The rise of restaurant robots is upon us.
Major fast-food chains are using robots to flip burgers, brew espresso, and greet customers—at a fraction of the cost of paying human workers.
White Castle is testing the Flippy robot at 100 locations and Chipotle is using a one-armed robot to make tortilla chips at 73 locations — both cost $3,000 a month — and Starbucks has AI-powered espresso machines worth $18,000 at least 1,200 locations.
As food costs rise and the US is gripped by an intense labor shortage, paying monthly rentals for machinery has become a cost-effective option.
The National Restaurant Association recently reported that four out of five operators are understaffed and have been understaffed since the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
White Castle is testing the Flippy robot at 100 locations. This robotic arm flips hundreds of burgers a day and frys several items on the menu. A robot costs $3,000 per month
However, experts are still unconvinced and believe it will be a few years before robots replace human workers.
David Henkes, a director at Technomic, a restaurant research firm, told CNBC, ‘I think there’s a lot of experimentation that’s going to get us somewhere eventually, but we’re still a very labor-intensive, labor-intensive industry.’
Labor shortages have forced restaurant owners to offer higher wages in order to attract more staff, which combined with rising food costs, means establishments are draining their banks to stay afloat.
But this is where automation comes to the rescue.
Starbucks has launched more than $21 million in AI-powered espresso machines running on the company’s Deep Brew software.
And while it doesn’t brew cups of coffee, it can mix infusions with precision and faster than a human barista.
The same software was also added to the coffee maker’s drive-through lanes that greet customers and take their orders, reducing the number of staff needed at a location.
Miso Robotics, a California-based company, is a key player in the industry. His kitchen robot, Flippy, is able to cook 300 burgers and toss hundreds of baskets of fries into the frying pan every day.
The company claims its technology completes food prep tasks twice as fast as human workers and 30 percent more efficiently.
Flippy 2, the company’s most advanced model, is used in leading American fast food restaurant chains such as White Castle, Jack in the Box, Inspire Brands (the parent company of Buffalo Wild Wings, Arby’s and Sonic), Wings and Rings and Wing Zone.
While most of these restaurants have a location or two with Flippy, White Castle announced in 2022 that it was adding Flippy 2 to 100 locations.
Not only does the second-generation Flippy flip hundreds of burgers a day, but it can also fry potatoes, onion rings, and anything else on the menu.
Along with Flippy, Miso Robotics also released its Chippy.
Chippy (pictured on the back of this test kitchen) is another $3,000 machine that Chipotle uses to make tortilla chips at 73 of its locations
This robot makes tortilla chips and is used in at least 73 Chipotle restaurants in the United States.
To ensure Chippy made the perfect tortilla chips, Miso Robotics trained him using Chipotle’s recipe – corn masa flour, water and sunflower oil, a pinch of salt and a squeeze of fresh lime juice after cooking.
Seattle startup Artly began work on its coffee-making robot called Jarvis in 2020.
The one-armed robot is trained to pour carefully steamed froth onto a latte at one of the company’s coffeehouses in Washington.
Flippy 2 is used in leading American fast food restaurant chains such as White Castle, Jack in the Box (pictured), Inspire Brands (the parent company of Buffalo Wild Wings, Arby’s and Sonic), Wings and Rings and Wing Zone
Starbucks has launched more than $21 million in AI-powered espresso machines running on the company’s Deep Brew software
For a coffee shop that needs two or three baristas, Artly needs an employee and a barista bot like Jarvis.
Another Seattle-based startup, Picnic, offers automation solutions for pizza preparation—from adding sauce to layering cheese to layering other toppings.
And Dominos is testing the technology at one of its German locations.
Fast food chains not only use robots to prepare food and drinks, but also use artificial intelligence to take orders.
Taco Bell has also used AI to take orders, as have Popeyes and Panera Bread.
According to a Popeyes site using the technology, drink sales increased by 150 percent as the AI called Tori offered high-margin menu items to customers.
Pizza companies are also looking to robots for help. Picnic is an automated system that does everything from pouring the sauce to layering cheese to adding toppings
Dominos is testing the picknick robot at a location in Berlin
Tori, manufactured by OpenCity, also delivers 100 percent correct orders.
The labor shortage began due to the COVID-19 pandemic as many restaurants have been forced to close due to strict lockdown restrictions and the industry appears unable to recover.
A study by the National Bureau of Economics found that COVID-19 has cut the US workforce by hundreds of thousands.
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