OPERATIONS TECH VS HOSPITALITY: PARADOX OR PARTNERSHIP?
more.” Flynn has a wise caveat for incor- porating technology into foodservice: “As long as you use technology to your favor, it will work for you, not against you.” Her main tip for making that happen is “having someone know how to oper- ate [the technology] on the back end,” she says. “If it’s someone who’s not al- ways available, that’s a pitfall. Someone always has to know the program.” As ordering, delivery and food-mak- ing tech gets more advanced, not to mention artificial intelligence (AI) in everything from menu development for chefs to training in K-12 schools , “it’s evolving itself to be more us- er-friendly,” Flynn points out. Even so, “In a chef’s world, AI can do so much, but you can’t take some- one’s creativity and their education, their studies and their life experience: You can’t put that heart and love into a robot. When chefs know they have that passion, they know they’re not going to be replaceable.” TECH 101 ON CAMPUS Aramark’s college and university arm has done extensive research into what makes the students they serve tick, and nostalgia is a word that keeps popping up everywhere, including on the show floor at the National Restaurant Show this past spring. Aramark Collegiate Hospitality’s re- sponse their findings, in a statement, is to meet students “where they are this fall: Collegiate Hospitality blends high- tech efficiency with tangible, wellness focused programs to bridge these needs while also creating classic, in-person opportunities for a human touch.” ‘THEY’LL NEVER CALL’ Aramark Collegiate Hospitality’s Jon- athan Duffy gives the example of how daily communications have profoundly shifted: “If we have a phone number for dining services, they’ll never call. We know students want to interact with us not with a telephone but with a chat.” He predicts further automation over time, as the non-automated versions of service prove to be less consistent and/ or slower. Delivery robots, in particular, are perfect for college campuses, with their “closed ecosystem” and acces- sibility features including ramps and
Still, it’s important to Duffy that the human element isn’t lost. “We feel very strongly that in a residential dining fa- cility, or if you take it more to a retail experience, you have to move that hu- man interaction from the moment of ordering to the moment of hand-off,” he says. “We absolutely changed our name to include the word ‘hospitality’ not by accident. It’s about experience and humans as much as it is about food. That human experience will resonate much more than just putting food into your mouth.”
wide sidewalks. In terms of delivery, at least on col- lege campuses, robots are proving to do it better, Duffy says. “Tech has met the human alternative and they are closer to parity. But on the production side of food, humans are still better at that if you take everything into account.” “I think it will evolve with special- ization,” Duffy continues. “We’re le- veraging AI in a couple ways right now in the college dining world, for menu planning, for allergen info and a chat- bot named Sam.”
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