Will AI be a game-changer for the eating and drinking-out sector?

Flippy – the burger-flipping robot – started work at a restaurant in Pasadena, California in early March to much fanfare from the media. Installed at the Cali Burger outlet, it has been designed ultimately to replace human-fast food workers when it comes to the job of cooking burgers. However only 24 hours in, it was taken offline. Why? Because it was too slow, and needed to be upgraded so that it could work faster. Apparently public interest in the robot led to too many orders than it could handle.

This is certainly not the only case of robots being introduced with the aim of reducing certain human tasks – and arguably many have been more successful than Flippy. Back in 2016 Pizza Hut announced plans to roll-out robot waiters in its restaurants in Asia, which were capable of taking orders and processing payments. While Japanese firm Connected Robotics is planning to sell a robot that can help restaurants prepare popular street food dish Takoyaki – batter balls filled with minced octopus. Although it doesn’t make the cooking process faster, the robot is designed to take some of the weight off kitchen staff who have to produce the balls while standing in front of a hot grill.

Steve Wells, chief operating officer at professional foresight firm Fast Future, tells MCA, the application of AI and robotics in the food industry is picking up pace. “For example, there are already at least seven restaurants in China where the robots do everything from cooking to serving and clearing tables. In some cases, they’ve been doing so since 2006. A variety of locations also have robotic bar tenders, baristas, and burger flippers,” he says.

While there might be teething troubles along the way, the process is likely to continue, he says. “This will be driven by both the novelty factor to attract customers, but also the efficiencies of having an employee that can work consistently 24/7/365 without needing breaks or having off days,” explains Wells.

“As the combination of robotics and AI improve, we are likely to see robot waiters interact with restaurant customers by greeting them, taking them to a vacant table, taking their orders, and bringing their drinks and meals. Each robot could also be capable of taking payment,” he adds.

Outlook for the sector

Wells believes it is “certainly reasonable” to assume that in the next 12-36 months, AI and robotics will replace a lot more food sector jobs than it creates. The futurists that work at Fast Future believe that we could well see 80% or more of current jobs disappearing in the next 20 years in the overall food and beverage industry. “Some will become obsolete, others will be fully or partially automated and, in many cases, tasks will be redesigned to eliminate the need for human input and decision making,” they say: “The big question is whether enough new jobs will be created to replace those being automated?”

Kate Nicholls, chief executive, UKHospitality, tells MCA that although hospitality businesses will certainly look to incorporate technology into their offers, to respond to changing consumer demands and tastes and to make cost-savings, she believes it is unlikely that team members will be replaced by technology in large numbers.

“One of the sector’s great virtues is its ability to provide customers with tailored and unique experiences. Hospitality is much more than simply dispensing food and drink, it is an experiential sector that relies and thrives on the great work of staff in venues,” points out Nicholls.

But that’s not to say there isn’t a place for technology – “and we have seen exciting developments in areas such as customer payments, entertainment, marketing and more”. “Operators will continue to embrace technology to make their businesses more attractive to consumers who demand the best and to cut costs, but this is not likely to be at the expense of our workforce,” she adds.

It’s not all about robots

According to a report from McKinsey last year, Harnessing Automation for a Future That Works, although automation and artificial intelligence (AI), more widely, are destined to bring substantial benefits to businesses and economies worldwide, it won’t happen arrive overnight, and for its full potential to be realised, people and technology to work hand in hand.

It is also important to remember that AI is about more than just robotics and automation. It is not just about the ability for physical activities to be done better or more quickly, but about cognitive capabilities – tacit judgements and sensing emotions, notes the report. That and data. The ability for AI to compile and interpret the wealth of data obtained by apps, for example, relating to reservations, promotional offers and bills, as well as for deliveries, HR and inventories, is surely where a lot of the true potential is. For example systems such as Ingest.AI promote a 360-degree view of your business, based on all data being pulled into a central system, using algorithms.

There is also the potential for AI to give operators new opportunities for innovation. “In the longer term, AI might help generate new restaurant concepts, support the growth of city centre vertical farms, and help create entire new foodstuffs – all of which might lead to the creation of more jobs,” says Wells.

“With automated cellar management systems, the heavy lifting in a bar’s cellar could become a thing of the past as robotic cellar management rotates stock, replaces empty barrels, and replenishes bar stocks as they are depleted. The system would allow for automated stock management which will closely match stock held with expected demand forecast by AI, in turn minimizing the capital tied up in stock,” suggests Wells.

The implications could have an impact on not only the number of humans employed in bars and restaurants, but also the balance of space provided between stock and dining/social space, he adds, allowing the operator to maximise revenue opportunities.

Taking it to the next level

According to Fast Future, food and drink operators in the near-term future may even come to rely on AI to concoct their next cutting edge, distinct fusion dish or cocktail. “With access to millions of online recipes and reviews, AI may be able to crawl popular recipe websites, parse out the best of the best, and combine them into absolutely unique and appealing flavour combinations,” says foresight director Alexandra Whittington.

“Additionally, were a restaurant to be provided with lists of customers’ preferred dishes and drinks, the restaurant’s AI could take into consideration all tastes and either design that evening’s menu to appeal to the majority of customers, or even design dishes and cocktails specific to each customer’s palette,” she says. Menus could also be tailored to diner’s specific health requirements, for example, in terms of portion size, allergies and nutritional needs.

Whittington also predicts that biometric ID using AI could provide a reliable way of keeping underage patrons out of establishments. “Furthermore, AI systems could be used to identify who has had too much to drink: a robotic bartender could easily keep track of how many drinks (and their potency) a customer has had,” she adds.

While some of the potential uses of AI may sound far-fetched, and despite there being no accurate way of predicting the true impact of robots and AI on jobs, there are certainly many possibilities and opportunities which the eating and drinking out sector may well be looking at with interest in the near future.