In the restaurant industry, 2026 won’t be defined by what’s happening in the dining room but rather by what’s happening behind the scenes. As back-of-house (BOH) operations are becoming the real battleground for efficiency and profitability, operators who update operations with modern BOH tech will gain a decisive competitive advantage.

Labor pressures, rising food costs, and higher customer expectations are no longer just front-of-house problems. Many of the biggest margin leaks, such as food waste, scheduling inefficiencies, stockouts, and inaccurate ordering, originate behind the line. As Restaurant News Resource highlights in its look at top technology trends shaping 2026, “In 2026, a great menu is just the entry fee. The real winners will be restaurants that leverage technology to work smarter, not harder.”

In this article, we’ll explore why BOH tech matters more than ever, the top technology trends that multi-unit operators and franchisees should be aware of in 2026, and how Rosnet’s solution helps operators modernize and optimize their BOH operations.

Why BOH & Technology Matter More Than Ever for Franchisees

Increasing complexity in the industry and economic pressures have made BOH optimization an essential ingredient for success among franchise operators.

Labor & Turnover Pressures

Back-of-house staffing challenges continue to be a top concern in restaurants. Restoworks reports that the back of the house sees an average 43% annual employee turnover rate, and the cost to replace an hourly worker is around $5,860. Meanwhile, 60% of restaurants report difficult-to-fill BOH openings, leading to understaffing in key roles or shifts. For franchise operators who manage multiple units, the impact of these challenges compounds quickly, as more openings demand more resources poured into recruitment, onboarding and training.

Automation Is Expanding Rapidly

Automation is no longer a futuristic “nice to have.” It’s becoming an essential solution to cope with labor shortages, improving consistency and throughput. Restaurant operators are increasing their investments in automation, taking on repetitive tasks and streamlining workflows to improve speed, accuracy, and consistency.

Rising Multi-Channel Complexity

Restaurants are making a substantial shift in IT investment to the back of the house due to the rise of omnichannel ordering. Unified point-of-sale (POS) systems and modern kitchen display systems help increase efficiency in this evolving marketplace by managing orders that arrive through various channels and sequencing them appropriately, so staff can easily determine when each order needs to be ready to go. Kitchens that continue to run on fragmented systems will increasingly struggle with lost, delayed, or duplicate orders.

High Cost of Waste

Waste can quickly eat away at any restaurant’s bottom line. Whether it’s due to shrinkage, spoilage, or inconsistent portioning, every type of waste is magnified across multi-unit operations. Strong BOH controls are necessary to keep waste at a minimum and costs under control.

Key 2026 Tech & Operational Trends to Watch

AI-Driven Demand Forecasting & Inventory Management

Restaurant industry research suggests that 75% of food waste is preventable through better planning and portion control, making inventory management a prime target for optimization. Better forecasting leads to more accurate purchasing, fewer stockouts, reduced spoilage, and leaner operations. AI-driven BOH tools are reshaping the way restaurants do forecasting, purchasing, and prep planning—and, as a result, reducing food waste by up to 30% in restaurants that use them.

As you get started with these tools, be sure to integrate them with your POS and inventory systems. Smooth integration helps ensure restaurants can enjoy the benefits of technological updates with as little disruption as possible. Rosnet’s dedicated implementation team has completed hundreds of integrations and can ensure a smooth migration process.

Rosnet’s food management capabilities and predictive analytics allow you to easily and accurately track and manage food inventory, plan prep work, and automate ordering triggers. Consolidated reports provide visibility across units, so you can monitor improvements an ensure your platform is delivering the return on investment (ROI) you expect.

Kitchen Automation & Robotics

Kitchen automation streamlines repetitive processes, reduces the need for manual labor, and increases speed and efficiency—especially during peak hours. To take advantage of BOH automation, start by identifying tasks that are repetitive or standardized. Consider the costs associated with employees performing these tasks, including not only hourly wages but also other costs like benefits, training, and risk management. (Having a robot at the fryer or slicer, for example, could reduce workplace injuries.)

Next, look into the cost of automating the tasks that you’ve identified. Determine what savings you can expect to see from automating your chosen tasks, and project your expected ROI. When thinking about savings, consider not only labor hours saved but also reduced waste due to reliable consistency. Robots don’t vary their technique, call in sick, or get tired—even during high volume times.

Rosnet’s team can integrate data from your automated devices into our BOH solution’s operations dashboard. From here, you can map changes in workflows, track savings, and generate reports that give you up-to-date insights into efficiency, areas for improvement, and ROI.

