Why Automated Restaurants May Be the Future of the Industry

Although robot technology was already entering the food service segment prior to COVID-19, the impact of the lockdown and severity of the virus has made the contact-free offerings of these autonomous creations more appealing. Robotics have traditionally been key components in manufacturing sectors such as automotive and aviation, but were relatively sparse in customer-facing segments such as hospitality and food service. Now, that is starting to change.

Whether it be robot waiters in the Netherlands or a fully automated restaurant in China, the idea of human-free dining service has re-entered the public consciousness as customers look for ways to alleviate the anxiety of eating out. Some of these robots even measure patrons’ temperatures before they enter the restaurant.

Box’d — billed as Canada's first fully automated restaurant — opened this month in the midst of the pandemic. Customers order via a branded app or the Box’d website and pick up their meals from an electronic cubby fueled by Givex technology. The restaurant may be competing with delivery apps, but at Box’d, food is picked up hot and fresh, unlike meals that arrive via third-party courier. 

There are several issues with these robotic concepts, however. For one, not all customers are thrilled at the idea of being served by an automated bot. In a PwC study from 2017/18, 71% of Americans said they would rather interact with a human than a chatbot or some other automated process.

To combat this, Box’d founder Mohamad Fakih has designed human touchpoints to bridge the gap between hospitality and technology — something that has caused the downfall of other automated restaurants. At Box’d, a concierge greets customers, helping them navigate ordering systems and enforcing social distancing regulations. Plus, food is prepared by real chefs, not machines. A glass window into the kitchen allows customers to watch chefs prepping, cutting and preparing dishes. This also ensures that increasing automation does not come at the cost of actual human jobs, especially during a time of record unemployment.

From an owner-operator standpoint, this impersonal experience may be contradictory to the reason they originally entered a business of razor-thin margins — they love serving people. Also, the upfront cost of many of these pieces of technology would make them unsuitable to the mom-and-pop establishments that are struggling during this time.

Still, many franchisors have been incorporating automation into their model in recent years. Domino’s announced last year that it had entered into a partnership with Nuro, a robotics delivery start-up, to test using its robots to transport pizzas from a store in Houston. The brand has also partnered with Flirtey to deliver pizzas by autonomous drones in New Zealand and even built its own delivery robot in Australia. Last year, McDonald’s announced it would be testing robotic deep fryers, which fry chicken, fish and fries using automated technology. Einstein Bros. Bagels launched robot delivery on Northern Arizona University's Flagstaff campus last year as well.

Several tech companies are recognizing this demand in the QSR segment. Miso Robotics developed Flippy, an autonomous robotic kitchen assistant that learns from its surroundings and acquires new skills via deep learning techniques. Flippy, a vision-guided collaborative robot system, can cook food consistently every time and offers features such as automatic tool switching and cleaning, OSHA safety compliance, washdown compatibility, cloud-based monitoring and learning and currently runs with 99.7% uptime.

While this kind of technology is revolutionary within the restaurant industry, it is not perfect. According to a IDC survey, 25% of companies report up to a 50% failure rate for their AI projects. This could spell trouble for franchisors, as technology malfunctions can result in privacy threats for diners and reputational risks for restaurants. 

But in the time of COVID-19, change seems to be the only option.