the technology It is developing so rapidly that it has reached the point of replacing employees in stores with… Robot. Specifically in Restaurants the waiters They have been replaced by waist-high robots that can greet guests, guide them to their tables, serve food and drink, and carry dirty dishes back to the kitchen.
some have faces They look like cats when they can purr Client They scratch their heads. But are waiter robots the future? This is the a question to which the catering industry is required to respond. Many believe that Robotics Waiters are the answer to the labor shortage in the industry. In recent years, sales of robot waiters have skyrocketed, while tens of thousands have invaded restaurant halls and catering facilities around the world. Machines.
according to his manager Hilton School of Global Hospitality Leadership at the University of Houston, Dennis Reynolds, in the Associated Press, “There is no doubt in my mind that this is where the world is headed.” The restaurant at his school started using the robot in December. As Reynolds notes, it has eased the workload on human employees since then, instead service It has become much more than that effective.
Opinions differ as many believe it is nothing more than a hoax, in order to get to the point of replacing humans it still has a long way to go. Bots are not able to take requests while many Restaurants they have steps, Outdoor bleachers and other physical and structural challenges that robots cannot adapt to.
“Restaurants are very messy places, so it’s very difficult to complete the automation in a really productive way.” th notes vice president company Forrester Consultants Who studies automation, Craig Le Claire.
Her company, Bear Robotics, is based in Redwood City California It recently introduced the Servi bot in 2021 and is expected, by the end of this year, to have deployed 10,000 bots in 44 US states and outside. Shenzhen-based Bodo robots China, Founded in 2016, it has developed more than 56,000 bots worldwide. Phil Zheng of Richtech Robotics, an Austin-based manufacturer, explains that, “Every restaurant chain is looking for as much automation as possible. Within the next year or two we will see them everywhere.”
the summer to 2021 the Lee Chai He had trouble finding staff at Noodle Topia, his restaurant in Madison Heights Michigan. I bought BellaBot from Pudu Robotics. The project has been so successful that it has added two more robots to the store – one to guide customers to their seats and one to serve dishes of steaming noodles to the tables. the the people Employees stack dirty dishes on a third robot that takes them back to the kitchen.
now ya Chai just needs three persons To handle the same amount of work that was done by five or six people. This saves him money because the robot costs about $15,000 while, he says, A.J employee cost him 5,000 to 6,000 dollars a month. In addition, he explains, bots give human waiters more time to interact with customers, which increases tips. Customers often post videos of the robots on social media, to attract other customers to the restaurants. In addition to providing employment, robots are creating businessesHe confirmed.
the interactions to human crew With robots it may differ. Betzy Giron Reynosa, who works with BellaBot at The Sushi Factory in West Melbourne, Florida, points out that the bot can be annoying. “You can’t really tell it to get out of the way or anything,” he says, adding that some restaurant customers don’t want to interact with the device. However, she also admits that it’s an advantage at work because it gives her the ability to go back and forth in the kitchen and allows her to spend more time interacting with customers.
On a global scale, the Labor shortage Accelerate adoption of a bot solution, Le Claire explains. in United States of America, The restaurant industry employed 15 million people at the end of last year. Even those, however, are 400,000 fewer than before the pandemic, according to the National Restaurant Association. A recent survey showed that 62% of catering companies say they do not have enough staff to meet demand.
as he says Karthik Namasivayam, Director of the School of Hospitality at Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business, these also paved the way for robotic waiters. “Once an entrepreneur begins to understand and work with technology, other technologies become less intimidating and will be easier to accept as we move forward.”He explained that public acceptance of bot servers is already high in Asia. For example, Pizza Hut has automated servers in 1,000 restaurants in China.
the United States of America It has been slower to adopt the technology that some chains are now testing. In several US locations, it is currently being tested by Chick Phil A. The company notes that the robots give human employees more time to refill drinks, clean tables, and greet guests.
Recently, when he saw a robotic waiter at Chick-fil-A in Atlanta, Marcus Merritt was amazed. the Machine It doesn’t seem to replace it Work crew, He said, and noticed that he counted 13 employees In the Shop The workers told him that the robot was helping the service move a little faster. He was happy when the robot wished him a great day and expects to see more robots when he goes out to eat. “I think technology is now part of our daily lives. Everyone has a cell phone, and everyone uses some form of computer,” He said himself who owns a marketing company. “It’s the natural progression of things,” Write.
However, not all companies are satisfied with bots. Chili’s introduced a robotic waiter named Rita in 2020 and expanded the experience to 61 restaurants in the United States. Last August, he suddenly stopped using it. As people at chain restaurants found, Rita moved very slowly and got in the way of the usual waiters. In a related survey that customers of the chain were asked to answer, 58% said that “Rita” did not improve their overall experience.
her hot pot series China, the heidilaw, I started using robots to deliver dishes to tables to Client, a year ago. Many store managers have claimed that robots are nowhere near as reliable or cost effective as humans. Wang Long, manager of one of the chain’s stores in Beijing, pointed out that the two robots he was using were broken. “We only used it occasionally. Machines are a kind of anxiety and machines will never be able to replace humans.” Confirms.
Finally, what is expected by namasivayam is that a certain percentage of restaurants – maybe 30% – will continue to use human waiters and will be more upscale. The rest will depend more on robots in the kitchen and halls. As he explains, the economy is on the side of robotics, as the cost of human labor will continue to rise, while the cost of technology will fall.
However, this is not the future that many want to see. Saru Jayaraman, who advocates for higher wages for restaurant workers as president of One Fair Wage, said restaurants could easily solve the labor shortage if they paid workers higher wages. “People don’t go to a restaurant to be served by technology”He says. “They go out to experience their service and the people they care about. That service can only be provided by someone else.” stated.
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