• by Teresa Buyikian , January 30, 2025

Consumers can expect to see fewer menu price increases and delivery fees and more personalization and use of AI for 2025, according or a new study restaurant tech company Popmenu published this week.

The Restaurant Business Outlook for 2025 surveyed 359 U.S. restaurant operators and 1,000 U.S. consumers.

Overall, restaurant operators felt more positive going into 2025 than they did 2024; 62% are “cautiously optimistic about their business prospects for the year ahead,” while 29% feel “very optimistic.”

One of the more significant findings was that while 57% of restaurant operators expect some increase in menu prices this year, that's down from 71% in 2024, and from 93% in 2023. Meal deals are also forecast to keep on coming, as restaurants plan to offer more limited-time menus (40%), more “classics with a twist” (32%) and more value meals (28%) on their menus.

"2024 was an incredibly difficult year for many restaurants who saw unsustainable costs grow and guest traffic decline," said Brendan Sweeney, CEO and co-founder of Popmenu, in a release. "Going into 2025, operators are quickly standing up digital and culinary strategies they believe can have a direct and sizeable impact on revenue, without sacrificing margin. Central to this is constantly reaching more guests, getting to know those guests better than anyone else, and continually engaging them in a very personalized way."

In 2025 operators are seeking to seriously combat the often super-high fees charged to their customers by third-party delivery services such as Grubhub and Uber Eats. 75% are looking to reduce online ordering fees, with the primary tactic being to drive order traffic to their own website. They obviously will still rely heavily on third-party delivery, but are hoping to use those services more for “initial customer acquisition vs. ongoing order fulfillment.”

As AI expands it has also become more top of mind for restaurant operators this year, with a particular emphasis in usingg the technology for front-of-house operations.One third of operators (34%) say they have already “adopted AI technology at their restaurants,”  while another 48% plan to in 2025. Just over half (54%) of operators believe AI will become a staple in restaurants over the next three years, and 20% think it is.

And with that AI technology comes more personalization: three in four operators plan to increase marketing activities this year, building out robust profiles of what individual guest likes so they can send them more tailored messages and offers.

Lastly, operators have leaned into the experience-seeking diner, with 74% planning more live entertainment, theme nights, nostalgic pop-ups and interactive dinners.