Can Humanoid Robot Servers Replace Human Waiters?

There is always concern about humanoid robot servers potentially replacing human workers. This is not currently the case with the service sector, according to a new Richmond News investigation that was released recently. Their story follows up on how more restaurants in the city are now employing robot waiters to address concerns with a manpower shortage, but they are finding them ineffective, with two businesses in particular being forced to fire their robot servers. The publication stated the following as the problems of humanoid robot waiters and where human servers still have a lot of advantages over them.

Problems of Humanoid Robot Servers

They are useful but Problematic

The robot servers were effective in some situations but troublesome in many others, according to the eateries that Richmond News spoke with. In other words, they were ineffective in taking the place of people in the hospitality business.

Richmond news staff Speaking with Mr. Alan Song of the restaurant Foodie Kitchen, who stated, “Humanoid robotic waiters were a new thing here so we decided to try it out,”
It’s perfect for moving hot dishes and returning used plates and bowls to the kitchen, which helps to reduce the need for human labor.
However, Mr. Song stated that in order to ensure everything ran well, the waiters were compelled to follow the robot when it served the customers’ food, which added to the workload for the human employees.
“Since soup might spill when the robot stops, we don’t use it to carry soup. Additionally, the robot becomes confused if we move the tables or join two tables together for a larger group”. Mr. Song concluded that there has been many catastrophes caused by the robot, including one in which a waitress injured her toe after falling over the machine and another in which the robot dropped all the dishes it was carrying by attempting to move too quickly.

Think Carefully Move

For businesses who are in the hospitality sector, the move to replace human waiters with humanoid robot servers is a “proceed with caution” move.

“Restaurants should think carefully before getting a robot server,” he advised. “I would say it is helpful for delivering dishes in a bigger restaurant and can help carry food that’s either too hot or cold, but for smaller restaurants, it might not be necessary.”

The Richmond News also highlighted two establishments that added robots to their service staff in 2021 only to get rid of them in 2022 when business picked up after COVID and the spaces became crowded.

Conclusion

The age where robot servers will take over the hospitality business is not here yet. This survey shows that humans are still skeptical of them and that they have yet to perform as expected. Perhaps the geometric progression of the AI race would make them improve faster and we can see close to the type of sci-fi based restaurant service of these robots.

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