Service robots are increasingly present in many places in our lives, including hospitals, airports, and even the home. One of the more everyday places where service robots have been implemented is in restaurants. These robots can take on the role of waiters, chefs, and baristas. Robots in restaurants have been designed to automate and speed up some parts of the kitchen or dining processes, while also providing a pleasant experience for customers. However, this replacement of humans with robots could point to growing social isolation and emotional dependence on robots.
Introduction
You probably know Elon Musk for a lot of things: sending rockets to space with SpaceX, buying Twitter and turning it into X, his brief formal political career under Trump with the Department of Government Efficiency, and manufacturing electric cars with Tesla. Lesser known is one of his more recent ventures — the Tesla Diner. This futuristic restaurant opened in Hollywood during the summer of 2025 and features a retro and high-tech look, all while serving burgers and fries to its customers. One of the biggest attractions of this restaurant is not even the food itself, but a humanoid robot that interacts with the customers by posing for selfies and serving popcorn. This reflects a growing trend of robots permeating the restaurant industry. Closer to home, a new restaurant just opened west of the USC campus, called Robowok, which features robot chefs that cook Asian food for you. These robots have even escaped from the bounds of the restaurant and can be seen delivering food on the streets, in the form of Grubhub’s collaboration with Starship, for online orders. On a broader scale, robots not only have a growing presence in restaurants but have become an integral part of society and are shaping our concepts of relationships.
Service Robots
Service robots are becoming more popular in many industries and are becoming ubiquitous in our lives [1]. They can be seen in more public spaces, such as healthcare, tourism, and education, as well as in private spheres, like the home [1]. The industry of service robots worldwide was valued at 22.40 billion in 2024 and is expected to increase to 26.35 billion in 2025 and further grow to 90.09 billion by 2032 [2]. The purpose of these robots is to assist humans by completing their given duties autonomously [1]. The robots can take over menial or repetitive jobs, so their human counterparts can do more of the intellectual heavy lifting [1]. Essentially, these robots would make life easier all around for humans in their jobs. However, due to recent advances in technology, artificial intelligence, and sensing systems, these robots can now perform more than just purely automated tasks [3]. With advancements in the field of robot design, they can now take on more important roles and complex duties, including higher visibility to and interaction with customers.
Robot Design
Design engineering brings together many different engineering disciplines, from mechanical to electrical, industrial, and more. This field covers the development of products for solving engineering problems in a user-friendly manner. Design engineering is used for robots in restaurants to optimize the functionality of the robot and to enhance customer satisfaction through focusing on a positive Human-Robot Interaction, or HRI.
Robots in restaurants are not limited to one type of robot design. They can be a companion of the human waiter, a replacement of a human waiter, or even the chef. However, there are important characteristics that must be considered when designing a robot for restaurant use, such as the physical design of the robot and the characteristics of the people interacting with the robot [4].
On the technical side, service robots have a mechanical structure and control system. Although there are many physical possibilities of what the robot can look like and do, most of the robots in restaurants have some sort of movement mechanism so they can perform the necessary tasks. This includes the required motors, power supplies, speakers, microcontrollers, and drivers to facilitate physical movement [5]. To determine what tasks to do and when to do them, they have an innate control system. For example, a robot could have many types of sensors (cameras, distance sensors, touchscreens) that allow for user or environment input [5]. All of this hardware works together, and this data feeds a main computer, which tells the robot what to do [5]. For example, if a sensor detects that there is an obstacle in the robot’s path, then it will send this information to the main computer, the computer will process this data, and then send back the information to the motors telling the robot to divert its path. This can be thought of as a military mission. A scout will go ahead and determine if there are any threats incoming. Then, the scout reports back to the general with their findings. The general will then decide how to proceed with their soldiers based on the information gathered from the scout. Figure 1 shows an example of a control system for a robot that works in a restaurant. It has many different sensors, like the laser sensor, bumper sensor, and proximity sensor, and actuators, like the motors and speakers. The design of a robot is extremely complex and involves lots of moving parts.
On the customer engagement and interaction side, the determinants of success for the service robot are “enjoyment”, “attitude”, and “trust” [1]. A robot must be engineered so that human users have a positive perception of it, to encourage users to continue interacting with robots [1]. For a person to enjoy a robot, they should think of it as being more human-like and of having an actual presence within the environment [1]. The look of a robot should be inviting and unintimidating, to make users feel comfortable interacting with it [1]. Figure 2 shows a robot that was implemented in a restaurant, designed to maximize HRI. The screen is not only user-friendly and can handle inputs, but also shows a graphic of a welcoming face that would encourage people to interact with it in its idle state.
A robot should be friendly, but not too friendly, or it could trigger the uncanny valley effect, where people get uncomfortable when something non-human becomes too human-like [1]. The customer’s attitude is also determined by whether a robot can provide customized assistance, receive customer input in an intelligent manner, complete tasks with little to no human interference, and be careful and accurate in its work [1]. In essence, the customer needs assurance that the robot will be a competent replacement for a human. The factors of a customer’s trust are built on how anxious the customer is to use the robot, if the customer thinks the robot is violating personal privacy through the collection of data, and if the robot is nonfunctional [1]. Overall, a customer’s readiness to interact with a robot is determined by their engagement with it, so the more someone uses a robot, the more likely they are to want to use it again, given that the quality of service was acceptable [1]. It’s like riding a bike: the first time you ride one, it can be uncomfortable and seem confusing, but by riding it more, you become more confident and enjoy it more. Intuitively, this makes sense — the more comfortable you are with something, the more willing you are to repeat that action, like going to a robotic restaurant.
