Restaurant operators don’t have a data problem. They have more data than ever, and far less clarity on what to do with it. According to NRN’s latest Tech Outlook Report, 42% of operators admit their data is siloed across systems, making it nearly impossible to create clear profiles or take immediate action.
In the report, Crunchtime CEO John Raguin cuts through the noise around AI, data platforms, and digital transformation with a simple truth: most restaurants are surrounded by information, but struggle to turn it into consistent action.
“Leaders and teams spend too much time piecing together data instead of acting on it,” Raguin explains. “The challenge isn’t access to data. It’s turning that information into actionable, measurable insights that drive consistent execution.”
As off-premises demand grows and consumer spending tightens, this gap between insight and execution is becoming one of the industry’s biggest risks and opportunities. 38% of operators feel manual analysis is just taking up too much of their team’s time. When teams are buried in spreadsheets, it creates a disconnected path between identifying an issue and actually being able to fix it.
According to Raguin, the industry’s biggest mistake over the past decade hasn’t been underinvesting in technology; it’s been fragmentation.
Restaurants have added system after system: POS, labor tools, inventory platforms, digital ordering, loyalty, reporting, analytics, and AI pilots. But instead of clarity, many operators now face disconnected workflows and siloed data.
“Good AI helps the team do better work,” Raguin says. “Bad AI creates more work for the team.”
Technology creates value only when it simplifies decisions, supports real workflows, and enhances daily execution. Otherwise, it becomes another dashboard, another report, another system that teams are expected to manage.
The answer is clear: operational transformation doesn’t happen in reporting tools; it happens inside daily workflows.
The highest-impact opportunities are foundational to day-to-day operations:
Prep, in particular, remains one of the most under-supported workflows in restaurant technology, despite being one of the biggest opportunities for waste reduction, consistency, and cost control.
By connecting forecasting, recipe data, kitchen display screens, and inventory intelligence, operators can move from static planning to dynamic, real-time operational control, where decisions are informed by what’s actually happening in the restaurant, not just what was predicted.
Rather than stacking more tools, Raguin advocates for a connected operational backbone; one that unifies how work flows through the restaurant:
“When the kitchen, inventory, labor plan, and task execution are connected,” Raguin explains, “operators can run more precise, predictable, and profitable operations.”
This isn’t about replacing POS, accounting, or workforce systems. It’s about creating an operations layer that connects them so insight becomes action, not analysis paralysis.
Off-premises demand magnifies operational gaps.
Every digital order adds pressure to:
Without connected operations, off-premises growth increases complexity faster than capacity. With connected operations, it becomes scalable.
This is why execution, not demand, is now the limiting factor in off-premises success.
Raguin’s vision isn’t about more data; it’s about better decisions, faster execution, and simpler workflows.
The future of restaurant technology won’t be defined by how much information operators collect but by how easily teams can act on it. The winners won’t be the brands with the most systems; they’ll be the ones with the clearest operations.
Precise. Predictable. Profitable. That’s the standard modern restaurant operations are being built toward.
Want to learn more? Check out Nation Restaurant News' 2026 Restaurant Technology Outlook here.