Consumers Welcome Some Restaurant Automation, Reject Others

9 Min Read By MRM Staff

Operators must weigh guest acceptance while making strategic decisions about integrating automation at many restaurant touch points, according to Software Advice’s 2024 Automated Customer Experience Survey. More than half (55 percent) of global consumers say automated food preparation is unacceptable for both quick service and table service restaurants, while nearly half (49 percent) say they’re likely to order food through an artificial intelligence tool, such as a chatbot or drive-thru. Some diners are more open to robot servers at quick service restaurants (30 percent) and table service (10 percent), but are still in the minority.

Among the report highlights:

Most consumers (67 percent) say human-centered customer service at restaurants is very important, compared to only 31 percent saying the same of retail and grocery stores. A majority (72 percent) of consumers are already loyal users of automated technologies such as self-checkout, curbside pickup, and contactless…