聚餐前對著美食先拍照發圈，已經成了很多人的日常。很多夢想當“網紅餐廳”的老板紛紛抓住這一商機，在菜單中加入了“虛擬美食”功能，好讓顧客將這些美美的照片曬到社交媒體上。

為了刺激銷量，還有一些連鎖快餐店采用了AR技術，以吸引年輕一代的顧客。這大概算是日本人發明的“サンプル”（即英語“Sample”的日文發音，也就是我們在日式拉面店的櫥窗里常見的用塑料制成的美食樣品）的21世紀版了。

食客們只要用手機對準菜單或者餐具墊，屏幕上就會顯示出冒著滋滋熱氣的漢堡和披薩的照片，鮮美的奶酪令人食指大動，然后他們就可以將照片分享到Snap或Instagram等社交媒體上了。谷歌的Google Lens或者蘋果的ARkit的用戶甚至可以通過AR功能，在桌面上顯示出虛擬的3D美食。

為了更好地通過社交媒體吸引潛在消費者，很多餐飲也在測試VR功能。80、90后的“千禧一代”既是最大的社交媒體用戶群，也是最喜歡花錢到餐廳吃飯的一群人，自然也就成了餐飲業的主要目標。

據統計，美國網友每天在社交媒體上曬出的美食照片多達350萬張。而吸引食客曬美食照片，既能為餐廳網站吸引流量，老板們也免去了在傳統媒體上打廣告的開銷。Snap的用戶足有3億，Instagram的用戶更是多達8億，這些美食照片的潛在營銷價值無疑是巨大的。

美食相關話題是Instagram上的第三大熱門話題，“Food”一詞更是Instagram上最火的話題標簽。2016年餐飲用品網站sousvidetools.com的一項調查顯示，“披薩”是Instagram最熱門的詞條，被分享了1970萬次，其次是“壽司”（1340萬次）和“雞肉”（1190萬次）。十大熱詞中還有“沙拉”（第四名）、“意面”（第五名）、“雞蛋”（第八名）、“牛排”（第九名）等。

餐飲業對社交媒體的重視，也是消費者飲食習慣改變的體現。據美國投資銀行Piper Jaffray估算，目前，美國的網購訂餐（含移動應用、手機短信、在線訂餐等方式）規模約合19億美元。未來五年，美國餐飲業總銷售額的四分之一將來自網購訂單和外賣，訂單量將比現在翻一番。

除了市值2000多億美元的快餐行業，其他行業的企業也在向這一領域進軍。在上周的年度I/O開發者大會上，谷歌的Google Assistant人工智能助手又展示了一個驚人功能——它已經可以自行給餐廳前臺打電話替主人訂餐了。不過讓人工智能機器人給真人打電話這事兒畢竟有點令人毛骨悚然，很多人表示無法接受。對此谷歌表示，此功能正式推出后，該聊天機器人在打電話給餐廳時將自報家門，特別說明自己是主人的機器人。

與此同時，很多餐廳也在試圖將AR與AI技術結合起來，以進一步提高食客的就餐體驗。

比如美國有一家名叫“小熊漢堡”（Bearburger）的快餐店，在全美擁有44家連鎖餐廳，它打造了一只“說話熊”，用戶在手機上下載Bareburger Rewards應用后，只需掃描食品包裝上的二維碼，與“說話熊”互動，就可獲得積分和免費食品。這只“說話熊”會告訴你今天有什么特價產品，食材的來源是哪里，以及公司最近采用了什么新的環保政策。

小熊漢堡公司則可以通過與用戶的互動數據，分析它獲得了多少次免費宣傳，以及這項技術對產品總體銷量的影響。小熊漢堡的營銷總監納比爾·阿拉曼表示，這項技術的確提高了部分門店的銷量。

隨著越來越多的餐廳推出AI菜單，消費者只要通過手機，就能查詢到餐廳的折扣價格、優惠時段，以及有哪些“秘制美食”。同時這些技術也令食客心情愉悅，這一點也是很重要的，因為現在顧客的滿意度早已不僅僅取決于食物本身了。

