The restaurant technology market is rapidly evolving and is transforming the restaurant business as a significant sector of tourism and hospitality. Enabled by artificial intelligence (AI), mobile apps, kiosks and chatbots revolutionize the guest experience and robots automate restaurant operations. Despite the increasing interest, the use of AI and robotics in restaurants is still in its early stage and restaurant managers are seeking guidance to leverage these technologies for service excellence. In this high-contact service sector, emotional skills need to be balanced with the possible automation potentials. The present research analyzes the current state of AI and robotics in the restaurant sector and proposes a systematic identification of process innovation potentials. For this purpose, a market analysis of the European AI and robotics market for restaurant operations is conducted, which yields a first knowledge base for future research and conceptual work. Besides detailed empirical data, a reference process is developed for leveraging new technologies for process innovation.

中文翻译：

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欧洲餐饮业的人工智能和机器人技术：评估高接触服务行业流程创新的潜力

餐厅技术市场正在迅速发展，并将餐厅业务转变为旅游和酒店业的一个重要部门。在人工智能 (AI) 的支持下，移动应用程序、信息亭和聊天机器人彻底改变了宾客体验，机器人将餐厅运营自动化。尽管人们越来越感兴趣，但人工智能和机器人技术在餐厅的使用仍处于早期阶段，餐厅经理正在寻求指导以利用这些技术实现卓越服务。在这个高度接触的服务领域，情感技能需要与可能的自动化潜力相平衡。本研究分析了餐饮业人工智能和机器人技术的现状，并提出了对流程创新潜力的系统识别。以此目的，对欧洲餐厅运营人工智能和机器人市场进行了市场分析，为未来的研究和概念工作提供了第一个知识库。除了详细的经验数据外，还开发了一个参考流程，以利用新技术进行流程创新。