Top 12 technology stories of 2023

Technology was one of the major trends impacting onsite foodservice over the past year as operators saw tech’s growth in the commercial foodservice sector making an impact in operational efficiencies and providing a promising solution to a challenge facing the entire industry—a labor shortage.

In the onsite dining world, the higher education segment seemed to be at the forefront, not only with its now almost routine expansion of the use of food delivery robots but in opening automated retail venues and ghost kitchens. Automated retail was also a trend in healthcare, where it promises to provide a solution to the traditional problem of how to serve evening and night staff with quality foodservice at a manageable cost, while the corporate dining market was looking to various automated service solutions to provide dining service to a hybrid workforce that can no longer be counted on to show up five days a week. Meanwhile, the entire industry was looking at tech solutions to help manage waste and make more efficient use of increasingly expensive product.

Over this past year, FM has covered the various initiatives undertaken by onsite dining providers to leverage tech-oriented solutions, and here are a dozen examples...