The Robot Work Force Isn’t Coming. It’s Already Here

When customers buy a cupcake at a Sprinkles bakery, they no longer line up at a cashier. Instead, they type into a tablet, swipe a credit card and wait for an employee to retrieve an order.

The kiosk system — which the cupcake chain began testing during at the beginning of the pandemic — initially allowed social distancing. Now, it helps the Austin, Texas-based company keep pace with increased online orders in a tight labor market where new employees are hard to find and retain. Its 20 locations will have the kiosks by early January, said Justin Murakami, Sprinkles senior vice president of operations.

To cope in these changing times, retailers and restaurants are stepping up investments in robots and other technology. Walgreens is turning to automation to fill prescriptions, while Sprinkles and Starbucks move to swap out cashiers for tablets. Elsewhere, Walmart-owned Sam’s Club is using robots to scrub store floors and scan inventory at some locations, and restaurant chains like Buffalo Wild Wings and White Castle are testing robots that can flip burgers or make chicken wings.

Molly Harnischfeger, a director of the consumer-insights team at AlixPartners, said companies are feeling more urgency as they struggle to find workers and pay higher wages. Plus, she said, shoppers and diners, impatient with long waiting periods and other consequences of staffing shortages, are becoming more open to robots and other technology.

“When customers have been going to restaurants, [and] are … [not] able to get the level of service that they expect and the convenience that they expect, the narrative changes a little bit in their acceptance of this.”

They are looking to “get their products quicker, whether that’s a robot delivering their curbside order at a retailer, whether it’s self-checkout, whether it’s their plates coming from the kitchen on a robotic server,” she said. “Everybody’s feeling that crunch as a consumer right now.”

She said many restaurants quietly increased tech budgets and kicked off pilots of robotics and artificial intelligence in the second half of the year — a trend she expects to continue in 2022.

“You’re really on the cusp of this technological enlightenment for the restaurant sector,” she said.

The retail and restaurant sectors have long been associated with high turnover and low wages. But with fewer workers now and on the horizon, the industries are raising wages, sweetening perks and even offering sign-on bonuses to recruit new hires.

Ron Hetrick, a senior economist for labor market-insights firm Emsi Burning Glass, said the labor shortage will outlast the pandemic. Many baby boomers retired early, and some people opted out of industries with higher levels of interpersonal interactions or chose a job that allowed remote work because of child-care challenges.

Digital orders have also resulted in the need to complete new tasks like moving items off shelves for curbside pickup, or preparing takeout orders and more — which means they need more employees, not fewer.

Inside of Sam’s Club stores, robots clean the floors. These robotic scrubbers are powered by software made by Brain Corp.