Dylan Purcell Lowe on Restaurants Successfully Using Automation

Automation within the hospitality and restaurant industry has grown exponentially in the past few years, and it will only continue to do so. And this automation is not just adding a front desk kiosk for ordering, or mobile app reward programs; we are talking about full-service robots and having the entire experience from ordering to food preparation completed by them.

This automation is revolutionizing the restaurant industry by providing restaurant owners with better data tracking and a chance to focus on qualitative functions instead of being bogged down by the quantitative ones that can easily be completed by automated machines.

The robot-restaurant phenomenon is only expected to grow, and we are sure to see many more of these restaurants hit the market in the next few years. But let’s take a look at a few of the restaurant options that are successfully utilizing automation and that you can visit today.

CafeX
This small and unassuming cafe is less of a restaurant and is more of a cafe kiosk. The first thing someone will notice when they approach the stands in San Francisco, CA is the complete absence of baristas, and instead a friendly, robot arm greeting them and preparing their drinks. While CafeX kiosks do have a human employee on hand to assist customers, they are not on hand to assist your barista. The robotic arm will be responsible for preparing your drink and serving it to you. Multiple stand-alone kiosks can be found around San Francisco.

Creator
The burger-making helper system, Creator, is another example of successful automation in restaurants. The owners of the Creator system have pointed out that this helper robot has not replaced the need for human employees but instead freed them to provide better customer service and more delicious recipes, while the Creator does the dirty work. This machine, located in San Francisco, became available to the public last fall and you can head to the restaurant to enjoy a delicious burger that is designed by chefs and assembled by a robot.

Haidilao
The hot-pot legendary restaurant chain of Beijing has also started to implement high levels of automation into their restaurants. Haidilao’s hot-pot restaurant chain has started using robots to not only prepare the cold ingredients for your meal in the kitchen but also deliver them to your table. Customers order their meal through an iPad at their table, and they can observe a fleet of robots in a cool room gather the raw meats and vegetables that they requested. They can then wait as a delivery robot brings the items to their table with a wait time of around 10 minutes despite the restaurant’s popularity. Don’t worry though; humans are still around to provide you with their legendary customer service and ensure you have a wonderful experience.

Spyce
The four college students from MIT who created the first Spyce robot in their basement developed the perfect tagline for this type of establishment, “Culinary Excellence Elevated by Technology.” Spyce is a health-fueled salad restaurant in Boston, MA that features a kitchen full of robotic salad preparers. By successfully utilizing automation to create their dishes, the owners of Spyce can provide nutrition-packed meals for the low price of $7.50 per bowl.

These restaurants are showing the world that not only can automation make your restaurant run smoother; it can also save you and your customer money and provide an elevated customer experience. We don’t need to be afraid of robots entering this industry; these restaurants (and cafes) are able to show us that they are only improving it.

Originally posted at https://medium.com/@dylanpurcelllowe/automat4-restaurants-that-are-successfully-utilizing-automation-f7855eb76b3d