What gyms can learn from robot restaurants.

In May of 2018 one of the nations first robotic kitchens was opened in Boston (represent!) by 4 ambitious MIT graduates. Spyce’s concept is simple: you order and pay on a tablet, behind the counter- robots prepare your food, you pick it up enjoy. It is very cool to watch robots cook for you, I won’t lie- but technology for the sake of technology is not the point. At the end of the day, I would argue that only a few things really matter: safety, profit, and efficiency. If introducing robots to the process makes a positive impact on any of those areas- there is a case for keeping them.

As it turns out, robots in the restaurant setting increase food safety, create higher margins, and prepare meals at a faster pace than chefs can on average. It is important to note that robots are not slated to fully replace humans in the restaurant ecosystem, but are instead tools to be used to increase efficiency. An easy way to think about this is to equate the use of robots to cooking as we apply a dishwasher to cleaning. It certainly helps, but it isn’t all encompassing.

So, robots are here to stay as far as the hospitality industry is concerned- but I think we would be foolish to stop there. If robots can help solve for safety, profit, and efficiency in…