Recently, Worldlink Integration Group CEO John Fecteau sat down with Wael Mohammed, EVP of Strategy at Field Nation, to discuss some trends and what’s happening overall in the retail and restaurant space.
The first thing the pair talked about was some interesting changes observed across the Quick Serve Restaurant (QSR) space.
Listen to this quick video discussing 3 ways technology is helping QSRs.
John Fecteau: What changes are you seeing in the restaurant industry?
Wael Mohammed:
And so 65 to 70% of the revenue of quick serve restaurants is happening either in drive-throughs or delivery.
We still see some of the outdoor mini boards out there that are still less appealing, but restaurants, the majority of the QSR chains are catching up with that and then bringing much more appealing digital signage and menus to new generation of outdoor mini boards.
For those that have the demand, expanding the drive-through is really key. We're seeing a lot of advancements when it comes to the technology as it relates to the voice recognition pieces of the outdoor menu board, the interaction part of it where they're interactively reviewing with the shopper or the consumer, what kind of menu they're asking for and reviewing the order.
Then there is a third actually layer that is a little bit more advanced and some QSRs are implementing it and some QSRs are still catching up. But we see that this is going to be a mainstream sometime in the near future, which is AI or the advancements of leveraging personalization and AI technology in the boards.
Beginning from knowing who you are talking to, what's the profile of the car that is in drive-through? Is it a family? How many kids are there, how young these kids are, what kind of a menu that we should put in there? Should we show some kind of an ad that would be appealing for a kid that is in the car? So that AI personalization of the menu, making the menu more appealing or the recommendation more appealing for the car that is in drive-through is an advancement in technology for the next generation.
Stay tuned for more of this conversation as we parse out some of the most interesting pieces of the discussion.