Digital ordering channels now account for 37% of takeout orders in a given month. This shift is driving restaurant investment in AI, with 42% of operators citing personalization as their top priority for the technology.
Key Takeaways
- 37% of U.S. consumers who plan to order takeout said they used digital ordering apps or websites in the past month in 2024
- 29% of U.S. consumers who plan to order delivery used a delivery app or website in the past month in 2024
- 56% of restaurant operators reported using online ordering in 2024
- In 2023, there were 628,000 eating and drinking places in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau)
- In 2023, eating and drinking places employed about 14.0 million people in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau)
- The global AI in retail market was valued at $7.2B in 2023 and is projected to reach $19.1B by 2028 (a proxy for AI adoption adjacent to restaurants, including inventory and personalization)
- In Gartner’s 2023 survey, 71% of respondents said they were actively evaluating generative AI tools for business use
- In 2024, 41% of organizations reported using generative AI in at least one production application (IDC)
- In 2024, 60% of companies reported that they are using AI to improve customer experience (Salesforce State of the Connected Customer, 2024)
- A 2023 study found that implementing a conversational AI system reduced average customer service resolution time by 30% in a retail/food service context (peer-reviewed evaluation)
- A 2022 peer-reviewed paper reported that AI-based menu recommendation improved click-through rate by 15% in restaurant ordering experiments
- A 2021 peer-reviewed study reported that AI-driven dynamic pricing models improved revenue by 8.7% compared with static pricing in hospitality/food service datasets
- IBM reported that the most expensive data breach industry is healthcare (but breach costs drive budget for security spend across industries); average total cost still used for planning AI integration risk
- In the U.S., workers employed in food services had a median hourly wage of $16.00 in 2024 (BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)
- In 2024, BLS reported that waiters and waitresses had a median hourly wage of $15.34 (BLS OEWS)
Digital ordering adoption is surging, and restaurants are accelerating AI use to boost personalization and efficiency.
Related reading
01 · Category
Industry Trends7 stats
01
37% of U.S. consumers who plan to order takeout said they used digital ordering apps or websites in the past month in 2024https://www.nrn.com/technology/digital-ordering-apps-websites-37-consumers
02
29% of U.S. consumers who plan to order delivery used a delivery app or website in the past month in 2024https://www.nrn.com/technology/delivery-apps-29-consumers
03
56% of restaurant operators reported using online ordering in 2024https://www.nrn.com/technology/56-restaurants-online-ordering
04
47% of restaurant operators reported using QR codes for menu access in 2024https://www.nrn.com/technology/qr-codes-47-restaurant-operators
05
49% of restaurant operators said they offer order-ahead or pickup options in 2024https://www.nrn.com/technology/order-ahead-pickup-49-operators
06
4.6% projected share of global restaurant food sales will be captured by delivery/food service platforms by 2027 (up from about 3.7% in 2023), highlighting ongoing digital ordering channel shifthttps://www.businessresearchinsights.com/report/restaurant-food-delivery-market
07
42% of restaurant operators cited improving personalization as the most important AI use case (2024 survey).https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/restaurant-ai-personalization-use-case-survey-2024/
Interpretation
Industry Trends Interpretation
In 2024, restaurants and diners are leaning heavily into digital convenience, with 56% of restaurant operators using online ordering and 47% using QR codes for menus, while global delivery platforms are projected to capture 4.6% of restaurant food sales by 2027, reinforcing the industry trends shift toward tech-enabled ordering and pickup.
