Episode 12: The Bots Are Coming - AI, Robots & the Future of Restaurant Service

In this episode, we're diving into the world of restaurant automation and asking the question everyone in the service industry is thinking: will robots replace us?

I share my real experience being served by a robot at a chain restaurant, and spoiler alert, it wasn't great ;)  This little cube-shaped bot rolled up to my table, dropped off my food without cutlery, and couldn't even respond when I needed something. It just... rolled away. Meanwhile, I'm sitting there staring at my food like, "Can someone just bring me a fork?"

We talk about the rising trend of robots in restaurants that can carry multiple plates, sing happy birthday in different languages (how dare they), and cost restaurants $800-900 per month to lease. I break down why I think these bots are more novelty than necessity, and what happens when you replace human interaction with a remote-controlled box on wheels.

Plus, I make you watch 2001: A Space Odyssey (seriously, watch it!) and discuss what happens when AI goes rogue. We explore whether AI has the emotional intelligence to handle difficult customers, patient enough to deal with complaints, and if technology will ever truly replace the human touch in customer service.

In this episode:

• My awkward encounter with a restaurant robot
• Why robots singing happy birthday in Italian isn't as cool as it sounds
• The real cost of restaurant automation vs. hiring support staff
• What 2001: A Space Odyssey teaches us about AI (RIP Hal)
• Can AI handle angry customers with empathy and patience?

Perfect for service industry workers worried about automation, tech enthusiasts curious about AI in hospitality, or anyone wondering if their next server will be a singing robot on wheels.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Guys, the bots are coming. If you ever wondered if AI and technology is gonna take over your job, well, let me tell you something, it just might. So I will have a few stories about how technology and AI could take over serving jobs. Alright. I think that is probably everybody's worst fear with all of this new AI fancy chat GPT, um, all the stuff that's been coming out recently. But automation has been part of a lot of industries for a very long time. Let's take the automotive sector. Um, you know, they have robotic arms to help with the assembly line. We have other examples of robots helping us in our day-to-day lives, including the serving robot. My arch nemesis. So I want to tell you a little bit about technology and how it can actually um how it's it's just become so advanced out there, and uh, you know what is happening to everybody's jobs. There is a fear here, there's a very real fear because we have available to many restaurants um a little robot that can help us, us servers, drop off plates to tables. Now that's just the beginning. My arch nemesis, my robot friend, we'll call him friend because we don't want to make an enemy of him because he'll come after us, but it can also sing happy birthday in different languages. How dare you! And um, you know, I feel like I feel like the movie, okay, 2001 Space Odyssey. I watched it recently with my husband. It is crazy, guys. This is so crazy because 2001 Space Odyssey was made in the 1970s, okay? Directed by Stanley Kubrick, legend, legend. You have to watch this movie. You have to watch this movie. It is so well done for its time. Um, you can see parts that are a little bit dated, it can be a little slow-moving at times. There's a lot of classical music, but if you push through that, this movie will make you think twice about technology, about where AI is going, about robotics. Like, it's crazy. It is so crazy. I'm gonna tell you, if you have not watched it, you must. It is a must because in the middle of the movie there is murderous AI. Yes, yes, I see you, Hal. And if you've watched it, you know who HAL is. This movie is just like, I mean, if you're a lover of sci-fi, it is very cool. But if you're watching it from the standpoint of me being like, oh my gosh, this like where can we possibly go with technology? Like, sky's the limit. This is this this can be very scary. Um, let me tell you a little bit more about my serving buddy, not my buddy, but we're again we're gonna call him buddy because we don't want him to come after us. Um, so for a lot of chain restaurants, and I'm in a chain restaurant, um, there is the option for owners to lease this little robot. Um, and it basically it's not like robot, like don't think uh, you know, the maid from from the Jetsons, no, not like a human a humanoid, not like that. But it's like a little robot that allows servers to bring more plates than they can carry to a table. So it's actually meant to be more assistive than anything. It is not meant to take over our jobs, but that's just the first step, you know what I mean? It starts small and then they start like getting into the business a little bit more and more, so it's a little wild. But I'll tell you my experience with a robot. So there was um a few years ago I went to um it's a popular restaurant, it's a big chain here in Canada, and um I was by myself, I was waiting for my family to come pick me up. Um, I had had a doctor's appointment, and there was a restaurant across the street, and I was waiting for them there. So while I was waiting, I ordered some food, and um, I mean, like the restaurant was pretty empty. I I'm assuming this robot comes out to help during like busier times, but maybe they're like paying for this thing. The the lease, from what I've heard, is about like eight to nine hundred dollars, so it's actually pretty pricey. So maybe they were just trying to put it to use. It wasn't busy. I'm pretty sure the server could have dropped dropped off the plates, but I don't know, maybe he had other things going on in the background. He was a nice guy. Um, so then there are two other servers sitting at another booth, or maybe they just wanted like to get some shits and giggles out of this thing. So they send it, so they send this thing over. All it can do is drop off plates, it doesn't do anything else. It comes to my table, and it was sort of like in the bar area, and there was a platform, so this robot stops next to me, it just stops and has a plate on it, it's my food. So I have to get off this platform and grab the plate from this robot. I'm like, I do this for a living, like, can someone just drop off my plate, please? But no, no, we we wanted to send the robot. Okay, that's fine. You know, we wanted to make make good use of this expensive thing. Um, and then I didn't have any cutlery at the table, which is fine. Like, I understand it was lunch time, maybe they were resetting for dinner. I was sort of like in betweeny, like in between like the lunch and the dinner time frame. Um, and these things happen. Whatever, I'm not it's not a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

