Will Minnesota Restaurants Use Robot Cooks?

The pandemic is over, and we’ve returned to normal life, but there are still lingering effects of what we went through when Covid was in the forefront of everyone’s mind. 

One of the most obvious areas where we see the fingerprints of the pandemic is in staffing shortages. During the pandemic a lot of people reflected on their lives, and many decided they were making changes. 

One area people looked closely at was the work they did. Would they be willing to continue doing what they had been, and for many the answer was, NO! 

For instance, many fast-food restaurants struggle to keep people working. This article isn’t about why people aren’t working, or what companies can do to offer better incentives, this is about whether there could be some help on the way to your favorite fast-food place. 

There’s a company called Miso Robotics, and they say their new creation could help offset staffing challenges. They have a new AI Robot called “Flippy”, and this robot has been taught to work the deep fryers that many fast-food restaurants use.  

White Castle and Jack in the Box chains have turned to using “Flippy” to operate their fryers and are seeing success.  

The article I found in The Morning Brew says profits for those chains are up 4 times from what they were before.  

I see this being a possible solution to not having enough workers, but what will adding AI to the back of the house of fast-food places do to the cost of what they offer.  

One of the appeals that made fast-food restaurants so popular was their price points, which most people would agree are getting out of hand now. The price increases are another lingering effect of the pandemic, but is Artificial Intelligence really the answer to get us back on track? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.