UpMenu CEO Marcin Muras On The Future of The Restaurant Industry

This article is part of Raydiant’s Future of The Restaurant Industry series which interviews top experts on their perspective of technology and trends that are shaping the industry.

The following is an interview we had with Marcin Muras, CEO at UpMenu

Outside of COVID, what have been the most dramatic changes you've seen in the industry over the past 3-5 years?

MM: Putting aside the weird and wonderful world of 2020 which served up COVID-19 with a side dish of recession, the restaurant industry has been in a constant state of evolution over the last five years or so. Back in the old days, you telephoned a restaurant to book a table, you turned up, you ordered from your waiter and then you handed over cold hard cash as payment. Fast forward to the 2000s and things look a lot different. For example, we’re booking online, ordering our food from an app and paying the bill with our watches.

What technology do you believe will have the biggest impact on the restaurant industry over the past 3-5 years?

MM: As time marches on, we’ll see tech taking over a lot more of the hospitality industry simply because restaurants are constantly competing on price which leads to a requirement for technology which will save them money.  Because of this, I see restaurants harnessing tech in a few different ways including:

Robot servers – Some restaurants always use these and we can expect to see more of them.  Robot servers don’t need to be paid, don’t need breaks and don’t take holidays or sick days.

App Evolution – In the future, apps will become a lot more sophisticated in that customers will be able to communicate with the kitchen and all restaurant staff through an app – saving the restaurant time and money.

What's the future of restaurants?

MM: Eating out is a treat and a very traditional social thing so I don’t think that restaurants are going away anytime soon – they will, however, become more automated in order to survive.