Editor's Note: This blogpost was first published in August 2020, and has been revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Going out to enjoy a meal with friends and family is a luxury that many of us enjoy and with over 660 thousand restaurants in the US alone, the choices are endless. With so many of us enjoying going out to restaurants, cafes and bars, it is no surprise that the foodservice industry is constantly evolving and changing with the help of Vision AI technology.

Whether it’s an independent business or an international food chain, smart restaurants and cafes around the world are seeing the benefits of adopting vision AI into their businesses.

Here are seven ways that AI is shaking up the traditional foodservice industry.

1. Reduce Food Wastage

It is estimated that US restaurants generate a whopping 22 to 33 million pounds of food waste each year, which as well as being a hefty cost for businesses to spare, has a detrimental impact on the environment. With common problems throughout the industry such as food spoilage, over-preparing, date confusion, overbuying and poor planning, being able to keep track of dates, storage, frequencies and ordering is an easy task to cover using Machine Learning and Vision AI technology.

Through implementing these technologies, chefs and cooks are able to focus their attention to creating fresh dishes while keeping wastage costs low and keeping restaurant owners and managers happy.

2. Health and Safety Standards

Keeping on top of health in safety standards within the food industry is essential for keeping customers and staff safe. With the current climate, being able to monitor cleaning of the restaurant (especially within the kitchen) allows your customers to be rest assured that their food is being prepared safely.

Being able to schedule the cleaning of all touched surfaces with heat mapping technology with meldCX product SAMi* is a breeze. Through anonymous heat mapping, SAMi is able to let your team know when a surface needs to be cleaned through sent notifications for not only the kitchen but also dining areas, cold rooms, bathrooms, and any devices within the restaurant. Ensure that compliance is in line with virtual documentation of when, where and who cleaned certain areas.

3. Unattended POS Transactions

Like retail, restaurants and cafes can also take advantage of unattended POS transactions and transform the way they take orders and process payments. Going cashierless not only provides a safer environment - especially in a post-COVID-19 world, but they also allow the customer to quickly and easily order on their own terms, making changes to their orders without any fuss.

4. Provide Operational Insights

Vision AI can not only ensure health and safety standards and provide cashierless transactions, it can also help provide operational insights into your business and your customers. Through using vision AI, owners and managers can understand their customer demographics, popular areas within that environment as well as get a deeper insight into rush times.

Viana a product by meldCX, allows restaurant owners to measure how their customers interact within the space, providing real-time, anonymized data without the need to replace existing technology.

5. Increase accuracy

In 2019, Burger King reported a loss of $12 million due to inaccuracies at the front counter. Whether it’s using too much or too little of an ingredient in a dish, incorrect orders or errors in the payment process, small inaccuracies over time are costing restaurants millions of dollars.

Incorporating vision AI tools with the use of anonymized smart cameras as well as cashierless transactions, helps management oversee inner workings and keep regularity. In turn, this allows restaurants to keep their losses at a low while also increasing customer and employee satisfaction.

6. Reduce time to serve

Along with increased accuracy, vision AI also helps reduce the average time to serve for every customer that will step into the restaurant. Without having to fuss over other factors that may interfere, chefs and staff are able to quickly and accurately provide the customers with their meal before sending them on their way.

7. Increase Customer Satisfaction

Customers are the center of the success of any great restaurant, cafe, or bar. Through using vision AI technology, customers can enjoy a higher level of satisfaction knowing that they are in safe hands with decreased errors, reduced time to serve, and the ability to customize their meals and dining experience.

Wanting to learn more about how vision AI can help transform your business? Book a live one-on-one demo with one of our product experts!

This article is an installment of our Future Vision series, where we tackle insights on Vision AI disruption across industries.

*meldCX has a pending provisional application, Australian Provisional Patent Application 2020901795. meldCX SAMi™ is our proprietary technology that utilizes touch-enabled devices and computer vision solutions to ensure cleaning compliance of surfaces.