5 tech things: Autonomous store debuts in time for NBA All-Star festivities in Salt Lake City

In this special edition of its 5 Things series, Food Management highlights five recent technology-related developments affecting the foodservice world.

Here’s your list for today:

Sodexo Live! Is debuting autonomous store technology from vendor AiFi at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City just in time for the NBA All-Star events the facility will host February 17-19, when guests will be able to use the autonomous store during the three-day NBA Crossover fan experience. The move represents AiFi’s debut in a convention center setting and the store, called Salt Shaker Grab-and-Go, will be available for all meetings, events and conferences in the facility, allowing shoppers to enter the store, make their selections from among the pastries, sandwiches, soups, coffee and other quick-serve items created by Sodexo Live!’s culinary team, then walk out without having to wait in any lines through the use of AiFi's AI-powered computer vision technology..

Read more: Sodexo Live! Debuts First AiFi Autonomous Store in a Convention Center Setting at Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City

The University of Notre Dame is partnering with Grubhub and Starship Technologies to introduce robot food delivery on its campus. During the initial launch, food and drinks ordered through the Grubhub app from six campus eateries—Au Bon Pain, Garbanzo, The Gilded Bean, Hagerty Family Cafe, Modern Market and Taco Bell—can be delivered nearly anywhere on campus within minutes by the initial fleet of 30 robots, which is expected to be increased to 50 by spring. The service also works in conjunction with students’ meal plans.

Related:5 things: University sued over food-allergen-related death

Read more: Robot food delivery launches at the University of Notre Dame

Two robots named Mary and Joseph are being used in restaurants at the Masonic Village retirement community in Elizabethtown, Pa, to transport food from the kitchen to tables in the dining room where servers move the plates to the table. Initial tests of the units went so well that the retirement community has budgeted $15,000 per robot to purchase this year, not to replace workers—no servers have lost their jobs since the robots arrived in October for a trial basis—but to make dining better for both residents and the human servers by giving staff more time to engage with residents.

Read more: Here's how senior dining facilities are using robots to cope with a staffing shortage

Related:5 things: Compass North America sees 23% organic revenue increase in Q1

For a video: Robots delivering food in restaurants at Masonic Village

Over the winter break, Penn State Berks Housing & Food Services installed three self-order kiosks at Tully’s Dining Center to streamline the ordering process for customers and workers, following up on the success of Penn State Eats mobile ordering through the Penn State Go app, which began during the fall 2020 semester. “Kiosks are helping us modernize the customer journey by offering quicker service and it allows the customer to not feel rushed or anxious when ordering at a station,” Neil LaGreca, assistant director of housing and food services, said. “The kiosks allow us to fulfill orders at the stations as they come in without juggling in-person and mobile ordering, and it allows our staff to fulfill and keep track of the orders more accurately.”

Read more: Tully’s Dining Center installs self-order kiosks

Generative AI has been utilized to write articles and Tinder messages and create recipes and art of all kinds. Now, it's being used by some restaurant owners without easy access to professional food photography to spit out pictures of food for their digital menus since...well, since a picture is worth thousands of views—and orders! At least according to Grubhub data, which shows that restaurants that add pictures to their menu items receive upwards of 70% more orders and 65% higher sales compared to restaurants that do not.

Read more: Restaurants are now using generative AI to create menu photos that could convince customers to order more

Bonus: How the new generation of AI will impact the restaurant industry

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]