Michael Brick

Opinion: Robotics in food service, novelty or reality?

Michael Brick, Partner and General Manager of Meris Food Equipment, looks at how robotics in food service is shifting from novelty to necessity, driven by labour shortages, efficiency demands, and evolving consumer expectations.

Increasingly, I find myself fielding questions from clients about robotics; when will we see robotics in food service?  You can’t scroll through socials without reading something about AI and technology. I recently attended a food service trade event in Singapore. It was the robotic equipment that drew large crowds, with delegates interested in the range and quality of the food they produced.

It poses the questions; Is robotics in food service novelty or reality?  What is driving it? 

The adoption of robotics is being driven by multiple forces with labour shortages perhaps the most urgent, as businesses worldwide (including our own P&C industry) struggle to find and retain employees. Automation offers a solution by providing consistent reliable labour with predictable costs.

Additionally, consumer demand for speed, quality, and consistency pushes businesses to explore technology that meets these standards while allowing staff to focus on customer interaction and personalisation, which remains crucial in competitive markets.

Robotics is not about replacing all human roles. Instead, it’s about enhancing efficiency by handling repetitive, low-skill tasks like slicing, dicing, frying, food dispensing and inventory management. Robotic arms and automated cooking systems can handle these tasks with remarkable efficiency, reducing human error and food wastage while speeding up the process. Robotics frees up our staff to focus on areas that are more important, where we can impact the customer experience, offering more personalised service.

The gradual integration of robotics is already evident. For example, self-cleaning ovens, automated deep fryers with built-in oil filtration, and robotic floor cleaners are common in the food industry. Additionally, “just walk out” technology and robotic food runners are paving the way for further automation in the customer experience. Yet, a fully robotic kitchen remains a long-term goal, with most implementations limited to enhancing existing equipment rather than replacing it entirely or individual steps of a process. It is easy to overlook these progressions as they slowly build.

The adoption of robotics will likely be led by large QSR chains, with smaller businesses following as the cost savings and benefits in efficiency and customer satisfaction become clear.  Large chains, including McDonald’s and Dominos, are experimenting with robotic kitchens to standardise and streamline their food preparation. However, widespread integration is five to ten years away, as technology becomes more affordable and accessible for smaller operators.

It is important to consider where we are in our local market. Food service in P&C is in its early development, with a lot of iterative progression going on. That is more difficult to robotise than something like a large QSR that has a tried and tested menu. We are likely a number of years away from a large P&C chain implementing a fully robotised operation until we have more developed food offers in store and don’t want to compromise continued innovation and evolution.

While full-scale robotics that address end-to-end processes may be some time off for the P&C industry, there are immense opportunities now for operators to integrate automated solutions that focus on components or steps within a process to improve safety and consistency, enhance efficiency and tackle ongoing labour shortages and costs.

The arrival of robotics in food service is more than a novelty; it’s an industry evolution that reflects our changing world, but it is creating novelty and hype in outlets that install it initially.

This article was written by Michael Brick for the December/January issue of Convenience and Impulse Retailing magazine.

To stay up to date on the latest industry headlines, sign up to the C&I e-newsletter.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top