拉面道（wagamama）是由一名香港企業家在英國創辦的日式拉面店，目前已經開張了140余家門店。它也是第一批采用了AR應用的餐廳之一，顧客在等待上菜的過程中，可以在餐具墊上玩玩AR小游戲，看看歌手們在音樂節上的表演，或者投票評選自己喜歡的美食。另外，據說現在有41%的孩子會在餐廳里玩平板電腦，那么離“虛擬蠟筆”功能走進餐廳還會遠嗎？

社交媒體將把每一頓飯都變成移動的盛宴。對于大多數食客來說，比起一家米其林星級餐廳，他們更喜歡去的是“網紅餐廳”。認識到這一趨勢的餐飲企業正在迅速發力，拓展自己的“科技菜單”，希望AI和AR技術能成為令他們變身“網紅”的新配方。（財富中文網）

本文作者Jay Samit是一名連續創新人，也是暢銷書《顛覆你自己》（Disrupt You!）的作者。

譯者:樸成奎

Restaurants wanting to cash in on people increasingly sharing food photos are spicing up their menus with virtual cuisine that patrons can post across social media.

To lift sales, fast food chains are turning to augmented reality to attract a new generation of customers. It’s a 21st century version of Sampuru, the Japanese custom of showcasing plastic food replica in restaurant windows.

Diners simply point their smartphones at a menu or placemat, and sizzling hamburgers and pizza slices dripping with cheese appear on screen that they can then share on Snap or Instagram. Customers who use apps like Google Lens or Apple’s ARkit can even appear to place 3-D virtual meals on their tables.

Restaurants are testing virtual reality as the way to better connect with potential consumers through social media by giving them something to dish about. And millennials, a prime social media-using demographic that also happens to spend the greatest percentage of their food budget on eating out, are the prime target.

Getting the public to share food images on social media—they post 3.5 million food images daily—drives traffic to restaurant websites and reduces the need for restaurant owners to buy ads in traditional media. With 300 million Snap users and 800 million Instagram users, the potential audience is huge.

Food related hashtags are the third most popular category on Instagram with the basic #food being the most popular descriptor. According to a study in 2016 by catering supply website sousvidetools.com, pizza was the top entrée on the service with 19.7 million images shared, following by sushi (13.4 million) and chicken (11.9 million). The rest of the top 10 included salads (#4), and pasta (#5) along with eggs (#8) and steak (#9).

The focus by restaurants on social media is also a product of consumers’ changing eating habits. Investment bank Piper Jaffray projects that one quarter of all U.S. restaurant sales will shift to digital ordering and delivery over the next five years, a doubling from today’s 1.9 billion orders through mobile apps, text messages, and online.

With over $200 billion at stake, fast food isn’t the only sector going virtual. At its annual I/O developer conference last week, Google showed how its digital assistant, Google Assistant, would be able to make dinner reservations for users by tapping artificial intelligence to call and chat with any restaurant’s human host or hostess. After an unanticipated public backlash of having an AI bot calling humans, Google said that when the feature rolls out the chat bot will identify itself when calling.

Restaurants are also starting to combine augmented reality with artificial intelligence to enhance the experience of dining in restaurants.

Bareburger, a chain with 44 locations, has an augmented reality spokesbear. Launched from a QR code on packaging, customers with the Bareburger Rewards app can earn points and get free food by interacting with it. The bear tells patrons about daily specials, talks about the sourcing of its food, and explains the restaurant’s new environmentally-friendly policies.

Bareburger can then analyze the data from its virtual ma?tre d’s interactions to figure out how much free publicity it received and the impact of the technology on overall sales. Nabeel Alamgir, the chain’s chief marketing officer, says the technology has increased same store sales.

As more restaurants roll out AI-enabled menus, consumers will be able to check their phones for discounts, happy hours, and secret menu items. The technology also helps keep diners entertained, an important point considering that customer satisfaction depends on more than just good food.

Wagamama, a U.K. ramen chain with 140 locations, had one of the first restaurant AR apps designed to interact with placemats to give customers something to do while waiting for their orders. Diners can do things like watch musicians perform at music festivals and vote for their favorite dishes. With 41% of children using tablets to entertain themselves at restaurants, can virtual crayons be far behind?

Social media is turning every meal into a moveable feast where being a mobile star is more important than a Michelin star to most patrons. Recognizing this trend, the restaurant industry is expanding its technology menu and hoping that artificial intelligence and augmented reality are the ingredients for a savory success.

Jay Samit is a serial entrepreneur and author of the bestselling book “Disrupt You!”