You’ll have seen them in restaurants before: waist-high machines that may greet guests, guide them to their tables, deliver food and drinks, and carry dirty dishes into the kitchen. Some have cat faces and even purr while you scratch their head.
But are robot waiters the future? It is a query that the restaurant industry is attempting to answer increasingly often.
Many imagine that robotic waiters are the solution to the industry’s labor shortages. Their sales have skyrocketed in recent times, with tens of 1000’s circulating in dining rooms around the world.
“I even have little question the world is moving in that direction,” said Dennis Reynolds, dean of the Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership at the University of Houston. The college’s restaurant began using the robot in December, and Reynolds says it has reduced staff workload and made service more efficient.
But others argue that robot waiters are nothing greater than a gimmick that has a protracted option to go before it could actually replace humans. They cannot take orders, and plenty of restaurants have stairs, outdoor patios, and other physical challenges they can not adapt to.
“Restaurants are pretty chaotic places, so it’s totally difficult to automate in a way that is really productive,” said Craig Le Clair, vice chairman of consulting firm Forrester that studies automation.
Nevertheless, robots multiply. Bear Robotics, headquartered in Redwood City, California, introduced its Servi robot in 2021 and expects to deploy 10,000 robots in 44 U.S. states and internationally by the end of this 12 months. Founded in 2016, Pudu Robotics, headquartered in Shenzhen, China, has deployed greater than 56,000 robots worldwide.
“Every restaurant chain strives for as much automation as possible,” said Phil Zheng of Richtech Robotics, an Austin-based manufacturer of robot servers. “People will see them in all places in the next 12 months or two.”
In the summer of 2021, Li Zhai had trouble finding staff for Noodle Topia, his restaurant in Madison Heights, Michigan, so he purchased a BellaBot from Pudu Robotics. The robot was so successful that he added two more; now one robot guides diners to their seats while one other delivers bowls of steaming noodles to tables. Staff stack the dirty dishes on a 3rd robot that returns to the kitchen.
Now Zhai only needs three people to handle the same size of business as 5 – 6 people used to do. They usually save him money. He said a robot costs around $15,000, but an individual costs $5,000 to $6,000 a month.
Zhai said the robots give human servers more time to interact with customers, which increases the variety of suggestions. And customers often post robot videos on social media that encourage others to go to.
“Along with saving manpower, robots generate business,” he said.
Interactions with human servers may vary. Betzy Giron Reynosa, who works with BellaBot at The Sushi Factory in West Melbourne, Florida, said the robot might be a nuisance.
“You possibly can’t really say it moved or anything like that,” she said. She also had clients who didn’t need to interact along with her.
But overall, the robot is a plus, she said. This protects her going backwards and forwards to the kitchen and she or he has more time for purchasers.
Labor shortages have accelerated the adoption of robots around the world, Le Clair said. Based on the National Restaurant Association in the United States, the restaurant industry employed 15 million people at the end of last 12 months, however it was still 400,000 fewer than before the pandemic. In a recent survey, 62% of restaurant operators told the association that they didn’t have enough staff to satisfy customer demands.
Pandemic-era concerns about hygiene and the adoption of recent technologies equivalent to QR code menus have also laid the groundwork for robotics, said Karthik Namasivayam, director of The School of Hospitality Business at Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business.
“Once an operator starts to know and work with one technology, other technologies will turn into less daunting and way more readily accepted as they progress,” he said.
Namasivayam notes that social acceptance of robot servers is already high in Asia. For instance, Pizza Hut has robot servers in 1,000 restaurants in China.
The US has been slower to adopt robots, but some networks at the moment are testing them. Chick-fil-A is trying them out in multiple US locations and says the robots give human staff more time to refresh 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 didn’t appear to exchange staff; counted 13 employees in the store, and the employees told him that the robot was helping the staff move a little bit faster. He was delighted that the robot wished him a superb day and expects to see more robots when he goes out to eat.
“I feel technology is now a part of our normal every day life. Everyone has a cellphone, everyone uses some type of computer,” said Merritt, who owns a marketing company. “It is a natural progression.”
But not all networks have been successful with robots.
Chili’s introduced a robot server called Rita in 2020 and expanded the test to 61 U.S. restaurants before abruptly halting it last August. The chain stated that Rita was moving too slowly and was interfering with human servers. And 58% of surveyed guests said Rita didn’t improve their overall experience.
Haidilao, a hotpot chain in China, began using robots to deliver food to tables a 12 months ago. But managers at several outlets found that the robots weren’t as reliable or cost-effective as human servers.
Wang Long, a store manager in Beijing, said each of his robots had failed.
“We only used them occasionally,” Wang said. “It’s form of an idea, and a machine won’t ever replace humans.”
Ultimately, Namasivayam expects a certain percentage of restaurants – possibly 30% – to still have human servers and be considered more luxurious, while the rest will rely more on robotic kitchens and dining rooms. He said the economy was on the side of the robots; human labor costs will proceed to rise, but technology costs will fall.
But that is not the future everyone desires to see. Saru Jayaraman, who advocates higher wages for restaurant staff as president of One Fair Wage, said restaurants could easily solve labor shortages in the event that they simply paid staff more.
“People don’t go to full-service restaurants to be served by technology,” she said. “They need to experience themselves and the people they care about, to be served by a human being.”