Connect with us

Technology

UK Consumers Rethink How, When and Where They Dine Out as Budgets Tighten, Popmenu Study Finds

Published

on

Consumers currently spend 25% of their monthly food budget on restaurants, but most are cutting backSkipping alcohol, dining early and choosing children’s meals for adults are among ways consumers are managing spend at restaurants64% are good with restaurants using AI to enhance service

LONDON, Sept. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Economic pressure on UK households hasn’t caused consumers to give up on eating out, but they are getting creative with how they make their money go further. Today, UK consumers spend a quarter of their monthly food budgets on restaurants. Most (69%) say they are spending less on restaurants than they did a year ago, using cost-saving tactics such as replacing entrees with appetisers, eating children’s meals, drinking tap water, and collecting takeaways over delivery.

This is according to a new report by Popmenu, a restaurant technology leader that serves over 12,000 restaurants globally. The report, based on a study of 600 UK consumers from 31 August to 3 September 2026, explores current dining behaviours, preferences and expectations for restaurants.

“Two-thirds of Brits still eat out or order in at least once a week,” said Brendan Sweeney, CEO and Co-founder of Popmenu. “They’re just more intentional about every pound spent. Affordability is top of mind along with easy guest experiences and loyalty incentives. Digital hospitality is just as important to them as in-person hospitality and they’re happy for AI to help with both.”

How are leaner budgets influencing dining habits?

Half of UK consumers are cutting back on dinners at restaurants while others are curbing spend for other dayparts:

51% – Dinner30% – Lunch30% – Late-night bites21% – Breakfast20% – Snack

When asked how they keep eating out affordable, consumers pointed to the following:

52% – Choosing restaurants with less expensive menu items37% – Cutting back on alcohol34% – Drinking tap water instead of paying for a drink30% – Collecting orders rather than paying for delivery13% – Ordering a starter instead of a main12% – Ordering a children’s meal for an adult

Quick service (ex: McDonald’s), fast casual (ex: Nando’s) and casual (ex: Wagamama) restaurants remain the most visited types of restaurants.

What do consumers want from restaurants?

According to the research, they expect restaurants to make their choice easy: show up in search results, share visuals and reviews of dishes, offer deals and direct ordering, and provide incentives to come back.

SEO and AEO are table stakes: 88% use Google and other search engines to find restaurants; 19% use AI tools such as ChatGPT. Restaurants that rank high are chosen more often.Visuals close the deal: 89% are more likely to choose a menu with photos and reviews; 3 in 4 want to see dish videos.Direct ordering is preferred: 93% order on their phones, and 78% would download a restaurant’s app—63% are less likely to order if they’re sent to a third-party site.Value drives spending: 64% prefer restaurants with inexpensive meal options and special deals; 66% will spend more if there’s a discount.A little VIP treatment goes a long way: 51% are more likely to choose restaurants with a loyalty programme; 75% are willing to join a restaurant’s mailing list and 47% want to hear from their favourite spots at least once a week.AI is enhancing hospitality: 60% are ok with restaurants using AI to provide better, faster service, from answering phones and taking orders to preparing and serving food.

Survey Methodology

Popmenu conducted an anonymous, nationwide survey of 600 consumers, ages 18 and older, from 31 August to 3 September 2026.

About Popmenu

As a leader in restaurant technology, Popmenu is on a mission to make profitable growth easy for all restaurants. Digital marketing, online ordering, and on-premise technologies headline a powerful product suite infused with artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and deep data on guest preferences. The company consolidates tools needed to engage guests, serving as a digital control center for more than 12,000 independent restaurants and hospitality groups in the UK, US, Canada and Mexico. For more information, visit popmenu.co.uk.

Media Contact
Jennifer Grasz
VP of Marketing, Popmenu
Jennifer.Grasz@popmenu.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/uk-consumers-rethink-how-when-and-where-they-dine-out-as-budgets-tighten-popmenu-study-finds-302893180.html

Continue Reading

Technology

Smart, Secure and Scalable: Flatworld Mortgage Reimagines Mortgage Operations

Published

on

By

Automation and agentic AI, powered by MSuite, run directly across onboarding, processing, underwriting, QC, closing and servicing.Every automated output is checked at a defined human checkpoint before it becomes a lending decision, backed by SOC 2 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001, and ISO 9001:2015 certificationFlatworld Mortgage has already absorbed 100% more loan volume at 24–48 hours’ notice

PRINCETON, N.J., Sept. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Flatworld Mortgage Solutions LLC, a strategic player in the mortgage processing space across the US announced a brand relaunch built on three pillars, Smart, Secure and Scalable, that reflects an operational transformation already running in production. With more than a decade running the US mortgage back office, Flatworld Mortgage has watched rising costs, heavier compliance scrutiny, and unpredictable loan volume stretch the industry’s legacy cost-driven operating model past its limit. This transformation replaces headcount-driven processing with automation and agentic AI built directly into origination workflows, across underwriting support, QC, closing and post-closing.

