A robot the size of a mini microwave now serves fresh seafood and other menus at Alibaba's "Robot.He" diners in Shanghai. Once the customer's orders are ready, the little robots slide to a counter to deliver the food. The robot "interacts" with the customer through its low mechanical tones. For now, it only knows these lines: "Enjoy your meal."
The robots do not replace the staff entirely. Chefs still cook, and a human team guides the food and customers in choosing their orders.
These robot restaurants are found in Alibaba's Hema chain of semi-automated supermarkets where shoppers pre-list their purchase via a mobile app, and all goods are delivered straight to the checkout or at their homes completed. Alibaba has now 57 Hema markets in 13 cities, and the company plans to construct the "Robot.He" in all of them.
The robotic restaurants are aimed ultimately at raising service efficiency with futuristic technology. A report from the AFP, however, highlighted that these robot restaurants lower labor cost more than anything else. Indeed, Alibaba's "Robot.He" operate without waiters and only have the critical restaurant staff.
AFP reported that waiters in Shanghai are paid up to $1,500 per month.
"That's hundreds of thousands in cost every year. And two shifts of people are needed. But we don't need two shifts for robots, and they are on duty every day," Cao Haitao, the Alibaba product manager who developed the concept, told the AFP.
"Operation is all about cutting costs and providing better service. So these automated machine technologies, in the right place, can play a role there," Haitao added.
Integration of artificial intelligence has been the trend in China as companies work hard to reduce operational costs amid plateau in China's e-commerce industry. Proponents of the use of robotic technology predict that AIs will be the ones performing mundane jobs in the coming future. The technology is also China's way to address its declining labor force that resulted from their one-child population policy.
Not all, however, are impressed about the integration of artificial intelligence into their workplace. Just recently, Alibaba's DingTalk, a workplace communication software, has earned the ire of employees who used them.
DingTalk is pegged at present as the world's largest chat service designed for companies. The platform now has more than 100 million users and 7 million employers across China. The company also has a growing presence in Europe, the United States, and Southeast Asia.
DingTalk's Chinese users criticized the platform according to a report from Reuters. They say it triggers unhealthy work culture, inhumane attitude, and destroys the trust among co-workers.
An informal Reuters poll of 30 workers using DingTalk revealed that more than half of them hated the platform. Some were fine about using the service as long as their companies are not using the clock-in function.
