S2E12 NRA Chief Economist Dr. Chad Moutray on what restaurant technology really does to staffing

Everyone assumes restaurant automation means fewer jobs. The National Restaurant Association’s data says 94% of operators cut zero: their technology investments over the past two to three years did not permanently eliminate a single role.

In the finale of our three-part hiring and staffing series, Dr. Chad Moutray, Chief Economist and SVP of Industry Research and Knowledge at the National Restaurant Association, joins Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden to close the loop on restaurant technology and restaurant staffing. We started our 3-part mini-series with a cooling labor market, moved through the cost of being short-staffed, and covered how to keep your best people. This episode answers the question every operator is asking: where does technology fit?

Chad walks through where restaurant technology delivers the clearest wins, from cutting hiring time from weeks to a few days, to chatbots that screen and schedule interviews at 2 a.m. while a manager sleeps, to onboarding and retention tools that keep new hires on the floor faster. He is candid about the tradeoffs too: new tools usually add work before they save it, and teams often need reskilling, so the human touch stays at the center.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why 94% of operators kept every role after investing in restaurant technology
• How the 2.8% full-service profit margin drives every restaurant staffing decision
• Where technology cuts restaurant hiring from weeks to days
• How chatbots and self-scheduling meet applicants where they are
• Why the human touch is the one thing automation can’t replace in hospitality

Resource Links
HIRING & STAFFING How Onboarding, Managers, & Technology Drive Restaurant ROI.https://www.restaurant.org/research-and-media/research/research-reports/research-insight-workforce-hiring-staffing/
State of the Restaurant Industry 2026.https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/research/research-reports/state-of-the-industry/

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About Our Guest
Dr Chad Moutray, Ph.D., CBE, https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadmoutray/
Chief Economist & Sr Vice President of Industry Research & Knowledge
National Restaurant Association, https://www.restaurant.org/

Chad Moutray is senior vice president for research & knowledge and chief economist at the National Restaurant Association, where he leads economic analysis, data-driven insights, and thought leadership for business leaders in the restaurant and foodservice industry. A recognized expert on economic trends, he frequently shares his perspectives through professional presentations, media interviews, and industry reports.

Dr. Moutray is an adjunct professor at George Washington University, where he teaches econometrics in the M.S. in the applied economics program. He has held leadership roles in several professional organizations, including serving as chair of the Conference of Business Economists and as a board member of the National Association for Business Economics. He is also a past president and chairman of the National Economists Club, the Washington, D.C. chapter of NABE. In 2026, he will begin serving on the board of trustees of the John Leland Center for Theological Studies in Arlington, VA.

Chapters

(00:00) Teaser

(00:40) Show Intro

(02:48) Welcome Back Chad Moutray!

(03:38) Robots Taking Jobs

(04:11) Tech Boosts Efficiency

(06:20) Hiring Process Wins

(08:18) Chatbots and Scheduling

(09:29) Onboarding and Retention

(10:53) Hospitality vs Automation

(12:34) Employee Buy In

(14:24) Big Takeaways 2026

(16:58) Where to Find Report

(17:48) Show Close

About your Hosts
Helping you cut through the clutter in retail data insights:

Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail, a Top 25 Thought Leader in AGI and Careers, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Agentic AIand Management, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Digital Transformation and Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformationand the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft.

Casey Golden, is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 – 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! 

Music

Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Tech Lore from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.