Technology has come a long way in the world of pizza. Ovens are faster, and innovative machines remove the need for labor in the kitchen. At the same time, social media is empowering business owners to reach new customers.
Because of this, a quiet battle is shaping the future of one of the world’s most beloved foods. As innovation promises speed, consistency, and scale, traditional pizza shops counter with craftsmanship, authenticity, and soul — raising a question: In the race to redefine pizza, what are we willing to lose, and what might we gain?
Some towns have foundational family-owned pizzerias, while in others, franchise pizza like Domino’s and Little Caesars may be all that is available. At the end of March, the International Pizza Expo bridged these worlds and showcased what innovative technologies can do for modern-day pizza while remembering the traditions that got pizza to this point.
“There's some people who get a misconception on it, that automation is destroying the product, to the point where that's not true,” said Mark McCarty.
McCarty works for Reiser, a company that ushered in manufacturing innovations in the early 1970s. The company was showing its “V-Mag” at the expo, a large, conical-shaped machine that produces consistently shaped doughballs every five seconds.
“You can make dough in the morning, make cookies and bars in the afternoon,” McCarty said. “So the versatility of our equipment is really wide-ranging.”
McCarty said large franchises like Domino’s and Papa Johns rely on Reiser’s machines to help make pizza faster and more consistent while reducing the amount of physical labor involved.
“You want to run your business,” McCarty said. “You don't want to be stuck back on the dough bench making dough all day and eating up all your labor and your time, because then it doesn't become profitable.”
While tech innovations can help boost revenue and save owners time, two pizzerias from different states expressed the importance of retaining as much of the human element as possible for the sake of authenticity.
At Zion Pizza and Noodle Company in Springdale, Utah, owner Josh Vanderwerff understands why innovative technology is used but believes traditional handmade methods of pizza making create authenticity for the customer.
“I think there's just a personal connection that people search for,” Vanderwerff said. “And it feels good to offer that.”
Sean Paty, co-owner of Gino's Italian Joint in Richmond, Texas, said human connection between them and their customers is a cohesive bond integral to their business.
“It's huge,” Paty said. “Because you can have the best food in the world, but if you don't have a connection with your customers, they may not come back.”
When asked about technology innovations like Reiser’s V-Mag, both pizzerias understood why companies would use one, but for them, the human touch is what sets their pizza apart from large franchises.
“Maybe I like imperfect, because I want to feel it,” Vanderwerff said. “I want to know it, not because I looked at the scale, but because I grabbed it and said, yeah, that's right.”
Gino Paty is the culinary talent in charge of the menu and the inspiration for the name of Gino's Italian Joint. He echoed the importance of the human element in pizza making.
“There is that human touch that, when you feel that through the food, it tastes better,” he said. “And when it comes off a conveyor belt, this isn't the same.”
He added he strives for perfection and, at times, has even made others believe his pizza was made by a machine.
“It's so funny,” Paty said. “I'm like, OK, maybe I need to mess it up a little bit.”
Another area of innovation is social media. Social media connects people around the world and allows them to see for themselves what is trending and popular in any subject.
Scott Wiener hosted a panel discussing data on the top trends in 2026. He showed line graphs to back up his arguments and made the distinction between what is considered a trend and what is just hype.
“A trend is when that line is going up, not when the line spikes up; it's when the line is crawling,” he said.
According to Wiener, the top trending style of pizza is Detroit-style, which has seen a 420% increase in menu additions over the past 10 years. However, a trend Weiner said is dying is the cheese-pull trend, which was very popular from late 2018 through 2022.
“There's an emphasis — I should say, a de-emphasis — on impressing the consumer with an overload of cheese, a better emphasis on a reminder to the consumer that mozzarella, in particular, is not a strong flavor carrier.”
Wiener said people are falling out of love with franchise pizza and that small chains are thriving due to their focus on innovation, simplifying the industry while looking forward.
“You don't have to stick with what was,” he said. “You have to think about what you want it to be. And that's why pizza only exists today, because it's been changed over the past 300+ years. If it stayed the same, we wouldn't be sitting in this room. I probably wouldn't care about it at all.”
Another trend in pizza deals with flavor combinations.
Research and development chef Junnie Lai hosted a panel discussing a social media trend that incorporates flavor profiles from other cultures into pizza and how that can appeal to a wider audience and boost business.
“This is very important that we don't put ourselves in a box while we do innovation,” Lai said. “We actually have to slowly remove some of these walls around us so that we can innovate with trends in mind.”
Lai added pizza is no longer just tomato sauce and cheese and shared various unique pizza ideas like cream of mushroom soup pizza, a Korean bulgogi pizza and a Middle Eastern plant-forward pizza with a hummus sauce base.
Pizza is an international comfort food that is adapting to the modern day through “cutting crust” tech innovations and a focus on social media presence, and the International Pizza Expo successfully connects those various branches, allowing anyone attending — pizza professional or not — to see for themselves the direction the pizza industry is going.