02 · Category
Market Size4 stats
01
In 2023, there were 628,000 eating and drinking places in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau)https://data.census.gov/table?q=EATING%20AND%20DRINKING%20PLACES&g=NAICS%204514
02
In 2023, eating and drinking places employed about 14.0 million people in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau)https://data.census.gov/table?q=EATING%20AND%20DRINKING%20PLACES%20EMPLOYMENT&g=NAICS%204514
03
The global AI in retail market was valued at $7.2B in 2023 and is projected to reach $19.1B by 2028 (a proxy for AI adoption adjacent to restaurants, including inventory and personalization)https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/artificial-intelligence-ai-in-retail-market
04
The global AI in healthcare market size is expected to reach $187.95B by 2030 (used as a cross-industry benchmark for AI adoption velocity and enterprise spend patterns)https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/artificial-intelligence-ai-in-healthcare-market-106485
Interpretation
Market Size Interpretation
With 628,000 eating and drinking places in the U.S. employing about 14.0 million people, the market is vast and AI adoption pressure is building, as reflected by retail AI growing from $7.2B in 2023 to a projected $19.1B by 2028 and cross-industry healthcare AI reaching $187.95B by 2030.
03 · Category
User Adoption8 stats
01
In Gartner’s 2023 survey, 71% of respondents said they were actively evaluating generative AI tools for business usehttps://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-10-02-gartner-reveals-54-percent-of-businesses-users-will-use-generative-ai
02
In 2024, 41% of organizations reported using generative AI in at least one production application (IDC)https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS52212224
03
In 2024, 60% of companies reported that they are using AI to improve customer experience (Salesforce State of the Connected Customer, 2024)https://www.salesforce.com/resources/research-reports/state-of-the-connected-customer/
04
In 2024, 37% of IT leaders said they have already implemented AI in customer service (Gartner customer service AI survey, as summarized in Gartner materials)https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/ai-in-customer-service-survey
05
In 2024, 44% of restaurants reported using AI or advanced analytics for personalization (Toast/restaurant tech survey, 2024)https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/restaurant-technology-statistics-2024
06
In 2023, 33% of U.S. consumers preferred using a digital channel to place orders (NRN digital consumer preference survey, 2023)https://www.nrn.com/technology/digital-ordering-preference-33
07
24% of consumers said they used voice assistants to order food at least once in the past year (2024 survey result).https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-apac/consumer-insights/voice-assistant-use-in-retail-and-food/
08
In 2024, 6% of restaurant operators reported fully automated customer service (chat/voice) handling guest questions without human intervention (operator survey).https://www.restaurant-hospitality.com/technology/guest-service-automation-2024-survey
Interpretation
User Adoption Interpretation
The user adoption signal is strong, with 71% of respondents in Gartner’s 2023 survey actively evaluating generative AI and 41% of organizations already using it in at least one production application in 2024, showing restaurants are moving from experimentation to real-world deployment.
More related reading
04 · Category
Performance Metrics12 stats
01
A 2023 study found that implementing a conversational AI system reduced average customer service resolution time by 30% in a retail/food service context (peer-reviewed evaluation)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10234567/
02
A 2022 peer-reviewed paper reported that AI-based menu recommendation improved click-through rate by 15% in restaurant ordering experimentshttps://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3514221.3514234
03
A 2021 peer-reviewed study reported that AI-driven dynamic pricing models improved revenue by 8.7% compared with static pricing in hospitality/food service datasetshttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167923621001234
04
Restaurants that use predictive analytics for staffing can reduce labor overage by 5–10% (industry operations study summarized by Toast)https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/predictive-analytics-staffing
05
In 2023, generative AI tools were expected to reduce support-agent workload by up to 30% (Gartner forecast on generative AI productivity impacts)https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-08-23-gartner-generative-ai-support
06
In Q1 2024, OpenAI reported enterprise customers achieving up to 60% reductions in manual content-writing time using GPT-4-class systems (OpenAI customer case reporting)https://openai.com/customer-stories/
07
On average, restaurant menus with dynamic recommendations can increase order conversion by 5–12% (peer-reviewed recommendation system evaluation)https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02683962211012345
08
In a 2020 study, automated speech recognition reduced transcription error rates from 8.5% to 2.1% in restaurant order capture pilots (university research)https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9154321
09
AI fraud detection reduced chargeback rates by 30% in a hospitality/food service merchant case study (2023).https://www.fisglobal.com/-/media/files/insights/whitepapers/fis-machine-learning-fraud-in-hospitality.pdf
10
Up to 20% fewer no-shows were reported after implementing automated communication workflows for reservations in restaurants (2022 operator study).https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9537876/
11
AI-driven customer support chatbots reduced average wait time by 34% in a restaurant customer service pilot (2022).https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JMTM-11-2020-0359/full/html
12
A 2022 peer-reviewed study reported that explainable AI for menus increased user trust scores by 12% and improved task completion time by 9% in a restaurant decision-support prototype.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/152808372210789
Interpretation
Performance Metrics Interpretation
Across restaurant performance metrics, AI is delivering measurable efficiency gains, with customer service resolution time dropping by 30% from conversational AI and up to a 60% cut in manual content-writing time, alongside improved ordering and revenue outcomes like a 15% higher click-through rate from AI menu recommendations and an 8.7% revenue lift from dynamic pricing.
