Spyce, which opened early 2018, seems like any other restaurant – until you take a look in their kitchen. Even though there are human workers, most cooking is done by machines. A task that was always associated with human chefs, talent, and passion seems to go through similar transformations it did in many other industries like the furniture industry. Machines are ready to take over!
Automation is expected to disrupt the restaurant industry. What starts as a cool spot to visit for digitally savvy customers, might take over the whole mainstream market. Currently, there is a lot of inefficiency in the restaurant industry. When enough research is done, machines will be able to serve perfectly prepared food. It might be at a lower price due to factors like efficiency and the cut of increasing labour costs. Customers are already adapting to less personal experiences in the restaurant sector. Not only limited-service food chains like McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Wow Bao offer the possibility to order from touch screens instead or from the counter, many full-service restaurants integrated tables of which customers can order and pay as well.
Not only within the restaurants, but also food delivery is ready to become less personal. Technomic data from the Restaurant Leadership Conference states that 19% would consider delivery via self-driving cars if possible. Especially millennials are enthusiasts, 27% would opt for robot delivery and 26% would try out delivery by a drone.
When the food is served more perfect, more quickly and at a good price, regular customers will eventually probably attach less value to the human aspect. Thus there will not be a reason for them not to choose automated restaurants and their automated delivery.
https://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2018/5/18/restaurants-robotics-ai.html#gs.GdzLklQ
https://www.forbes.com/sites/darrentristano/2017/05/16/restaurants-look-to-automation-to-cut-labor-but-will-consumers-buy-what-the-drone-is-serving/#3522e72a3039
