But people worry about what this means for the human workforce.
On Thursday, August 29, 2024, at a robot cafe in Nairobi, Kenya, robot servers provide services to customers.
At a busy restaurant in Kenya’s capital, children giggled as young people used their smartphones to shoot a robot holding a plate of freshly cooked meals on a built-in tray and delivering it to diners.
Nairobi has a vibrant technology industry with a variety of start-ups and innovative projects, and positions itself as the technology center of East Africa, nicknamed the “Silicone Savanna”.
This is the robot cafe, believed to be the first of its kind in Nairobi and East Africa, where three robots glide among human waiters to serve food to fascinated customers.
These pre-programmed robots were purchased for entertainment. Cafe owner Mohammed Abbas said he had experienced robot services in Asian and European countries and decided to invest in them.
“The cost of importing robots is very high,” he said, but added that the investment has paid off because restaurants are “often crowded with curious customers who come to experience the robot’s services.”
One customer named Packson Chege picked up a plate of chips from a robotic tray while his friend filmed the experience across the table.
“I can say it’s unique because I’ve never seen a restaurant like this in our country Kenya, so I think for me the owner of this restaurant came up with a good idea,” he said.
The three robots, named Claire, R24 and Nadia, are not programmed to have a full conversation with customers, but they can say,”Your order is ready, welcome,” and then people must press the exit button after picking up their robots. Food on the tray.
A waiter directs them through an app on the iPad.
Human waiters remain important in cafe operations because they accept orders from customers who do not use the online ordering option. After the food is ready, the waiter places the food on the robot tray and delivers the drinks in person.
The technology is expected to disrupt the world’s future workforce, particularly in Africa, where the median age of young people is 19.
But cafe managers said robots cannot replace human waiters because they cannot provide all services.
“Robots simply cannot play their full role in all the services provided in restaurants without human contact,” said John Kariuki, director of the restaurant. “These robots are actually too expensive for us, so if you want to save money, if you choose to go the path of robots, that’s not going to work.”
Hotel industry expert Edith Ojwang said there is room for robots and human services to coexist in the industry.
“The hotel industry is very diverse. Our customers will like robotic services and full automation, and we also have customers who will like personalized services, the humanity and warmth brought by personalized services, so this is not entirely a threat to humans because of the diversity of the hotel’s customer base, so labor,”she said.
For more content, you can click on the link below the video
Thank you for watching this video. If you like it, please subscribe and like it. thank
Original text:https://techxplore.com/news/2024-09-robot-waiters-kenya-human-labor.html
Oil tubing: