Does Contactless mean...No-Touchie?

From Clipboard to Cloud

Somewhere in the back of a Christchurch café, there's a clipboard held together with grease and blind optimism. It's the same one they’ve used since the dawn of brunch: table numbers in biro, last week's schedule scrawled over in highlighter, and a food safety log no one's signed since Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world has moved on.

We’re talking AI that writes your specials board based on the weather, smart fridges that dob you in when your prep fridge hits 8°C, and energy monitors that save more money than your accountant. But walk into half the joints across Aotearoa, and you'll still find owners staring at receipts like they’re ancient scrolls. Tech? That’s for the big boys, they say. Or worse—“it’s too impersonal.”

Let’s get one thing straight: tech isn’t here to kill hospitality—it’s here to stop it from bleeding out.

The truth is, we’re behind. Not just a step or two—try several years. COVID gave us a swift kick, sure. Contactless menus appeared overnight like mushrooms after rain. But that momentum? Most of it’s vanished into the ether, along with sourdough starters and moral outrage about QR codes.

This isn’t a sermon from Silicon Valley. It’s a wake-up call for every café owner still printing rosters on the back of an invoice. In this piece, we’re pulling back the hood on the real tech that’s changing NZ hospitality—AI, IoT, smart energy, and contactless everything. No fluff, no jargon—just what works, what’s a waste of time, and where you should be putting your money if you want to survive the next five years.

Because if you’re still living clipboard-to-clipboard in 2025, you’re not just falling behind.

AI in NZ Hospitality: The Robot’s Wearing a Nametag Now

AI in hospitality used to sound like a bad sci-fi pitch. Some soulless, stainless-steel bartender spitting out martinis and murder plots. But here in New Zealand, it’s far more useful—and far less terrifying. Mostly because it’s invisible. And, unlike half your kitchen crew, it shows up on time and doesn’t call in sick after Rhythm & Vines.

Take AI-powered menu engines. No, it’s not black magic—it’s data. Your POS knows people are ordering more pumpkin soup when it rains? Then boom—your special board updates itself on a wet Wednesday faster than your commis can burn a roux. Tools like Me&u and Mr Yum are doing this already. No fortune tellers, no “gut feel”—just real numbers that help you sell what people want, when they want it.

Then there’s Book Me Bob—a chatbot created right here in NZ that handles hotel bookings, FAQs, and guest questions without anyone having to pick up a phone. He’s polite, tireless, and unlike your night receptionist, doesn’t nick the minibar vodka. It’s 24/7 customer service with none of the eye rolls.

But the real killer app? AI-generated staff rosters. Imagine your labour schedule built around foot traffic predictions, historical spend, and weather forecasts. No more Tetris with the roster. No more rage-quitting from the barista who always gets the Sunday shift. It’s efficient. It's fast. And let’s be honest—it's probably better at spotting patterns than half the clipboard mafia still running the back office.

Here’s the thing:

“If AI can write a wine list better than your sommelier, it’s time to train the sommelier, not ban the bot.”

We’re not replacing craft. We’re replacing the bullshit around it. The admin, the guesswork, the hours wasted doing the same tasks over and over. That’s what AI is for.

And if that scares you? You might be in the wrong game.

IoT in Hospitality: Your Fridge Is Watching You (and thank God it is)

If you’re still scribbling fridge temps on a soggy sheet of paper taped to the wall, I’ve got news: the fridge is smarter than you now. And it doesn’t forget to do its job.

Welcome to the Internet of Things—a boring-sounding name for a game-changing concept. We’re talking smart gear that talks to each other, sends alerts, logs compliance automatically, and makes sure your $500 Wagyu doesn’t turn into dog food because Terry forgot to close the cold room.

Let’s start with smart fridges. They log temperatures in real time. They alert you when something's off. No more forged logs. No more EHO panic. Just compliance handled, quietly and relentlessly. The days of backdating food safety forms after a 14-hour shift are over—unless, of course, you like gambling with your licence.

Then there’s occupancy sensors in hotel rooms. The guest goes out? Lights off. Heat down. Curtains drawn. Energy saved without the receptionist needing to lift a finger. It’s like having a ghost but one that pays for itself.

In the kitchen, connected equipment is the difference between service and sabotage. Smart ovens, dishwashers, or chillers can send alerts when something’s wrong—before the damage is done. Imagine knowing your combi’s about to cark it before Saturday night service starts. That’s not a luxury—it’s survival.

This isn’t just for high-end joints with chrome everything and five concierge staff. IoT has real value in aged-care kitchens, university foodservice, and multi-outlet operations where manual compliance is a full-time job for someone who’d rather be doing anything else.

Let’s talk waste—because that’s where the rubber really hits the road.

"New Zealand cafés waste up to 60% of prepared food. IoT-enabled fridges and prep sensors could cut that by 20–30%."

