The robot restaurant is coming. The fast food industry is plagued with all sorts of labor issues. Chronic understaffing is the norm as many potential workers are simply not able to survive on the available wages. The businesses are having a difficult time finding people to fill the roles. The result is numerous restaurants violating child labor laws, repeatedly. Workers across the country are demanding higher wages. The whole thing is a mess, as a result you can expect to interact with a robot in the future restaurant.

To fill open jobs the fast food industry has been repeatedly violating child labor laws across the board. Numerous franchises have been employing underage labor out of necessity for workers. Fines have been issued, but violations keep happening regardless. The safety of staff is often disregarded, with kids running deep fryers, and working beyond the allowable hours. The fines are a drop in the bucket, the operations continue unabated.

Reports are that around 10% of the workers in the fast food industry are homeless. The workers struggle to find full-time work and benefits. Part of the problem in getting workers adequate living standards is that everything has become political. The left leaning NGOs, Non-Governmental Organizations, that are collecting the data are working with an end goal in mind, they want more unions. Data is packaged to create a narrative on both sides.

Workers are just pawns in the game between big business and big government. No one feels the urgency to help these people, the status quo remains the same. The situation should only become more difficult for these workers because the industry is taking concrete steps to ensure that business continues on as usual in tight labor markets.

 Customers do not want to wait around for food, hence the growth of the fast food industry in the first place. Enter the robots.

It all starts with the drive-thru window. This is the initial opportunity for franchises to employ AI. Artificial Intelligence chatbots could already be taking your order and you might not even be aware of it. Restaurants are happy that the technology could lead to cost savings and higher customer satisfaction. All of the big names are jumping on the AI bandwagon.

Franchisees report that customers are returning less orders and requesting managers less frequently. The chatbots are also reportedly better at upselling customers on items.

One robot made by Miso Robotics is called the Flippy 2, which you might have guessed is helping out in the kitchen. A who’s who of fast food giants has teamed up to champion these robots. The industry leaders hope this will save them up to $12B in costs every year. 

Getting food to the customers, easy, a robot can handle that. Wendys is working to have fast food robots deliver to the parking lot via underground tunnels. This idea allows far more efficiency than having customers pull up into a single drive-thru lane.

It’s all about cutting costs. The more people grandstand for higher wages for minimum wage fast food jobs, the faster the robots will infiltrate the market. The job losses will be staggering as employers are looking for maximum productivity. 

Robots can be pushed to the limits, whereas employers have to provide workers with some sort of standard care. Will there be opportunities elsewhere for these workers? This question is worth considering as AI is potentially coming for our jobs.