A San Francisco cafe is now using robots to serve coffee

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Companies and service providers can save money and time by using robots to replace staff. The introduction of robotic baristas at San Francisco’s Cafe X, as reported by Eater, is the latest example of this trend.

Using robots to brew and deliver coffee allows faster service with reduced overhead, and could be a solution that sees wider adoption and paves the way for greater automation in the food service industry.

Robotic baristas offer customers their coffee quickly, without the potential variation that can come from manual brewing. Users will be able to order at nearby kiosks or using an app before going up to the robotic terminal and entering an order number. While offering clear savings for the business, there are a number of factors companies should consider that might impact customer openness:

• Lack of human interaction: Removing the barista from the coffee-buying process will alter consumers’ routines, making what would have been a daily social interaction into a more impersonal and isolated transaction.
• Limited personalization and customizability: The robotic barista at Cafe X will be able to offer a number of different drinks, but can only make them in certain preprogrammed ways, whereas a person behind the counter is able to accommodate special requests or slight variations on the normal drink based on personal preference.
• No gatekeeper: The kiosk will operate by having users come up, enter their order number, and have a robotic arm fetch a drink from inside. While fine in low-volume settings, there could be issues with crowding and lines forming at the height of the morning coffee rush, as there wouldn't an employee to oversee customer behavior.

Introducing automation and robotics into food service will reduce costs and increase efficiency. Companies looking into such solutions, however, must remain mindful of the wishes of their customers. Some may prefer a personal experience to an efficient one, or a customized product. The place of robotics will likely be confined to behind-the-scenes tasks such as preparation and high-volume locations like fast food or mass market coffee. Robotic baristas can be useful, but likely won’t replace their human counterparts fully.

Businesses throughout the world are increasingly using robots to automate portions of their workflow.

Traditionally, robots have been used primarily in manufacturing. But other industries including healthcare, shipping and logistics, food services, retail, hospitality, and more are starting to also use robots. For example, hospitals are using robots to assist in surgery, retail stores are testing robots to take inventory, and warehouses are using robots help sort packages.

BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on enterprise robotics that examines the rising use of robots across many industries. It examines top use cases, market leaders, growth drivers, potential for workforce automation, the top barriers, and includes market forecasts on shipments and investment in robots between 2015-2021. 

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• We expect enterprise robotic shipments to nearly triple between 2015-2021.
• Manufacturing will continue to be the top adopter of robots. A recent Boston Consulting Group (BCG) survey found 44% of US manufacturers and 66% of German manufacturers plan to install autonomous robots and assistance systems within the next five years.
• Rising wages around the world is just one of the key reasons enterprises are beginning to leverage robotics.
• Robots have the potential to displace jobs, meaning that while they might take some more labor intensive jobs they have the potential to create new jobs for working on robots.

In full, the report:

• Forecasts enterprise robotic shipments
• Identifies market leaders
• Discusses economic conditions leading to the rise of robots
• Examines the advantages of using robots
• Identifies five of the top barriers preventing robot adoption

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

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2. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of robotics.

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