That’s not just saving money. That’s margin. That’s staff wages. That’s you not tossing out two bins of soggy Caesar wrap mix every week because your holding temps were off and no one caught it.

Still think you don’t need IoT?

Here’s the brutal truth: every second you spend manually checking, logging, guessing—it’s a second your competitor is spending building a better system. One that costs them less, saves more, and gives their staff one less reason to leave.

You don’t need to be a tech wizard. You just need to be done with the excuses.

Touch Less, Think More: Why Contactless Tech and Smart Energy Are the New Front-of-House and Back-of-House Rockstars

First it was vaccine passes. Then it was QR menus. And suddenly, the entire hospitality industry had to pretend it knew what “digital transformation” meant.

Now, post-crisis, a lot of places are trying to snap back to 2019 like nothing happened—back to sticky laminated menus and 15-minute waits for someone to bring a bloody card machine to the table.

But here’s the truth: contactless isn’t a COVID trend. It’s survival tech.

QR code menus—done right—are a godsend. Not the lazy PDF links that take 30 seconds to load on bad Wi-Fi. I’m talking proper, interactive menus that upsell, translate, and update in real time. Add tap-to-pay at the table, and suddenly you've halved your labour strain without firing anyone. The service just flows—less hustle, more control.

Hotels are already ahead. Mobile room keys, smartphone lighting, temp control from bed—no need to call down to reception because the A/C is stuck on Arctic. That’s not just convenient. It’s expectation.

“Contactless doesn’t mean less contact—it means smarter contact.”

It means letting your staff focus on being human—connecting, delighting, rescuing service—not running around with eftpos terminals or wiping menus for the fifth time.

And while you’re upgrading your front of house, the back of house is bleeding cash through the walls.

Let’s talk smart energy.

Energy Management Systems (EMS) can cut HVAC waste in hotels by double-digit percentages. That’s not fluff. That’s tens of thousands in energy savings over a year. Add LED retrofits, motion sensors, and real-time usage monitoring, and suddenly your power bill looks like it’s been through Weight Watchers.

Some venues are going even bigger—solar panels tied to guest occupancy, fridges and ovens wired into energy dashboards, and carbon tools like Ecotrack that track your kitchen’s footprint in real-time. You want to talk sustainability? That’s it. Not some bullshit biodegradable straw while the aircon runs with the door open.

Sure, the upfront costs are no joke. For small venues, it stings. But the winds are shifting. Carbon pressure is building. Guests are watching. Government grants are dangling.

Soon this won’t be optional.

It’ll be regulation.

And the operators who got ahead of it? They’ll already be reaping the savings, reducing burnout, and doing it all while their competitors are still fiddling with light switches and hunting for a thermal paper eftpos roll.

The Real Barrier Isn’t Bandwidth—It’s Mindset

Let’s not sugarcoat it. Tech in NZ hospitality isn’t just about shiny gadgets and buzzwords. It’s about survival. Margin. Sanity.

But here’s what we’re still up against:

Cost. Not everyone’s flush with capital. You’ve got small-town cafés just trying to keep the lights on, let alone install motion-sensing A/C and AI rosters. It’s a hard sell when you’re choosing between a smart fridge and paying the plumber who’s just unclogged your kitchen drain for the third time this month.

Connectivity. Try running cloud-based POS on dial-up rural broadband. Hell, some of our best hospitality spots—boutique wineries, off-grid lodges, surf-shack cafés—barely get one bar of signal, let alone fibre.

And then there’s the human factor. We’ve all worked with that one guy—the lifer. Sees anything with a screen as a threat. Thinks AI is out to steal his pen and clipboard. Hates change more than he hates decaf. You can’t force evolution. But you can make it impossible to ignore.

Here’s the thing no one says loud enough:

Tech doesn’t replace good service—it replaces the paperwork and guesswork choking the life out of it.

It gives you space to lead. Space to cook. Space to connect. And it gives your staff the tools they need to thrive instead of burn out.

So where do we go from here?

Start simple. A real booking plugin that actually syncs with your POS. A smarter kitchen monitor that pings you before the fridge dies. A power meter that shows your staff how much you’re blowing through during prep.

You don’t have to automate the whole damn operation overnight. But you do have to start.

Treat tech like you’d treat a sous chef: invest up front, give it clear parameters, and if it does its job right—trust it. Because if you’re still doing everything manually in 2025, it’s not tradition. It’s stubbornness.

Hospitality will always be about people. But if you’re not using every tool available to protect those people, support them, and streamline the chaos—they’ll leave. Your customers will, too.

And then all you’ll have left is the clipboard, the broken fryer, and a long list of reasons why you didn’t keep up.

The future’s already here. The only question is whether you're still pretending it isn’t.

- Darren Conole, still figuring out if AI can make a better hollandaise than me.