While many fast casual and quick service restaurants (QSRs) are embracing tech and AI, there remains a disconnect between how management and front-line staff perceive the success of these investments, according to a new industry report.

“No. 1 was really AI, the fact that 73 per cent of quick service and fast casual brands in (the) U.S. are investing in AI this year. Last year, it was 51 and so it’s a big jump in a year,” Jenifer Kern, chief marketing officer at Qu, a restaurant technology vendor, said in an interview with FoodNX.

“I go to a lot of conferences and I hear a lot of naysayers out on the conference network about AI, but 73 per cent is a significant number.”

Kern was referencing 2026 State of digital & beyond: The restaurant technology benchmark, a report which heard from 168 brands representing 94,000 fast casual and QSR locations in the U.S. It showed 57 per cent of fast casual and 67 per cent of QSRs are reporting less customer traffic.

While the amount of AI adoption is high, uncovering the value of this investment was not so simple for restaurants.

“Only five per cent are saying they’re getting transformational value from (AI adoption), but 33 per cent are saying there’s emerging value. It’s very early, but the investment is there, and I think that’s what was driving up the data around technology investments as well, which were up this year,” she said.

Tech spending up in 2025

These businesses are also boosting the amount of overall tech investment, according to the report.

“One of our trends is, tech spending is increasing despite margin pressures and what we saw is 54 per cent of total brands plan to increase spend on new technology, and that’s up significantly. In past years we haven’t even reported this number because it’s been so low, but this year we felt like it was so big that we needed to report this out,” Kern said.

While the growth in tech spending continues, however, the “digital scale is exposing operational vulnerabilities,” she said, and is bringing on major challenges.

“The top barriers: 55 per cent of brands reported that operational execution is their No. 1 issue when it comes to improving the guest experience, another 37 per cent said fragmented systems and data is one of their biggest challenges. You put those two things together and that alone tells a story.”

‘Disconnect’ between C-suite, front-line workers

When it comes to perceptions around whether a company’s tech stack is working as planned, there are two very different realities, the report states.

“One stat that was that only 53 per cent of CEOs said they don’t believe there’s any major system instability issues affecting their brand, whereas only 17 per cent of non-CEOs said there are no issues affecting our brand. That really showed that there is a disconnect, and that the executives are not fully knowing, seeing and understanding the impact that technology has on the bottom line; on the guest experience.”

So why is there a disconnect within companies?

“There (are) a lot of silos between technology, operations and marketing, with the operations focused more on the in-store experience and more with tech on the impact of when the technology is failing, and they experienced that first-hand with the guests, obviously.”

But for those able to successfully integrate AI into operations, the benefits are clear.

“We have some customers that are using voice AI in the drive-through, and they’re seeing much higher order accuracy rates," she said. "And then just the staff efficiency, that when the teams have systems working with more prediction in them and more accuracy, that they are delivering a better customer experience, which is really what people want."

Many are seeing benefits from using AI for such things as marketing and responding to guest feedback.

When restaurants promise to deliver food in a certain time frame, AI can be deployed to get a more accurate success rate, according to Kern.

“We’re seeing a lot of good strength with being able to predict when the delivery driver is going to be on site. We’ve seen great improvements with that as well, the promise-ready times and the predictive analytics.”

What is the ROI for AI?

While all businesses look for a solid return on investment, for fast casual and QSRs, the numbers aren’t always readily apparent.

“Everyone is front-lining ROI and value right now because we all know that restaurants are being squeezed even more than in the past, and so being able to prove the value in the ROI is really important, and restaurants are really struggling with it.”

“It’s not something that they’ve typically had to do or are accustomed to doing in the past,” she said.

While tech and AI can be a great benefit if done correctly, in the restaurant business, it’s not the most important criteria.

“Just like any sort of service industry, the service you provide your guests is the benchmark of your brand. All restaurants know that their service is going to be the indicator of their future success and their scalability and technology is an enabler to that. We believe the technology should be invisible and that the service gets better because the technology is better,” Kern said.