Every week, we round up the most interesting AI and technology news that matters for independent café and coffee shop owners. No jargon, no hype - just what you need to know and why it matters for your business.

Nearly Half of UK Operators Plan to Upgrade Their POS This Year

A survey by eZeepos found that nearly 50% of UK restaurant operators are planning to upgrade their point-of-sale systems in 2026. The drivers? AI-powered analytics, better integrations with inventory and accounting tools, and pressure to understand their numbers in real time rather than waiting for the monthly spreadsheet.

The UK POS software market is on track to hit $1.49 billion by 2030, expanding at 9.4% annually - with restaurant-specific POS growing even faster at 12.8%. The message from the industry is clear: your till is no longer just a till. It's becoming the operational hub that connects everything from your menu to your margins.

What this means for you: If you're still on a basic system that just takes payments and prints receipts, you're increasingly the exception. That doesn't mean you need to rush into an expensive upgrade - but it does mean the gap between what your POS could tell you and what it actually tells you is widening every quarter. Our POS integration guide breaks down what to look for when the time comes.

Read the full story on eZeepos →

Square Bolts AI Inventory onto Its POS - But at What Cost?

On 2 April, Square and MarketMan launched "Square Restaurant Inventory by MarketMan" - AI-driven ingredient tracking, recipe management, and waste monitoring baked directly into the Square ecosystem. It's live in the UK and six other markets.

The feature list is impressive: real-time inventory synced to your sales data, automated purchase orders, invoice scanning, vendor management, and loss trend analysis. MarketMan already serves over 15,000 restaurants across 55 countries. But look past the headline and a few things stand out.

First, the price. It requires Square Plus or Premium (so you're already paying a monthly fee) and costs an additional $99 per month per location on top. For a growing multi-site brand doing £1m+ turnover, that's a rounding error. For a single-site café watching every pound, it's another £80+ before you've even seen a return.

Second, the lock-in. This isn't MarketMan as a standalone product - it's MarketMan inside Square, using Square credentials, on your Square bill. If you ever move POS, your inventory system goes with it. That's a feature if you're committed to Square long-term. It's a risk if you're not.

What this means for you: Square clearly sees the future of POS as an operational hub, not just a payment terminal - and they're right about that. But this product is aimed at growing restaurant brands with multiple locations, not the single-site indie café that makes up most of Square's UK user base. If you're a solo operator who needs ingredient-level costing and invoice tracking, there are lighter, more affordable alternatives that don't tie you to one ecosystem. The capability is right. The price point and the lock-in aren't - at least not for most independents.

Read the full story on PYMNTS →

DoorDash Completes £2.9 Billion Deliveroo Takeover

It's official. DoorDash has formally completed its $3.9 billion (£2.9 billion) acquisition of Deliveroo, creating a delivery giant operating across 45 markets worldwide - 30 of them in Europe. The combined operation now handles roughly $90 billion in annual orders.

DoorDash CEO Tony Xu has been reassuring: "The Deliveroo app and products you know and love aren't going anywhere." The UK delivery market is now effectively a three-way race between DoorDash/Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Just Eat. Deliveroo's 138,000+ riders and 176,000 restaurant partners all sit under the DoorDash umbrella alongside Wolt, which DoorDash acquired in 2022.

What this means for you: If your café is on Deliveroo, your delivery partner just changed ownership. Short term, expect continuity - DoorDash wants to retain partners and customers. Medium term, consolidation usually means the platform has more leverage. With fewer competitors, cafés have less ability to play platforms off each other on commission rates. Now is a good time to review your delivery margins and ask yourself whether building a direct ordering channel - even a simple one through your own website - should be higher up the priority list. Your POS data already tells you what sells - the question is whether a 25-35% platform commission is eating your margin on those items.

Read the full story on New Food Magazine →

More Than Half of Consumers Now Welcome Tech in Hospitality

Research presented at Hospitality Tech360 at ExCeL London last week found that 52% of consumers now say technology plays a key role in the best hospitality experiences. Crucially, those who embrace technology spend an average of £17 more per month than those who prefer human-only interaction.

But here's the balance: 48% still say human interaction is the most critical factor. The event brought together over 2,000 senior hospitality leaders and 60+ technology providers, with sessions covering everything from AI analytics to workforce management. Tommy Giraux from Honest Burgers summed it up: "It's one of the few events where the conversation goes beyond hype."

What this means for you: This is the data point that settles the "should I invest in tech?" debate. Half your customers actively welcome it - and they spend more. But nearly half still prioritise the human touch above all. The sweet spot for indie cafés isn't choosing one or the other. It's using tech to remove friction (faster payments, smarter ordering, loyalty that actually works) while keeping the warmth and personality that brings people through the door. Modular tools let you start with one thing that makes a difference and build from there - you don't need to overhaul everything at once.

Read the full story on The Caterer →

Google Wants AI to Do Your Customers' Shopping

Google has launched what it calls "agentic commerce" - AI agents built into Gemini and Google Search that can discover products, compare options, add to cart, and complete purchases on a customer's behalf. Gap is the first major brand live, with shoppers able to buy clothes directly inside Gemini without ever visiting Gap's website.

The underlying technology is Google's Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), co-developed with Shopify, Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, and over 20 other companies. It's designed as an open standard, and Google has explicitly said small businesses are next. A "Business Agent" chat button is already appearing on Google Search results for partnered retailers.

What this means for you: This is early days, but the direction is clear. Imagine a customer asking their phone "order me a bag of beans from a local roaster" and the AI handling it end-to-end - finding you, checking stock, completing payment. For cafés selling retail products online (beans, merch, gift cards), this could change how customers discover and buy from you without ever visiting your website. The big payment rails (Stripe, Visa, Mastercard) are already on board. It's not something to act on today, but it's worth watching closely - especially if you sell anything beyond what's on your café counter.

Read the full story on CNBC →

The Brikly Take

There's a thread running through every story this week: the tools are getting smarter, faster, and more connected. Square is bolting AI inventory onto its POS. Google is building checkout into its search engine. Half of UK operators are upgrading their systems this year because they know the gap between "data-rich" and "flying blind" is getting wider.

But here's what matters for independent operators: smarter tools don't help if they cost more than the margin they save, or if they lock you into a platform that just got swallowed by a bigger fish.

The 52% of consumers who welcome tech in hospitality aren't asking for robots or AI checkout. They're asking for things to work - for their order to be right, for the loyalty card to actually reward them, for the café to know what it's doing. You don't need a £250/month platform to deliver that. You need the right data in the right place at the right time.

The Weekly Grind is published every Monday by Brikly - modular intelligence tools for independent café and coffee shop owners. Got a story we should cover? Get in touch →

Ed O'Brien has run Hunters Cake Company for 17 years across cafés in Witney, Burford, and a bakery in Carterton, Oxfordshire. He's building Brikly - modular tools that give independent café owners the same data the big chains have, without the big chain price tag.