How AI-Driven Virtual Waiters Can Address the Labor Shortage and Inflation

It’s hard to believe that restaurants fortunate enough to survive the pandemic are now facing crippling threats to their business' existence - labor shortages and inflation.  As things have opened, patrons are swarming restaurants.  Restaurateurs cannot keep up with the surge in demand, while their customers are hit with higher menu prices, sometimes by 10 percent. 

Labor ShortagesWhen shutdowns started in March 2020, restaurants laid off workers; the problem facing restaurateurs is the unemployed from yesteryear are not resurfacing to take vacant jobs today.  Many factors drive this: expanded unemployment benefits, desire to leave the restaurant industry, lack of available daycare, fear of Covid, or social unrest.  Big picture stats shows that the labor shortage won’t end soon as US birth rates have declined by four percent since 2019, and up to 40 percent of Boomers are leaving the workforce.

Arguably the most significant problem driving the labor shortage is…