But then the robot I can't even talk to the robot. I couldn't, I couldn't be like, hey man, get me some cutlery. No, the robot just like just like rolled away. It's like I don't know, like this big. It's like a box, it's like a cube.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

He rolled away. He rolled away, never to be seen again, and I was left without cutlery, and I was sitting there, I was staring at my food, and I was like, I really, really want to eat this, but I need a fork and knife. So my server came over. I was like, hey, can I get some cutlery and a napkin, please? He's like, hey, no problem. But I mean, in my opinion, it just it wasn't I mean, you can't converse with it, it has you know no way of responding to orders, it has no way of interacting with you, it just stopped, and I had to grab the plate, and then it just I don't know, it just went back. Um, I feel like maybe it's like somehow controlled. There must be a remote control. I think that's why there were like some servers in a booth nearby and they were sort of like laughing a little bit. I feel like they may have been like controlling it because how else is it gonna be able to detect where to stop and which table it is, and you know how to turn around and go back. I so there must have been some remote control, unless it's like you know, they program the floor plan into it. I don't know, I don't think it's that advanced. Um, so my robot buddy, I was like, this is weird, I didn't like that at all. I like talking to a person, um, but then again, I might be a little old school. So there you go. But if you have any opinions on a little robot serving you, how you feel about it, put it in the comments. I would love to know because maybe I'm just not giving it a chance, you know? And then, okay, this robot is making waves for a lot of people. There, um, so our restaurant there doesn't have a robot, but other restaurants in the area that are part of our chain do have this robot. So I have some of my regulars telling me about this robot and how interesting it was. And they're like, and this is how I found out about it singing happy birthday in different languages. So apparently it sung somebody happy birthday in Italian. So, okay, okay, fine. It's got a one-up on us, you can program into it singing happy birthday in different languages. I don't have a good voice, I don't know different languages, so okay, fine. One for the robot, I'll give you that. Um, but I find it a little um a little alarming that you know we're we're plugging this stuff um into the customer service industry. Uh, I don't think it provides any additional value or you know, I don't think it assists with customer service. I don't think it makes people like it's interesting to look at. Like, I think that is this the the the the whole thing of it. It's it's it's an interesting almost piece of furniture, let's call it. It rolls out to you, it drops off the food, it can help the servers. Although, if you are well staffed, you have support staff that can help you bring out plates. Um, so I don't really see the need for it. And seriously, like eight to nine hundred dollars a month. I feel like you could put somebody again, like support staff in the kitchen who you can have there for during busy times to help you with plates. I don't think we need this robot, but interesting, interesting that we are trying out technology in different types of industries like this. Um, like I said, if you watch 2001 Space Odyssey, oh my god, oh my gosh, how, how what what are you doing? I won't give away too much, but it's a little unnerving. It's a little unnerving. So I will have a part two to this video because I want to see with some of the AI that's come out, how it does in customer service situations, how it reacts, does it have patience? How will it treat a customer who is complaining? How's it gonna treat a customer who's super nice? Like, does it have is it at a point where it has the emotional intelligence of a person? So I think that's that's really interesting to explore because if it does, potentially you could take that and then plug it into our little robot buddy, and then he can interact with you, which then becomes really scary because then it puts people out of jobs. Like this is I feel like you know, we're just at in such an interesting moment in time where you know, we're gonna look back and we're gonna be like, hey, remember when AI came out and we didn't know, and now it's doing X and now it's doing Y. So watch the next part of this video. I'll be talking to a couple of different kinds of AI. Just see how they do with the customer, see if they're in a position to be actually maybe plugged into an actual robot, which they've actually come out with. There are lots of conventions that um have companies that are showing off, like these basically they're like robots that look like human beings. Um so I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued, and I would love to know your thoughts too. So put those in the comments for me. I would love to see how you feel technology and AI and what we've got going on right now would do with an angry customer. I will see you in the next video. As always, don't forget to tip your bitter waitress. Um, I've got a link below. Support the channel, support the podcast, it would really help me out. This is your bitter waitress signing off. Bye guys.