Is Efficiency Replacing Empathy?

The restaurant industry is at a crossroads. While AI and automation are key factors pushing order accuracy to new heights, the hospitality factor is declining, creating a transactional gap, according to Intouch Insight’s 2026 On-Premises Study.

“As automation and the use of AI increases, the human interactions are becoming a premium competitive advantage,” said Sarah Beckett, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Intouch Insight. “The brands that win will use AI to enable human connection, not replace it.

While the industry has shaved 60 seconds off service times compared to last year, operational efficiency isn’t enough, she added. 

“Authentic human connection acts as a powerful buffer for operational friction."

“Authentic human connection acts as a powerful buffer for operational friction. Operators need to use technology as a silent engine to handle the more process-driven aspects of transactions so their staff can focus on being hospitality specialists.”

The most striking data result was the widening transactional gap, Beckett noted. While they saw a massive industry win in speed, shaving a full minute off the 2025 average, and order accuracy to a record 92.7 percent, hospitality markers like the use of "please" and smiling continued to decline. 

“It was also glaring that suggestive selling remains the single largest missed revenue opportunity at a 60.6 percent study-wide rate," said Beckett, adding that when brands are performing low in this category, they’re trading away significant profit for a few extra seconds of speed.

“This is a low-cost revenue lever that requires minimal training and can really make a difference in a brand’s bottom line."

Guests can forgive a slight delay or small error, but they won’t forget feeling ignored.

The report showed a “friendly’ visit” yields a 98.9 percent satisfaction rate, whereas missing a basic greeting, which currently happens to 27.9 percent of guests, makes the experience feel mechanical. She noted that operational failures, like cold food or incorrect orders, remain direct pathways to "Not Satisfied" outcomes, as these errors carry a disproportionate impact on overall ratings.

“Greetings and parting remarks are powerful, low-cost levers for emotional impact. Yet, one in four guests are missing these essential interactions, she said. “In the end, guests can forgive a slight delay or small error, but they won’t forget feeling ignored.”

Among the other findings from the study based on real-time, unannounced mystery shopping visits at 753 locations across 10 leading brands:

• The Manners Decline: Use of the word “please” fell to 29.9 percent, and nearly 22 percent of guests leave without a basic “thank you.” 

• The Cost of Not Friendly: When service moved from “Friendly” to “Not Friendly,” guest satisfaction plummeted from 98.9 percent to 31.2 percent. 

• The Smile Shortage: A smile was observed in only 64.3 percent of visits.

“While staff may be physically present and technically accurate, the absence of a smile or a genuine greeting creates a purely transactional experience,” said Beckett.“This is a threat because as AI handles more functional tasks and more of the ordering experience, guests have higher emotional expectations for their remaining human interactions and the window to deliver those gets shorter and shorter. So it’s critical to maximize the impact of those interactions, as that’s what we see as being the most “memorable” part of the experience time and time again in our studies.”

To encourage staff to be more welcoming and friendly in an authentic manner Beckett suggests operators: 

• Use the benchmark data to show their teams that a friendly interaction results in nearly 68 percent higher satisfaction than a not friendly one. A switch from ‘not friendly’ to ‘friendly’ can make a measurable difference in a customer’s experience.
• Turn mystery shop "misses" into coaching actions that emphasize eye contact and a genuine "thank you" over rigid scripts.
• Celebrate staff who bridge the gap between compliance and service.

Operators need to use technology as a silent engine to handle the more process-driven aspects of transactions so their staff can focus on being hospitality specialists.

Brands should focus on leveraging technology in ways that free up employees to focus on guest engagement such as using AI for order-taking or inventory management allowing staff to step out from behind the counter to engage with guests in the dining room or at the counter, Beckett said.

“Speed isn’t just a metric; it drives satisfaction. If a guest perceives service as ‘Slower Than Expected,’ satisfaction drops from 96.7 percent to 76.9 percent.

You can never know for certain, but if brands continue to prioritize high-speed, high-volume transactions without reinvesting that "saved time" into staff training, the transactional gap will likely widen, she cautioned. 

“We are at a threshold where efficiency is expected, and failing to pivot toward hospitality will only lead towards diminished opportunities for that critical guest engagement.”