2019 was a year of growing pains — and opportunity — for the restaurant industry. The rise of AI-outfitted drive-thrus, robot-enabled kitchens, autonomous delivery vehicles and growing frustration with third-party delivery aggregators further fueled restaurant hunger for tech. An unprecedented labor shortage and rising minimum wages heaped extra pressure on operators, and the market will continue to carry this burden into 2020, analysts predict.
Total customer traffic is also expected to be flat, with QSRs increasing customer traffic by 1.6%, David Portalatin, VP and food industry advisor at The NPD Group, told Restaurant Dive.