Smart. MSuite, the AI platform, indexes more than 1 million pages a month across 450-plus document types at a 90%+ accuracy rate. It also runs automated income, asset, and credit review and undisclosed debt notification (UDN) processing. The workflow itself has changed, not just its speed: an agent now owns a part of each file end to end, reviewing it, requesting what’s missing and escalating only when a decision needs judgment, which eliminates handoffs rather than speeding them up. Work that used to take a person the better part of a day, is now completed in minutes.

Secure. Human-in-the-loop checkpoints are built into each workflow alongside the automation, so only genuine exceptions reach a person. In underwriting, for example, an agent pre-clears the conditions it can verify and flags the rest for an underwriter; the underwriter always has control over the credit decision. Each checkpoint is designed to be auditable, and data handling is secure, under SOC 2 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001, and ISO 9001:2015 certification held at the Flatworld Solutions group level.

Scalable. In production, Flatworld Mortgage has already absorbed 100% more loan volume at 24 to 48 hours’ notice, without a corresponding hiring cycle, with processing up to 40% faster than in-house baselines and a 55% net financial benefit in average cost savings and financial returns.

Speaking about the launch, David Antony, CEO of Flatworld Mortgage said “Most AI in mortgage gets bolted onto an existing workflow. We took the opposite approach: we rebuilt the workflow first, decided what AI should do and what a person should own, and only then automated it. In a regulated industry, you can’t say the AI made the call and I don’t know why, someone must own that outcome. That’s not a technology upgrade. It’s a different way of building a mortgage operation.”

Flatworld Mortgage is bringing the Smart, Secure, Scalable platform into conversations with lenders, servicers, and title companies this fall.

About Flatworld Mortgage

Flatworld Mortgage provides comprehensive solutions and BI/analytics services to lenders, brokers, servicers, correspondent lenders, and title companies across the US. The company runs around-the-clock operations, backed by a leadership team with decades of combined experience in US mortgage lending and regulation, and pairs that process expertise with MSuite, its automation and agentic AI platform. Flatworld Mortgage is based in Princeton, New Jersey.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smart-secure-and-scalable-flatworld-mortgage-reimagines-mortgage-operations-302893891.html

SOURCE Flatworld Mortgage Solutions LLC

Continue Reading

Technology

Valtech Valuation Puts Accountable Professional Judgement at the Heart of AI-Enhanced Valuation

Published

on

By

Valtech combines AI-driven modelling with hands-on professional oversight to deliver transparent, review-friendly valuations for tax, statutory and transaction purposes

HONG KONG and SINGAPORE, Sept. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Valtech Valuation (“Valtech”) has enhanced its various programmes and models to improve the quality of its valuation deliverables. The firm uses AI to strengthen its work while keeping qualified professionals fully involved and accountable for every valuation opinion.

Competition in the professional services sector is becoming increasingly intense, and there are now one-person companies empowered by AI. As AI becomes more widely used, and as global enterprises encourage and train their teams to apply it more broadly, valuation deliverables are becoming increasingly similar.

Based on league table statistics from webbsite.0xmd.com, Valtech estimates that more than 100 valuation firms are assisting Hong Kong-listed companies with their valuation work. Beyond Hong Kong SAR, Valtech has gained clients in Singapore and the wider Asia Pacific region, as well as US-listed multinational corporations and startups. These clients need valuation services for tax and statutory purposes, where a qualified professional is held accountable.

A Differentiated Approach to AI

Almost every week, AI solution providers and platforms approach Valtech with AI-based valuation tools that promise to automate and streamline valuation work to save time and cost. Using technology has always been at the core of Valtech’s business strategy and philosophy. However, Valtech firmly believes that challenging queries arising from AI-generated work cannot simply be resolved by another AI to the satisfaction of auditors and regulators.

Instead, Valtech uses AI to significantly enhance the modelling process and to produce valuation summaries and presentation slides that are easy to use and easy to review. At the same time, Valtech builds established valuation and forecasting methods and techniques into its models to prevent errors and improve transparency.

Business valuation for potential transactions is one example. Clients often want to include an independent valuation analysis in their pitch deck for fundraising, or as part of due diligence in merger and acquisition transactions. Valtech can provide slide presentations summarising the whole process, the key valuation inputs, sensitivity analysis and more. This allows readers to quickly understand how the valuation is derived and review the underlying assumptions.

“As professionals, we are responsible for our opinions and judgements, and full automation is not something we aim to provide,” said Max Tsang, Director of Valtech Valuation. “AI is a powerful tool embedded in our valuation process to reduce formula and calculation errors and improve the quality of our work. But our professional valuers insist on actively participating in the modelling process, exercising valuation judgement, and being held accountable for it. That is why Valtech can always fully explain its valuation opinions.”

Until standard regulatory or statutory guidelines on the use of AI in valuation are established, Valtech will continue to explain to clients which parts of the work still require significant professional effort. Its professional valuers must still evaluate a large amount of information before forming reasonable valuation judgements.

