learning, restaurants can forecast demand, optimize inventory levels, and minimize waste.
Predictive analytics analyze historical data, seasonal trends, and even weather patterns to guide purchasing decisions. This data-driven approach reduces waste, lowers costs, and aligns with sustainability goals.
It’s important you use restaurant inventory management software that meets your needs and your growth strategy. Supy is one such example.
Final words
Keeping up with restaurant industry technology trends helps you cut through the noise so you can deliver memorable experiences that keep guests coming back.
As you can see, trends are continuously shifting, with technology becoming part of an industry that’s been known for its ‘human experience.’
However, in the restaurant industry, technology isn’t an enemy. It’s an opportunity to streamline, boost revenues and profitability, and ultimately grow.
Nada Sobhi
Operations
