Hot opportunities in AI-enabled vending machines

Imagine being able to offer a hot meal to your guests, visitors or shift workers, but you don’t have to hire more foodservice staff to make that happen.

That’s what Automated Retail Technologies (ART) offers to a wide variety of businesses with its Just Baked Smart Bistro.

With the help of AI-enabled robotics, the Just Baked technology heats and serves a variety of foods – from breakfast sandwiches to sliders to warm cookies. The machine carries up to 64 items, keeping them fresh and ready to serve. “We recommend that you carry 9+ types of foods that cover breakfast, lunch, dinner and indulgent items like cinnamon rolls,” said ART National Account Executive MaryBeth McGehee. “But beyond that, our vend operators have the freedom to choose what inventory to sell based on guest demand.”

Just Baked uses proprietary packaging that can facilitate steaming or crisping foods to perfection. Calzones are crispy. Bao buns are soft and chewy. The machines also display a QR code so consumers can reserve an item to pick up within a 24-hour period.

“This technology adds options to other types of food vending or convenience shops in hotels and resorts, resident living, airports, casinos, university dining, healthcare facilities and workplaces to bring an additional foodservice solution and revenue stream,” said InReach Business Development Manager Fabian Campos. InReach is part of Sodexo, Entegra’s parent company, and provides convenience retail services as part of Entegra’s portfolio of cost-saving business solutions.

While snack foods like chips and candy bars have long been the only game in town when it came to vending, hot foods are now vying for a bite of the convenience pie.

According to Grandview Research, the global retail vending machine market size was valued at nearly $52 billion in 2021 and is expected to hit a growth rate of 10.7% from 2022 to 2030. In the U.S. and Canada, hot-food vending is set to grow to approximately $4.8 billion in 2024, according to a report by Future Market Insights, and has the potential to grow 6.6% through 2034, surpassing $9.1 billion.

The Just Baked Smart Bistro is an innovative solution that can help operators break into this potentially lucrative and growing market. “There are many businesses that could use technology like this,” said McGehee. “Anyone from a third-shift hospital worker to a university student to guests checking into a hotel after the property’s restaurant has closed could be a customer. These are people that would otherwise spend their dollars elsewhere. Why not offer them an on-site option that’s convenient and hot?”

This is just one of the smart-vending technologies that Entegra offers to add sales opportunities to your business. Entegra is more than a GPO, with $42 billion of purchasing power and supply partners spanning dozens of categories, we can bring solutions to many of your business’s challenges.

Contact us to learn more.