Can Restaurant Robots Replace Part-Time Workers? "You Have to Move the Food Yourself... It's Inconvenient"

Embrain Surveys Consumers on Unmanned Restaurants
Satisfaction at 50.6%; Consumers Prefer Human-Run Restaurants at the Same Price

Consumers were divided in their opinions about robots introduced at restaurants, cafes, and other dining establishments. One particular source of dissatisfaction was that, unlike human servers, robots require customers to unload or move their own food trays.

Embrain, a market research firm, said on November 3 that it had surveyed consumers who had visited dining establishments within the past six months to ask their views on restaurant robots. The survey was conducted from September 28 to 30 and covered 1,000 adult consumers.

Image for illustrative purposes only; unrelated to the article. The Asia Business Daily database.

Among respondents, 80.4% said they had visited a dining establishment that had introduced robots, representing a large majority. However, satisfaction with their actual experience stood at just 50.6%, or about half.

Asked why they were dissatisfied with restaurant robots, respondents most often cited “the inconvenience of having to unload or move the food themselves” (39.2%). This was followed by “difficulty dealing with problems when they occur” (28.6%), “anxiety about bumping into a robot or spilling food” (27.7%), and “slow speed” (27.1%).

Consumer Perception Survey Results on Food Service Robots. Embrain

How did respondents feel about being served by restaurant robots? The most common response was “interesting” (46.3%), while just 31.7% said “convenient,” or about one-third of respondents. Still, 79.3% said they would consider visiting robot-focused dining establishments. The most frequently cited advantage was “not having to worry about what the staff think” (33.9%).

Nearly half of consumers (49.5%) said they did not prefer “fully unmanned establishments where robots handle every stage of the process.” And 62.2% said they would choose an establishment where people prepare the food if prices were the same.

Meanwhile, 84% of respondents expected restaurant robots to become more widespread in the future, but only 44.3% viewed this prospect positively.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.