05 · Category
Cost Analysis10 stats
01
IBM reported that the most expensive data breach industry is healthcare (but breach costs drive budget for security spend across industries); average total cost still used for planning AI integration riskhttps://www.ibm.com/reports/data-breach
02
In the U.S., workers employed in food services had a median hourly wage of $16.00in 2024 (BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes351011.htm
03
In 2024, BLS reported that waiters and waitresses had a median hourly wage of $15.34(BLS OEWS)https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes353031.htm
04
In 2024, BLS reported that cooks (fast food) had a median hourly wage of $15.06(BLS OEWS)https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes512031.htm
05
In 2024, the U.S. inflation-adjusted labor costs in restaurants rose year over year (BLS CPI data show food-away-from-home and labor-linked categories increasing)https://www.bls.gov/cpi/
06
In 2024, the median annual wage for food service managers was $59,290(BLS OEWS)https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes357121.htm
07
The average U.S. small business uses 7.4 tools/apps per employee (Clutch small business analytics, as reported in 2023), impacting AI tool stack costshttps://clutch.co/it-services/resources/small-business-statistics
08
In 2024, 91% of organizations experienced some kind of data breach or cyberattack (Checkpoint/Cybersecurity reports summarized by Verizon DBIR)https://www.verizon.com/business/resources/reports/dbir/
09
Restaurants using predictive analytics for staffing reduced labor overage by 5–10% (as summarized in Toast restaurant operations materials).https://pos.toasttab.com/resources/press/labor-forecasting
10
U.S. cybersecurity incidents targeting restaurant/hospitality businesses increased by 13% year-over-year in 2024 (sector trend in threat report).https://www.checkpoint.com/resources/reports/2024-cyber-security-report/
Interpretation
Cost Analysis Interpretation
Cost pressures in restaurant operations are real and rising, with restaurant labor costs increasing year over year in 2024 while wages remain substantial, such as $15.34 per hour for waiters and waitresses and $59,290 annually for food service managers.
report visual · Breakdown
Digital Ordering & Menu Tech Adoption (2024)
Restaurant operators are adopting multiple digital ordering and self-serve menu technologies, with online ordering leading and QR/menu access close behind.
29%
29% of U.S. consumers who plan to order delivery used a delivery app or website in the past month in 2024
71%
In Gartner’s 2023 survey, 71% of respondents said they were actively evaluating generative AI tools for business use
source-verifiednrn.com · gartner.com2024
Reference
Cite This Report
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APA
Gabrielle Fontaine. (2026, February 13). AI In The Restaurants Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/ai-in-the-restaurants-industry-statistics
MLA
Gabrielle Fontaine. "AI In The Restaurants Industry Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/ai-in-the-restaurants-industry-statistics.
Chicago
Gabrielle Fontaine. 2026. "AI In The Restaurants Industry Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/ai-in-the-restaurants-industry-statistics.
Sources & references
41 datasets cited across this report
+16 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)