Tech Takeover: Why Some Restaurants Swear by Robot Waiters

You may have already seen some robot waiters in some restaurants. Waist-high machines greet the customers, lead them to their tables, provide food and drink to their tables, and bring up the dirty plates to the kitchen. Some of these machines have cat-like faces, and they even purr while you scratch their heads.

But are these Robot waiters the future of restaurants? The restaurants are trying to find out the answer to the question right now. Many think these robot waiters are the solution to this industry because of the labor shortage. In the last few years, the sales of robot waiters have increased massively. With tens of thousands gliding through the dining room throughout the world.

According to Dennis Reynold, Dean of the Helton College of Global Hospitality Leadership at the University of Houston in the US state of Texas, “There’s no doubt in my mind that this is where the world is going.

The School’s restaurant started to use a robot in December, and according to Reynold, it has eased the workload for the human employees and made the work more effective. But others stated that robot waiters are not much more than a gimmick with a long way to go before they can replace human staff.

The robot waiters are unable to take orders, many restaurants have outdoor patios, steps, and some other physical challenges they can’t adopt. Restaurants are quite chaotic spaces so it is hard to implement automation into it. But still, robots are proliferating.

Acceptance boosted by the pandemic:

Pandemic-era concerns about hygiene and some new adoption of technology such as QR code menus also led the ground for robotics, stated KarthikNamsivayam, the Director of the hospitality business at Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business.“Once an operator begins to understand and proceed with one technology, other technologies become less daunting and will be much more readily accepted as we go forward”. He stated. He also notes that public acceptance of Robot servers is already high in Asia. Pizza Hut has robot servers in 1,000 restaurants in China.

The United States is slower to accept robots, but some industries are testing them. Chick-fil-A is trying them at multiple U.S. locations.It is assumed that these Robot servers will provide human employees more time to have refreshing drinks, clear tables, and greet guests.

Marcus Merritt was surprised to see a Robot server at Chick-fil-A in Atlanta recently. He said the robot did not seem to be replacing the human staff. Marcus Merritt also added that he has counted 13 employees at the store, and the workers confessed to him that the robot helps the service move a little faster.

Marcus Merritt was delighted to hear a great day from the robot and expects to see more robots when he goes out to eat. Merritt stated that “ I think technology is part of our normal now. Everybody has a cellphone, everybody uses some form of computer.” Merritt owns a marketing business, it is a natural progression.

“The machine can never replace humans’:

All the chains will not be succeeded with Robots.

Chili’s introduced a robot server named Rita in 2020 and expanded the test to 61 US restaurants before abruptly halting it last August. The chain has found that Rita moved too slowly and got in the way of human servers. According to some surveys, 58% of the guests stated that Rita has not improved their overall experience.

Haidilao, a hot pot chain in China, begins using robots years ago for delivering food to the dinner tables. But managers of several outlets stated that the robots have not proved as reliable and cost-effective as human servers.

Wang Long, the manager of the Beijing outlet, stated that his two robots have been broken down. Wang said, “We only used them now and then”. Also added, “It is a sort of concept thing and the machine can never replace humans”.

Is human service a premium?

Namasivayam expects that a certain percentage of restaurants-maybe 30% will continue to have human servers and these restaurants will be considered more luxurious. And the rest will lean more heavily on robots in the kitchen and in the dining rooms.

Economics is on the side of robots. He continued, the cost of human labor will continue to rise, but the costs of technology will fall.

But that is not the future everyone wants to see. One advocate who has fought for restaurant workers suggested that restaurant can easily solve their robot problems if they pay more to the restaurant workers.

“Humans don’t go to a full-service restaurant to be served by technology”, SaruJayaram said. She also added that “the humans go for the experience of themselves and people they care about being served by humans”.