Unified Multi-Channel & BOH Systems

As mentioned above, multi-channel ordering has introduced a new level of complexity to BOH management. Fragmented ordering systems strain the back of the house, leading to lost orders, delays, duplications, waste, and lower satisfaction among customers and employees alike. To combat these problems, more restaurants are implementing solutions that consolidate these various channels, bringing in-person, online, and third-party delivery orders together with the kitchen display system (KDS) into a single, easily manageable system.

To get started optimizing your ordering system, audit each ordering channel and map how orders arrive via the channel at the kitchen. From there, create a strategy to bring these together into a unified process. Rosnet’s labor and food management systems provide a framework for absorbing orders from various sources and standardizing how they flow to the KDS. Multi-unit functionality helps ensure processes remain consistent across locations for optimal efficiency and savings.

Labor Optimization

As discussed above, high turnover rates and hiring costs are significant barriers impeding BOH efficiency. Particularly in multi-unit restaurants, the effects of high turnover as well as inefficient scheduling can quickly eat away at profitability. Workforce analytics and smart scheduling tools allow restaurants to easily optimize schedules across locations. Rosnet’s labor management tools allow managers to easily forecast labor needs, create optimized schedules, and track performance all in one place, while our mobile app allows employees to easily swap shifts or request time off from anywhere, anytime—a win for BOH efficiency and work/life balance alike.

Sustainability & Waste Reduction

In 2026, sustainability is expected to remain a top restaurant trend. The AI-driven inventory management tools mentioned above serve this goal by reducing food waste and giving you clear visibility into how much waste your efforts are preventing. You can bolster your restaurant’s sustainability cred by tying waste reduction into BOH key performance indicators (KPIs) and sharing your results in marketing and public relations materials. Rosnet’s food management system allows you to easily monitor and track food inventory, usage, shrinkage, and waste and create benchmarks to promote consistency across locations and identify areas for improvement.

Data-Driven Decision Making & BOH Visibility

The primary overall benefit of BOH software is enabling data-driven decision making. Without up-to-date data from each operation, franchise owners lack the visibility they need to ensure consistency, effectively scale, and optimize performance across locations. Advanced data analytics can track a wide range of variables, such as customer preferences, daily and seasonal sales patterns, schedules, and payroll data, and present them in easy-to-read reports and dashboards. These provide operators the actionable insight they need to optimize staffing, inventory, and menus based on real patterns, not assumptions.

To take full advantage of your analytics tools, build the dashboards you need to support your goals, standardize KPIs across locations, and share the reports with your store managers. Use the insights you gain to make operational moves—such as training, scheduling, and purchasing decisions—that enhance efficiency, sustainability, and profitability. Rosnet’s all-in-one platform brings together inventory, labor, and payroll data and presents them in intuitive, configurable reports and dashboards, making it easy to enhance consistency and efficiency across locations.

What Franchisees Should Do Now

To take advantage of the most important 2026 restaurant trends, take these steps now:

• Audit your current BOH technology. Map out your tech stack, including inventory management, scheduling, payroll, and KDS systems, to identify any gaps that may exist.
• Implement forecasting and data analytics first. This will allow you to identify and prioritize quick wins like food waste while assessing the potential ROI of longer-term moves like kitchen automation.
• Work with a technology partner that understands the challenges of multi-unit restaurants and how they operate. Even if software is designed for restaurant use, the needs of franchise owners are different than those of independent restaurants, so multi-unit awareness is key.
• Set your KPIs (e.g., waste, turnover, throughput time, inventory accuracy, cross-unit consistency). Monitor and track performance, and then use the data to guide improvement efforts.
  
  

Build Your 2026 BOH Tech Roadmap with Rosnet

Rosnet is your partner in BOH technology. We have decades of experience working with multi-unit operators and franchise brands to help modernize and standardize BOH operations at scale. With integrated food management, labor management, and payroll capabilities, Rosnet gives multi-unit owners the end-to-end visibility they need to future-proof their operations.

• Support forecasting and predictive analytics
• Make data-driven decisions
• Standardize BOH processes across locations
• Control costs and reduce waste
• Build scalable operations for long-term growth

When the back of the house runs smoothly, the front can shine and the bottom line grows. Investing in BOH tech is not just about cutting costs; it’s about building consistency, enabling scale, and creating freedom for franchise operators. If you're ready to build a smarter, more efficient BOH for 2026 and beyond, let Rosnet help you build your tech roadmap.