Top 10 Restaurant Tech Stories of 2024: Innovation, Insights & Industry Game-Changers
10) Why Restaurant Brands Are Rethinking Their Tech Strategies in 2024
With rising costs, labor shortages, and evolving customer expectations, restaurants are reassessing their tech stacks. In this column, Kevin Jaskolka, SVP, Marketing, Checkmate, details the challenges and opportunities that come with adapting digital strategies in a fast-changing environment.
9) How Starbucks is Adapting to a ‘Challenging Operating Environment’
In Q2 Starbucks saw “a mid-teens percent order incompletion rate” within the Mobile Order & Pay (MOP) channel. Customers cited long wait times and product unavailability for not completing their order.
8) Steak n Shake Deploys Biometric Check In
Adopting PopID’s industry-leading biometric check-in and checkout system allows for a faster, easier, and more personalized customer experience for this QSR.
From Jersey Mike’s groundbreaking IT advancements, to Dine Brand's new POS at 1,500 locations to Pizza Factory’s franchise-driven transformation, see how this year’s honorees are driving restaurant tech innovation and redefining industry standards.
6) Restaurant Tech Takeaways from NRF 2024: Retail’s Big Show
Robotics, Amazon Pay, and practical AI solutions caught the eyes of restaurant tech industry thought leaders at the National Retail Federation's Big Show.
5) HT Talks Tech: Southern Classic Chicken Doubles Down on Drive Thru
In the HT Talks Tech series, HT’s editors catch up with an operator to discuss their tech challenges and solutions. In this installment, HT caught up with Southern Classic Chicken’s VP of Brand Operations Tom Gerdes to talk about its new drive-thru prototype and its future tech plans.
4) 2024 POS Software Trends: Vendors Give A Glimpse of New Features Coming in 2024
In this companion article to HT’s 2024 POS Software Trends Survey, POS Software vendors recap their 2023 accomplishments, most innovative features and detail their 2024 plans.
3) 2024 Customer Engagement Technology Study: Unlocking Loyalty
HT's proprietary research studies are consistently among the most-read stories of the year and for good reason. Fresh data from HT’s annual survey of hotel & restaurant customers reveals how the right tech solutions create loyal customers who are eager to return — and are willing to spend more.
2) 2024 POS Software Trends Study: Next-Level Integration
As POS software continues to evolve and adapt to new payment methods, fresh ordering channels, and the rise of real-time data and generative AI, HT surveyed top restaurant tech leaders to learn: restaurant POS purchasing plans for 2024; business drivers impacting POS upgrades. For the latest insights check out the recently published 2025 POS Software Trends Study.
1) 2024 Restaurant Technology Study: Accelerating Intelligence
HT’s 26th annual Restaurant Technology Study is once again the most-read restaurant tech story of the year. This year’s study demonstrates that operators are applying that human-digital hybrid to current challenges (including rising costs, intense competition, and the need to hire and train more workers) and to exploit opportunities such as speed of service.