Better Tech is proving a boon to small businesses, but it also means the hospitality industry's human workforce is being left behind. The pandemic could end up improving working conditions in restaurants or it could make things worse. But it definitely made restaurants more eager to embrace computers and AI.

Restaurants will trim their menus, phase out cumbersome curbside pickup channels and invest in automation as operators balance labor pressure with off-premise demand, analysts say.

Experts agree that virtual brands (restaurant concepts that live online) and ghost kitchens (the physical locations where food for delivery is prepared) will only get bigger and more popular.

As the labor shortage endures and safety and sanitation remain chief concerns among consumers, robotics and AI emerge as potential solutions. Jim Balis, managing director of CapitalSpring’s Strategic Operations Group, says robotics and automation can reduce liabilities associated with safety and sanitation while automating tasks so that hours and staffing can be reduced.

The restaurant industry has become a more expensive world to operate in, thanks to a bevy of macroeconomic pressures. In turn, prices continue to tick up as brands lean on a willing consumer. Continued inflation and the end of stimulus is going to create a value battleground.

From frying wings to delivering food, robots are being used to shore up labor gaps in the restaurant industry.

In this episode of A Deeper Dive, Jim Balis, managing director with CapitalSpring, joins this week’s episode to talk about overcoming labor and commodity inflation.

CapitalSpring helps fight hunger in Tennessee.