We have been at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago this week. Three days and about 30,000 steps in, here are some of the tech trends that caught our eye on the floor.
Just as we predicted. Well, not really, but voice AI was a big trend this year, and some vendors decided to make the tech a little more approachable by putting old-fashioned landlines in their booths. It made us a little nostalgic. (What’s next? Cash registers at the POS booths?)
These are certainly not a new sight at the Show, but they were as present as ever in 2026. And while they can often seem like more novelty than reality, operators have high hopes for them. Several told us that they think robots will be game-changers for restaurants once costs come down.
Rich Hull, CEO of Miso Robotics, argued that robots aren’t as expensive as some operators think. A Flippy automated fry cook costs $75,000, which can be paid off monthly, plus $3,000 a month for service and software upgrades, roughly what a fast-food chain might pay an employee, he said.