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London’s Ham Yard hosted this year’s HOSTECH conference, which brought together the industry’s leading tech leaders. The event showcased the solutions helping hospitality operators achieve sector-leading performance.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and data were among the day’s themes, as were loyalty programmes and strategies to drive demand. The event kicked off with a presentation from KFC’s Jatin Chandwani, Chief Technology Officer for the UK and Ireland. Jatin shared the quick service restaurant (QSR) chain’s journey to adopt AI.
The agenda also included panels and keynotes featuring some of the industry’s biggest operators, all of whom are Fourth Customers. Stefan Beavis from The Restaurant Group joined a panel discussing the technology challenges multi-brand operators face. Arslan Sharif of PizzaExpress was among those discussing digital tools to support omnichannel strategies and boost loyalty, and Comptoir’s Nicole Goodwin featured on a panel discussing data-driven results and protecting privacy.
Fourth’s CTO, Christian Berthelsen, joined a panel that included Marks & Spencer’s Alicia Thompson, Guy Latchem from Moto Motorway Services, and David Carey of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. This article summarises the key points of their discussion, which focused on the role back-of-house technology can play in helping operators model routes to growth and maximise margins.
Unsurprisingly for a group that included a range of operators and a technology provider, each panellist faced slightly different challenges. Still, the rising cost of labour and the need to deploy staff where they could be of most value were common themes throughout the discussion.
When asked about their approach to maximising back-of-house operations and leveraging technology to thrive rather than simply survive, each expert had a slightly different take.
“We split our spend between enhancing tech and essential tech,” Moto’s Guy Latchem explained. “We have contractual commitments to maintain brand tech, which is essential. Enhancing technologies included things like automation, AI and mobile.” He estimated that around 60% of the motorway service operator’s tech spend was reactive – aimed at fixing existing problems – while the remaining spend was proactive, designed to encourage growth and boost efficiency.
It’s a divide David Carery of Popeyes couldn’t relate to. His chain is predominantly proactive. Popeyes has only been in the UK for two years, so it doesn’t have much data, which can be limiting. “We’ve also had the nice problem of being busier than expected,” David noted. This means the focus has been on technology that can solve the problems they’ve encountered along the way.
Alicia is still relatively new in the role of M&S Director of Hospitality. The choice for her was between investing in growth and standing still to get back-of-house in order. But she’s been able to do a bit of both, educating the rest of the business while trialling digital cafes and kiosks. “For the first digital kiosk, the tech stack wasn’t very strong. We’ve learned a lot, and we’ll be more proactive about taking people on that journey next year.”
AI was the elephant in the room, and all of the panellists agreed they were exploring its potential. “It’s been really helpful for forecasting and stock replenishment,” Alicia explained. “But we still only use it on core products, not menu items, and it takes a fair bit of analyst work. We want to use it for more.”
Guy revealed that the Moto property team had used AI to design new sites and that the HR team found lots of value in CoPilot, though he admitted to being sceptical about that. “The gold standard is having your own AI built specifically for your business, but we’re not there yet.” He mused. “In the meantime, we’ve been working on our own data.” Which he expects to need when Moto is in a place to develop its own AI.
Christian had some advice for him, “Lean heavily on vendors. I see the millions we’re spending on development; most operators couldn’t justify that.”
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AI still feels like a huge undertaking for many. “There are three fears that hold people back from adopting it,” Christian explained, “The fear of how it’s going to work and if it’s safe, the fear of getting left behind, and then the fear of adoption. How do I get people to buy in?”
He believes that adoption isn’t the issue many management teams think it is, and the panel agreed wholeheartedly. When Popeyes implemented AI ordering at its Northampton drive-through, the team was shocked by how quickly staff and customers took to it. “It is taking 98% of drive-through orders now,” David said. It’s trained to pass certain orders to staff members, for example, if a customer mentions allergies.”
He did point out that the Rotherham rollout of the same tech wasn’t quite as smooth. The customers’ tendency to order “Chicken and Chips” – not strictly speaking a menu item – caused the system some confusion until the model was retrained.
M&S was also surprised by how well customers got on with the technology in their digital cafes and kiosks. “The average age of our customers is 55,” Alicia explained, “We weren’t sure how well it would go, but customers are comfortable with it.”
“The first day is always the worst day,” Christian said of initial implementation, “After that, it’s going to learn and get better. In a few weeks, the team goes from ‘OK, I’ll try this’ to ‘I’m relying on it to give me a good starting point’. Trust builds up quickly.”
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