The 2026 National Restaurant Association Show took place from May 16 to May 19. The four-day event drew more than 55,000 foodservice professionals to McCormick Place in Chicago. This year’s event featured 2,300 vendor exhibits across 720,000 square feet of expo space.
We sent our own team to cover as much ground as possible. We all got in a lot of steps.
We got to see the latest in restaurant technology and innovation, we got a really strong sense of current restaurant industry trends, and we got a glimpse at where things are headed. And of course, we met all kinds of awesome people and ate all kinds of amazing food along the way.
So what are people buzzing about across our industry? We asked the Back of House team to share a few of their observations from this year’s National Restaurant Association Show.
Our Attendees
- Ana Canenguez, Partnership/Vendors
- Dan Durkin, Consultant – Events/Staffing
- Hilary Young, Director of Marketing
- Marylise Trépanier, Consultant – Sales & Marketing/AI
- Spencer Michiel, Consultant – Operations/POS
Our 5 Biggest Takeaways From the 2026 National Restaurant Association Conference
The Utility Show associated with this year’s National Restaurant Association Show featured a tattoo artist. Attendees were invited to sit for a free tattoo right there onsite. Spencer was tempted, but ultimately did not return home with any new ink. If he had, that would obviously have been a pretty big takeaway.
Maybe next year.
Until then, here’s what we heard and saw at the 2026 National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago.
1. The AI Bandwagon Is Bigger Than Ever
Ana told us, “AI was easily the biggest trend at the National Restaurant Association conference this year.”
Hilary also pointed out, “Most of the tech partners we saw there, including many of our marketplace vendors, showed us how they’ve been incorporating AI capabilities into their platforms to enhance automations for operators.”
“There were lots of POS companies touting their AI capabilities all over their banners,” Dan observed. “Companies are tagging those two letters onto everything. I asked one POS company how they were incorporating AI and they said it was mostly around predicting future sales and staffing needs.”
Ana added, “Nearly every tech company was promoting AI capabilities tied to automation, forecasting, labor optimization, and operations.”
2. You Can Call Me AI
Ana also highlighted the number of AI-powered voice answering services she saw at this year’s show. She observed, “AI phone answering solutions are becoming increasingly common.”
Spencer also noted this trend, pointing out, “AI Voice was well represented in the tech area at NRA, almost too well. There will be intense competition among these companies, and only the strong will survive.”
That survival will only be made harder as some of the bigger players in the industry begin to incorporate AI phone answering systems into their own technology. As Ana pointed out, “Several vendors mentioned that it’s a relatively easy feature to build into existing platforms, which could quickly saturate the category.”
3. All-In-Ones Are the Toast of the Town
In fact, this points to a broader trend in the restaurant tech industry. Hilary noted, “These tech platforms are starting to assume that most operators want an all-in-one solution versus having multiple subscriptions to different platforms.”
Few companies at this year’s show embodied this restaurant industry trend quite like Toast.
Ana pointed out, “Toast continued to have a massive presence and clearly invested heavily in branding and visibility throughout the show.” The POS provider continues to expand its capabilities and further its reach as an all-inclusive platform for data analytics, marketing, operations management, and more.
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Of course, plenty of other POS brands displayed similar ambitions at this year’s show. Ana noted, “Many vendors are moving toward all-in-one platforms, focusing on consolidated solutions and stronger integrations rather than standalone tools.”
Marylise also noted the emphasis on stronger integrations. In a market where all-in-one providers are gaining ground, many independent vendors seem focused on working with these platforms rather than attempting to compete.
She said, “Vendors seem to understand how important it is to integrate with complementary technologies. This understanding is helping to make many of these solutions more powerful from the start.”
4. The Robots Haven’t Taken Over Yet
“I was hoping to see some cool robots,” Dan told us. “I was let down.”
Our team noted that there weren’t quite as many vendors pitching food-related robotics as you might expect. Many of our team members came away with the same conclusion. Diners still crave a hospitality experience that is innately human.
And as Spencer noted “There is anxiety about over-automation in the restaurant space. There is still a fear that AI, robotics, and automation will be replacing jobs.” This may explain the relatively low visibility of robotics this year. Vendors seemed to understand the anxiety that both consumers and food service professionals are feeling.
It’s true that most of the innovations we heard about were powered by AI. But it’s also true that a lot of the pitches we heard in Chicago were around enhancing rather than replacing human work.
5. Operators Are Overwhelmed by Options
This was an absolutely massive conference. The full scope of restaurant technology and innovation on exhibit is really too much to take in. And this isn’t a critique of the experience of attending the National Restaurant Association conference, which is extremely enriching. Instead, this massive scope feels like the perfect reflection of a restaurant tech industry that is just overflowing with options.
“People are anxious about the number of options available,” Marylise observed, “and the fact that sales people lack transparency sometimes. They don't know what to choose or who to trust anymore.”
This is only complicated by the fact that so many of the pitches this year revolved around AI. As Spencer noted, “The large POS companies were all showcasing their AI initiatives as a differentiator.”
Ironically, this approach had the exact opposite effect. Ana noted, “Many companies were promoting nearly identical forecasting and staffing tools. As a result, operators seemed overwhelmed by the number of tech options available and expressed concerns around transparency, trust, and differentiating among vendors.”
Making Smart Decisions About Your Tech
Even we were blown away by just how much there was to see and do at this year’s show. So we understand exactly why restaurant operators are feeling overwhelmed.
That’s why we’re here – to help you make sense of it all, to help you find vendors you can trust, and to help you choose the kind of tech that can actually make a difference in your operation.
Schedule your free personalized consultation and one of our in-house experts will work with you to find the best solutions for your business.
Image: Restaurant Show attendees at the booth of BOH partner Toast, one of several vendors that offer all-in-one POS systems. (Photo by Spencer Michiel)
