What Does AI Mean for the Future of Bartending?

In an era when AI can design your menu and a robot might pour your drink, it’s easy to wonder whether hospitality is headed toward something soulless and entirely automated. But for Food & Wine’s senior editorial director, Sean Flynn, the future of hospitality isn’t about replacing humans with AI or robotics — it’s about redoubling efforts to provide real connection.

Flynn delivered a seminar as part of the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation’s Futures Lab, a series of quick hit presentations from industry voices exploring what’s next in food and drink. He shared the stage with Alex Day, chief operating officer at Death & Co.; Tiffany Nurrenbern, program director at Zero Foodprint;; Brand Strategist Leila Fatar; Seedlip and Sylva Labs founder Ben Branson; Marissa Johnston, co founder of the Shaker Collective; Gianluca Sparacino, vice president of food and beverage at Four Seasons Americas; and Racheal Vaughan Jones, CMO of Compass Box.

Flynn spoke on hospitality as less of a trend to chase and more of the thread that ties the entire guest experience together — the core of what makes bars and restaurants memorable. “At the end of the day, making people feel welcome, making people feel important, creating those individual moments — that’s what really stands out,” he said.

How to stand out in a crowded market

Visit any city and you’ll find bars packed with clever concepts and expertly made drinks. These days, that’s the baseline —everything else separates one place from the next. The challenge is getting guests to care enough to come back, remember the experience, and tell their friends.

“There are what, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of bars across the United States,” Flynn said. “When someone goes to a bar, they can go to 10 other bars, and they don’t necessarily have to come back to yours. So how do you make yours stand out from the rest?”

What sets one bar, restaurant, or hotel apart is the feeling a guest leaves with. It’s a feeling that is the product of intentional, meaningful hospitality.

Rethinking what’s on the menu

The first place hospitality shows up is on the menu — not just in what’s offered, but in how it’s offered and whom it’s meant to include.

Take the rise of zero and low ABV cocktails. “Not everybody is drinking anymore,” Flynn said, “but people still want that human connection.” Not long ago, non drinkers were sidelined with soda water or something cloyingly sweet or and fluorescent. Today, many bars give spirit free drinks the same craft, care, and presentation as their booze forward counterparts. It’s not just about inclusion, it’s also a business strategy that reflects evolving guest priorities.

Sustainability, too, has become central. At the Sidecar in Dublin, the team pushes toward zero waste, such as dehydrating and reusing citrus peels. “It also makes for a good story,” Flynn said. “It’s something you remember, something you share with friends, a really cool moment that builds identity.”

Whether it’s thoughtful menu design or ethical sourcing, offerings set the tone for how a guest experiences a space, and whether they feel it was built with them in mind.

Interactions are the real differentiator

The way bartenders engage with guests, even in fleeting moments, can turn a solid experience into a memorable one.

At the Connaught Bar in London’s Mayfair neighborhood — widely regarded as one of the best in the world — hospitality is quietly personal. Bartenders offer tableside service, yes, but they also hand out small printed recipe cards with each drink, a simple touch guests can take home as a souvenir.

“For any drink you order, they’ll also give you a little recipe card that you can take home,” Flynn said. “That is such an easy way of making people remember the experience. It costs them almost nothing to make that connection and encourage people to come back again and again and form memories … but then you’re also making for a really nice individual experience.”

Free marketing, yes, but more importantly, a tangible memory. “Technology will never be able to do that,” Flynn said. AI might suggest a drink pairing; only a human can make someone feel special enough to want a keepsake.

Design as the subconscious language of space

Design isn’t just about aesthetics, it’s about vibe and atmosphere. Even subtle choices in a layout or structure can completely shift the experience.

Take, for instance, a Frank Lloyd Wright designed home in Buffalo, New York, where the living room ceiling was intentionally lowered to encourage people to sit and stay a while. “It makes people subconsciously think, ‘Oh, I should sit, I should stay a while, I should have a conversation,’” Flynn said. That kind of design logic, he applies just as easily to a bar or restaurant.

Consider Dublin’s traditional snugs — small, semi private alcoves nestled into older pubs. “Those also make for individual moments, encourage people to stay longer, and are just really nice,” Flynn said. Unlike open concept spaces built for visibility and performance, snugs invite intimacy. They’re not about showing off, they’re about settling in.

“It’s not something that everybody can change immediately,” Flynn said. “But as you think of design, there are small things that you can implement that make a kind of subconscious change.”

Tech is here to help — but it’s not the point

Technology belongs behind the scenes, not front and center. The value of AI tools lies in streamlining time consuming back end tasks such as inventory and accounting.

The point isn’t to resist innovation, it’s to use it to protect the things that matter most: eye contact, warmth, and all the intangible elements of service that bring people back.

Because no matter how advanced technology becomes, it won’t change what guests actually remember. “Things always change. There’s always new technology,” Flynn said. “But just think of the core value of what we do and why we do it … that stands out more than anything.”