What started as a way to help waiters has become a mainstay at Rachel's Kitchen.
In late 2021, the Las Vegas-based fast-casual franchise began rolling out “Servi,” a robot server, to its largest locations. Developed by Bear Robotics, the robot periodically brings food from the kitchen to customers.
Founder and CEO Debbie Roxarzad said she became interested in the technology after seeing it emerge at several other companies before the coronavirus pandemic.
“COVID-19 made me start looking more seriously at restaurants,” Roxarzad said. “We were looking for ways to help our existing staff at a time when it was hard to get new staff and we were facing a lot of challenges in the industry. I thought this would be a great way to support restaurants more and get customers coming back to our restaurants, even if they wouldn't have the same exposure as before.”
The robot is programmed with a complete map of the restaurant and the layout of the seating area, and has a home station behind the restaurant counter where restaurant staff load the robot with food, which the robot then carries to the table, ensuring all food is unloaded from the tray before moving on.
“If there's anything left on the tray, it will wait until the customer has taken it all and then go back to where it came from,” Roxarzad said. “It can be programmed to go wherever you want, but we keep it on the front counter for easy access.”
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For now, the robots have only been installed in one of the brand's nine locations, and Rokhsarzad said there are no plans to add them to more restaurants due to the cost, given their smaller size. But as larger locations open, the brand plans to add the technology because of customer feedback.
“When we first introduced this, some people said, 'Don't use this to replace staff. We don't want this to take people's jobs,'” Rokhsarzad said. “But we explained that this isn't to take anyone's job, it's to help our hard-working team. We were struggling to find talent.”
“Once people got the hang of it, the response has been overwhelmingly positive,” she continued. “A lot of people enjoy it, kids love it, and it's made our jobs easier too. Our team doesn't have to carry plates around so many times. The robot brings the orders to the tables and the servers can move on to the next table before checking on them.”
In addition to Rachel's Kitchen, Bear Robotics has partnered with brands such as Buffalo Wild Wings, Denny's, Sergio's Cuban Restaurants, and Marriott. The company also has its products in the healthcare, retail, and real estate sectors.
Robot servers are becoming increasingly popular, especially in restaurants: Buffet franchise Golden Corral is testing service robots from Richtech Robotics, for example. The technology is also extending outside of restaurants: Marco's Pizza began testing autonomous delivery robots over short distances in October 2023.
In addition to robots, Rachel's is testing artificial intelligence solutions for answering phones and taking simple orders.
“The way I see it, all of the technology we're introducing is to help our team be more accommodating to our guests,” Rokhsarzad said. “If we have robotic servers bringing food or online orders being taken and automatically answered, our team will have more time to spend with customers and pickup diners.”