The 2026 Restaurant Tech Report: Add Sauce, Hold the Friction

94% of QSR customers now factor tech into where they eat, up from 80% in 2025. See which brands rank highest for reliability in Canopy's 2026 survey.

Our 2026 survey of 1,007 quick-service restaurant customers finds that nearly everyone is influenced by the technology at restaurants (94%, which is up from 80% in 2025), and more than one in three have walked away from an order because of a tech problem.

The 2026 Restaurant Tech report is Canopy’s second annual survey of QSR customers. The report looks at general customer sentiment, including which restaurants are seen as having the top tech experiences (McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A are No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. Find the top 10 in the report). The research also looks in detail at experiences with kiosks, AI (e.g. in the drive-thru), payment/POS systems, and mobile apps and rewards.

More findings from the report

37% of customers have walked out without finishing an order because of a tech failure
20% of kiosk users say their kiosk works every time, unchanged from 2025
AI drive-thru exposure grew from 15% to 24% year over year, and while the experience works overall, customers deal most with wrong answers, wrong items, and order corrections
49% of QSR app users have had loyalty points fail to register or expire without warning
29% of customers say they've changed how they order, picked a different restaurant, or left without finishing an order because of tip prompts too.

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