Venues are predicting major growth in 2025 - here’s the tech that’s contributing

In spite of persistent economic pressures in recent years, there's a prevailing sense of optimism in the Australian hospitality sector. Resilient and innovative, Australia's hospitality businesses are seeing 2025 as a growth year, according to Lightspeed's Hospitality Insights and Dining Dynamics 2025. The research, which sought to shine a light on consumer and operator trends, found that venues are forecasting, on average, ~31% growth this year.

One of the foundations of their optimism is technology. Our research found that almost half of venues ~(47%) credit technology with streamlining their operations, ~36% say that it helps them generate more revenue and ~32% that it boosts customer loyalty and retention. But what are some of the technologies they can invest in, and why?

Staying ahead with artificial intelligence

The word on everyone's lips today is AI. Given the rapid development and adoption of AI tools in recent years, it's little surprise that the hospitality industry is also following suit. In fact, Lightspeed research shows that businesses are planning to invest six per cent of their annual budget on AI-powered tools in 2025. 

In a competitive sector, AI has the potential to help businesses streamline processes and generate efficiencies. With these time savings, they can reinvest more time into providing the experiences customers want. AI's use cases are already numerous - and still growing. Whether that's gathering tailored insights on restaurant performance, streamlining menu creation or providing smart forecasting, there are many ways for businesses to benefit through this transformative innovation. 

Personalised marketing

Consumer expectations are continually evolving. Customers today expect more from venues, particularly when it comes to personalised experiences and marketing tailored to their specific wants and needs. But through investment in advanced marketing tools and software, for example, businesses can provide a more personalised approach to their audience targeting, and create a unique experience for each of their customers. 

For venues wanting to stand out against their competitors, this approach can be effective for fostering customer loyalty and brand engagement, with venues also planning to invest in loyalty programmes and reward software, customer feedback and review management tools, and restaurant performance analytics platforms. It can also generate time savings, with our research showing that venues save almost two hours every day through the use of automated marketing and loyalty programs.

Levelling-up customer experiences

Our research shows that venues are planning to invest in customer experience as well, including technology like contactless payments (nine percent of annual budget), reservation and table management software (six percent) and self-ordering kiosks (five percent). These tools streamline critical touch points during a customer's journey, like making a reservation, being seated at the table, ordering a dish and completing a payment. The difference between a poor or slow experience or a streamlined one, could have big impacts on retention rates - which are so top of mind for businesses today.

And even if guests don't directly see the impact of this technology, they feel the benefit indirectly, because it frees up more time for staff to focus on customers. In fact, 41% of operators highlighted how technology enables staff to focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences. By adopting the right platforms the impact can be significant, and with any of them potentially saving businesses between one-and-a-half to almost two hours on average daily. 

Data-driven decision making

As the industry looks for new avenues of growth and real-time insights, there's an increasing emphasis on operational efficiency and data-driven decision-making. In 2024, 37% of venues said that technology is improving their data and insights up from 31% a year prior. Almost half (47%) said it was improving their operational efficiency, up from 33%.

With access to real-time data, businesses are better equipped to make smarter, faster, and more informed decisions. For example, through inventory management tools, venues can harness product data to ensure they order the right amount and types of produce to meet demand. Or through dynamic pricing models, venues can adjust prices based on demand or seasonality. Having the technology in place to gather these comprehensive insights, like Lightspeed's platform, helps businesses make mission-critical decisions faster, based on insights rather than intuition. 

Overall, when it comes to investing in new technology and software, it's not just about adopting the latest tools - it's about strategically integrating technology to elevate operations, enhance customer experiences and embrace data-driven decision-making. From seamless contactless payments to sophisticated customer experience platforms, more businesses are leveraging technology and reaping the rewards as they continue to streamline processes, save time and grow.