This article was originally written for and published by Foodservice Consultant, FCSI’s (Foodservice Consultants Society International) trade magazine, for which Marius writes a monthly column.
Hey Young World,
About once a year, someone suggests I write about AI and hospitality again. Which makes sense, of course. Artificial intelligence keeps evolving, and every update seems to promise a smarter, more efficient, more personal experience.
Still, I sometimes wonder if we are just circling back to the same idea: that technology can finally replace the human intuition that hospitality has always relied on.
The latest wave of AI promises hyper-personalization. Algorithms analyze purchase history, weather, time of day, and who knows what else to suggest exactly what guests might want to eat. In fast food and delivery, that kind of tailoring makes sense. For regular restaurants, it feels a little less revolutionary. After all, good waiters, chefs and restaurateurs have been doing this long before AI was even a fever dream. They know their regulars not because of data, but because of conversation, memory and empathy.
Then there are chatbots and virtual assistants that now handle customer inquiries, reservations and feedback. They respond instantly and never forget a detail. There is real value in that. Especially with staff shortages, automating the predictable parts of communication frees up human staff to focus on the unpredictable ones, which are the moments that actually make hospitality feel human.
The creepier side of personalization
So far, so good. But then comes the creepier side of personalization, such as facial recognition systems that identify returning customers and pull up their usual order. The idea of being “recognized” by a camera may sound convenient, but it feels less like being remembered and more like being monitored. Hospitality has always been about being known. The question is whether it still feels that way when the knowing is done by an algorithm.
And then there is the risk that efficiency replaces empathy altogether. A restaurant might perfectly optimize its staffing, energy use and menu with AI, yet still fail to make anyone feel welcome. Automation works wonders for consistency, but not necessarily for connection.
None of this means AI has no place in hospitality. It can help solve real problems, from reducing food waste to managing energy use to improving response times. The issue is balance. Just because something can be automated does not mean it should be. The industry’s oldest challenge has always been the same: how to deliver a personal experience at scale. AI will not make that challenge disappear. It will just change what “personal” means.
Perhaps that is why I keep returning to the image of the excavated snack bar in Pompeii. Look at its counter, jars and serving trays, and you will notice that it resembles a modern snack bar more than you might expect. Two thousand years later, the tools have changed, but the essence of hospitality has not. People still want to be welcomed, fed and remembered, and they can tell when those gestures are genuine.
So yes, AI can personalize your menu, take your reservation and predict what you might order next. But whether you will actually want to come back depends on something much harder to automate: how it feels to be served by someone who sees you, not just your data.
One Love,
Marius