InsideTrack recently held its 2025 Tech Summit, which brought together some of the smartest people in foodservice to talk about how people and technology can work together to make smarter purchases. The industry is changing because of rising costs, market volatility, and operational pressures. One thing was clear: the future belongs to those who can combine human insight with real-time data.
Technology Alone Isn’t the Answer
AI and automation are changing how foodservice operators handle buying, pricing, and forecasting, but technology alone won’t make them successful. It comes from the way people and technology work together.
InsideTrack believes the smartest systems are those that amplify human decision-making, not replace it. That philosophy drives everything they build, especially as we expand our AI capabilities.
- Internally, InsideTrack is using AI to improve data processing, price verification, and software development within the company. These improvements make it easier to find data gaps and mistakes, guess how distributors will react, and speed up coding and testing, all in the name of getting things done faster and more accurately.
- Externally, AI is giving operators predictive and prescriptive insights from the outside. AI helps teams act quickly and with confidence by predicting shortages before they happen, putting the most important things for each user first, and making suggestions that can be put into action, like swapping items or writing emails to suppliers.
But the human element remains at the center. Operators digest these insights, choose the best path forward, and provide feedback that continually improves the system. It’s a true collaboration between technology and people, and it’s what makes InsideTrack’s approach to smarter purchasing so powerful.
What We Heard at the InsideTrack Tech Summit
Leaders from across the foodservice industry got together to talk about their ideas, question their assumptions, and start change.
The conversations proved one thing: change happens when people and technology work together. This is what stood out the most at the event:
- Real Results: Operators are showing what can happen when data visibility leads to action. InsideTrack helps leaders find ways to save money, compare prices, and make better decisions about where to buy things by giving them access to more than $44 billion in purchasing data.
- Smarter Design: InsideTrack is always making improvements to its platform to make it easier to use, reduce friction, and make sure that everyone, from procurement to operations, can easily get the information they need.
- Faster Forward: Speed is key in the foodservice industry. InsideTrack technology speeds up the time it takes to go from insight to action. This helps operators quickly respond to price changes, predict market trends, and improve cost control before problems arise.
- People First: Technology is changing quickly, but the InsideTrack Summit made it clear that progress still starts with people. InsideTrack’s goal is to help decision-makers, not take their place. This gives every operator the confidence to make changes in their company.
- Strength in Collaboration: When teams work together with the same information, they get the best results. InsideTrack brings together the procurement, culinary, and finance teams by giving them access to the same source of truth. This helps everyone in the business work together and stay on the same page.
Turning Ideas into Action
The InsideTrack Tech Summit wasn’t just a place to talk about the future of buying; it was a place to build it. People left with a new sense of clarity and a commitment to running their businesses in a smarter, faster, and more connected way.
The summit’s themes all pointed to the same conclusion: the next stage of success in the foodservice industry will depend on how well people and technology work together. Operators can’t solve the problems they face today, like inflation and supply chain problems, with manual processes or systems that are separate from each other. They need to be able to see, move quickly, and work together.
InsideTrack helps operators achieve that by providing:
- Real-time visibility into pricing and supplier performance
- The ability to compare contracts and identify cost-saving opportunities
- Tools that automate repetitive tasks so teams can focus on strategy
- Insights that turn complex purchasing data into clear, actionable decisions
By simplifying the path from information to execution, InsideTrack enables operators to stay ahead of change rather than reacting to it.
InsideTrack Tech Summit: Where People and Technology Meet
When it comes to buying things in the future, you won’t have to choose between people and technology. It’s about bringing them together. The best results happen when new tools make human insight stronger and turn every choice into a strategic advantage.
InsideTrack is happy to help food service businesses make that change happen. They are not only keeping up with change; they are also making it happen.
Click here to contact InsideTrack and learn how they can help your team make better buying decisions based on data.
