Matt Wampler says restaurants are adopting AI faster than expected, breaking their usual pattern of lagging five years behind other industries. Startups are flooding in with tools for menu optimization, demand forecasting, and kitchen automation. The speed of interest at tech conferences has caught him off guard.
I think the most unexpected thing is just how quickly restaurants are embracing it. You know, restaurants are typically known as sort of Luddites and behind the curve, you know, 5 years behind retail on everything. But when it has come to AI, it's quickly become like the top subject at tech conferences. I mean, you look at all the companies that are popping up that specialize in this. So that has surprised me. You'd think there'd be maybe a little more caution. I'm not saying restaurants are rushing into anything, but the level of interest right out of the gate is surprising.