About Valtech Valuation

Valtech Valuation is an independent valuation advisory firm based in Hong Kong SAR and Singapore. It provides business, assets, financial instruments valuation services to listed companies, multinational corporations and startups across Hong Kong SAR, Singapore, the Asia Pacific region and the United States. Valtech integrates technology and AI into its modelling process while keeping qualified professional valuers fully accountable for every opinion. Its deliverables are designed to be transparent, easy to review and ready for auditors and regulators. Valtech team has qualifications of CPA, CFA, FRM, MRICS, CVA (Singapore), ABV (AICPA) and China Certified Public Valuer. For more information, visit https://valtech-valuation.com or https://valtech-valuation.sg

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/valtech-valuation-puts-accountable-professional-judgement-at-the-heart-of-ai-enhanced-valuation-302892730.html

SOURCE Valtech Valuation

Continue Reading

Technology

Ankura launches AI by Design practice to help organisations close the gap between AI ambition and adoption.

Published

on

By

Ankura, the U.S. PE-backed advisory firm, invests in new Data & AI capabilities in the UK and an ecosystem of specialist partners to close the adoption gap holding back the ROI of enterprise AI.

LONDON, Sept. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Ankura Consulting Group, LLC (“Ankura”), today announced the launch of Ankura, AI by Design, a new tech-agnostic practice in the UK, serving EMEA, which focuses on helping clients use AI to grow revenue, expand what organisations can achieve with AI, and lift underlying profit.

AI by Design is built on the conviction that AI should be shaped around the organisation: its ambitions, people, customers, and distinctive capabilities. Technology is an important part of that equation, however sustainable value depends on the strategy, operating model, skills, systems, governance, talent, and culture that allow AI to change how work gets done and enable organizations to achieve their strategic growth ambitions. This new practice reflects the increasing demand for practical, adoption-led AI advisory and builds directly on Ankura’s established strength in strategy, risk, technology, and workforce transformation.

“AI transformation programmes usually break down due to organizational challenges rather than the underlying technology itself. AI by Design is built by people who understand that, which is why I wanted to be part of it.” Hywel Ball, AI Advisory Council Member, Former EY UK Chair and Non-Executive Director.

Ankura, AI by Design’s proposition is structured around three integrated pillars, underpinned by an internal AI Factory that builds, tests, and deploys AI in real delivery environments:

AI Strategy: targeting topline growth opportunities for boards and leadership teams to unlockAI Governance Engineering: enabling organizations to manage AI risk and unlock value at scale by re-wiring the user experience of AI governance to be more intuitive and more efficient to operateAI Workforce Transformation: redesigning roles, reskilling people, and embedding human-centered change so AI adoption embeds across the organization

“Most enterprise AI stalls because organizations are not ready to adopt it, govern it, or redesign work and systems around it. Ankura, AI by Design closes that gap.” Catriona Campbell, MBE – Practice Lead for Ankura, AI by Design.

Ankura, AI by Design is led by a senior team with direct experience of successfully embedding AI and human-centered change inside global blue-chip multinationals across strategy, governance, and workforce transformation.

They are joined by a curated ecosystem of early-stage ‘best athlete’ partners; Decoded for AI literacy and workforce reskilling, Seymour-Powell for human-centred design, and Inference Group for AI engineering and delivery.

The practice is supported by an Advisory Council of senior figures from across technology, governance, academia, and industry, bringing an independent perspective on where AI is genuinely creating value, ensuring Ankura’s advice reflects the frontier of AI strategy, governance engineering, and workforce transformation.

“The technology has never been the biggest challenge. What matters is whether an organisation understands the outcomes they want to drive, and then designs how it works, governs, and trains its people around those outcomes. Ankura, AI by Design’s focus on the human and organisational side of deployment is exactly the discipline the private sector now needs too.” Dr Laura Gilbert CBE, AI Advisory Council Member, Senior AI advisor to UK government and industry.

“The investment in AI by Design strengthens Ankura’s commitment to helping clients turn AI ambition into measurable results,” said Kevin Lavin, CEO of Ankura. “Across every industry, the organizations that succeed with AI are the ones that bring their people with them, not just their technology. Ankura’s AI by Design practice helps our clients to adopt AI with confidence and turn it into real, lasting value.”

ABOUT ANKURA

Ankura Consulting Group, LLC is an independent global expert services and advisory firm that delivers end-to-end solutions to manage conflict, crisis, performance, risk, strategy, and transformation. Committed to its mission of Driving Excellence, Delivered with Humanity, Ankura has more than 2,000 professionals serving 3,000+ clients across 55 countries. For more information, please visit: ankura.com.

MEDIA CONTACT
Keelin McGrory
aibydesign@ankura.com 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/ankura-launches-ai-by-design-practice-to-help-organisations-close-the-gap-between-ai-ambition-and-adoption-302893367.html

Continue Reading

Trending