What if I told you that it was possible for robots to work with humans and not take over their jobs?!
The COVID-19 pandemic affected many businesses around the world especially dine-in in restaurants. Many restaurant owners came up with different and creative ways to bring the restaurant experience back to normal with some introducing car dine-in for their customers among other ideas. One restaurant group in Florida decided to think out of the box and rented robot waiters to meet the labor shortage in the food industry.
Sergio’s Restaurant, a famous restaurant chain in Florida, began using a Servi robot back in July which quickly gained popularity among their customers as well as the chain’s human staff. The robot makes use of a system of cameras, laser sensors, and motorized wheels to bring food from the kitchen to the customer’s table, providing a quick and efficient service!
Whenever someone hears the word robot, they quickly start to assume that they are nothing more than evil machines made to take over humans’ jobs (and lives) but these robot workers proved everyone wrong. Initially, the staff was skeptical of the idea but the Servi became an instant hit; saving human waiters and bussers from having to run back and forth between the kitchen and the dining room. This in turn eased the workload on the servers which allowed them to give more time to the customers and serve them wholeheartedly. And viola, that led to more tips from happy customers!
“In the first two hours, the servers were amazed!” Carlos Gazitua, the owner of Sergio’s Restaurant chain, told the NYT. Because of the success of the Servis, the owner installed robo-workers at the chain’s five other restaurants as well. This venture costs about $999 a month including installation and support which seems like a good deal for all the benefits that come along with a robot waiter.
A future without AI is inevitable so why not make use of them and carry out different tasks side by side rather than being completely dependent on them?
