Robotic services, solution or failure in the gastronomic industry?

One of the innovations that has been talked about the most in recent months are the business models in the gastronomy industry that base their food preparation and customer service services on robotic systems, which, although they seem to be taken from science fiction, It is becoming more and more common to see

From the cashier where you can order without having to speak to a clerk, to the robot that assembles some food, and the robot that walks around with food, diners at food chains are becoming more accustomed to interacting with these systems. Recently, one of the fully robotic pizza startups in France closed its doors due to lack of sales. The statements in this regard indicate that it was essentially due to two reasons: due to how immature the apps and software may be for their proper functioning and, on the other hand, to a cultural factor, which is characterized by the public’s distrust in general for consuming food in a fully automated place. I remember that when the first ATMs began to be used to take orders in a hamburger chain, in Paris people preferred to line up at the only cashier attended by a person, even if this took longer, since it was a matter perceived as “social responsibility” to make sure that person at the checkout did not lose his job in front of a machine.

The automation of these services revives a debate that has been present for more than a century, which seems more current, especially in this industry: the substitution of human labor for that of a machine. In the days of the industrial revolution, it was common to find pamphlets and protests by thousands of people who lost their jobs because they were replaced by machines. Over time, these people needed to develop other skills to be employed providing other types of services.

Within the gastronomic industry, the debate is heated, since cooking, refrigeration and storage technologies and equipment have made labor easier and, above all, cooking processes have become more sophisticated because they can use different technologies in creating a dish. But the limit of all this, sometimes diffuse, lies in the fact that these techniques fully replace the labor and knowledge of a person trained in the kitchen. Beyond what a robot can achieve in terms of presentation and taste compared to what a human can achieve, cultural perception is the essential aspect to understand the success or failure of these innovations.

Before launching into any type of business, it is absolutely necessary to understand the perception of a product from a socio-anthropological point of view, especially in terms of food, where all the symbolic and emotional apparatus plays to make it feel very different, for example, using an Excel table to solve in three seconds what would take several hours to calculate by hand, to consume a food totally manufactured by a machine. This causes ambiguity in the reactions, because there is a whole social imaginary around it. From those who consider that food could be safer because it does not pass through human hands, to those who would view the issue with suspicion in terms of social justice.