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NewsroomThe End Of The Till
The end of the till.
Thought LeadershipRestaurants & Bars

The end of the till.

Tills are 140-year-old solutions to a problem hospitality no longer has. The next decade is ambient.

DK
Dom KowalskiCEO, Dines
11 April 2026 9 min read
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The till was invented in 1879 to stop staff stealing. Most of the things we still build into POS are descendants of that original problem. Hospitality has moved on. The till hasn't.

01 — The next decade is ambientPay when you walk out, not when you order.

The defining technology shift of the 2020s in hospitality isn't AI menus or robotic kitchens. It's the disappearance of the cashier moment — the bit where the customer has to stop, queue, tap, sign, leave.

If we do this right, no-one notices we did anything at all.

— Dom Kowalski
DK
Dom KowalskiCEO, Dines

Dom co-founded Dines after fifteen years operating multi-site restaurants.