Robotic Implementation
Why do restaurants even want robots at all? A major benefit of robotic implementation within restaurants is economic. According to the consulting firm Aaron Allen & Associates, implementing automation could save the food industry around $12 billion by eliminating the wages of employees [6]. Major restaurant chains, like Chipotle and Sweetgreen, are implementing automated systems to replace the costs of labor. Sweetgreen has implemented an automated food-dispensing system in some restaurants that can make 500 bowls per hour, exceeding the maximum human speed of 300 bowls per hour [6]. These locations are more profitable, with one of these automated locations reporting a profit margin around 10% above the Sweetgreen average [6]. As all companies aim to increase profit, switching to robots is enticing. Another bonus from the company’s perspective is that a robot will never request time off, need healthcare benefits, be late to work, have problems with other coworkers, or call in sick. Robots are consistent workers who never need any accommodations that a human would need.
The shift from human to robot employees raises some concerns within the general population that automation will take away jobs from humans. The food service industry provides an income for millions who do not have a higher education degree or other expertise [6]. McDonald’s and Dunkin’ have removed the need for many cashiers by replacing them with kiosks [6]. This type of food service role, like a cashier, provides a livelihood for many people. Implementing technology in lieu of human workers could result in the elimination of one of the most prominent and stable working-class jobs. Though these systems of replacement can lower costs and speed up service, they could also have more serious ramifications.
Social Implications
Although normally framed as having a mainly economic impact, robotic automation obviously reduces human-to human interaction within public areas. As humans rely on food for daily nourishment, the culture surrounding food is omnipresent and inescapable. Patrick Lin, a researcher from the Cal Poly Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group studying AI Kitchens, said, “[Restaurants] are the bedrock for an economy, the soul of a community, and the ambassador for a culture” [7]. This indicates a bigger reason for restaurants in society, and raises questions about the value of humans in the industry. Is human interaction integral to the restaurant industry? Do people go to restaurants for human interaction? How could robots in restaurants affect human interaction?
Drilled into any customer service worker is the phrase, “service with a smile”, meaning that in order for the customer to have a pleasant experience, they must be treated with a certain friendliness and emotional connection, which would be near impossible to replicate with a robot. The growing mechanization of society fosters a rise in isolation, which correlates to the disappearance of community. For example, the invention of the microwave transformed the dining experience from one of community into one of isolation [8]. It encouraged more single-serving meals that could be consumed at will, rather than waiting for bigger meals to be consumed with others. Eating food is an inherently social activity; in ancient communities, people would share food in large groups, whether it be family, friends, or neighbors, and not eat alone. To “break bread” with someone meant not only physically rationing out bread, but creating a connection within a community. Although waiters and cooks don’t sit down in the restaurant with customers to eat food with them, they still create the community and form the culture of the restaurant environment [8]. The absence of these people creates gaps in the social structure and could potentially hinder the development of a welcoming environment within a restaurant.
One study found that customers who use a service robot will view the robot as a social entity instinctively [9]. This means that they perceive the robot as practically a human. This signals a greater shift in society, where people have begun to view technology as their peers — as humans.
A line has blurred between the human and inhuman. People have begun to form meaningful relationships with artificial intelligence and robots, treating them as therapists, romantic partners, or friends. The Reddit community r/MyBoyfriendisAI has more than 27,000 members, and entire chatbots are created with the sole intention of serving as a companion to the human user, like Replika, with more than 30 million users in August 2024 [10]. There are even wearable necklaces so that you have an AI friend everywhere you go, literally branded as “friend.com”.
This seemingly innocuous and purely economic implementation of robot waiters and robot chefs points to technology replacing any human connection in the real world. Since it is so easy to replace humans with service robots to perform the repetitive and menial tasks required of some jobs, customers and businesses are willing to replace even the more emotionally fulfilling relationships. People are already trading out their online connections, so if they are eradicating even small physical encounters with other humans, like interacting with a waiter or host, they are being trained not to need any human interaction at all. Maybe in the future, people will not even go out to eat with their family or friends, but be surrounded only by their robot companions, waitstaff, and chefs.
References
[1] Himanshu, A. Goel, S. Dhingra, and U. Taneja, “Dining with robots: exploring the customer willingness to adopt service robots in restaurants,” Ind. Manag. Data Syst., Apr. 2025, doi: 10.1108/IMDS-08-2024-0762.
[2] “Service Robotics Market Size, Share, Industry Report 2032.” Accessed: Sept. 25, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/service-robotics-market-101805
[3] J. Wirtz and V. Pitardi, “How intelligent automation, service robots, and AI will reshape service products and their delivery,” Ital. J. Mark., vol. 2023, no. 3, pp. 289–300, Sept. 2023, doi: 10.1007/s43039-023-00076-1.
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[5] K. Kantharak, C. Somboonchai, N. T. Tuan, and N. T. Thinh, “Design and development of service robot based human – robot interaction (HRI),” in 2017 International Conference on System Science and Engineering (ICSSE), July 2017, pp. 293–296. doi: 10.1109/ICSSE.2017.8030884.
[6] J. Creswell and B. Karlsson, “Why Is It So Hard to Make a Robot Chef?” The New York Times, Dec. 22, 2024. Accessed: Sept. 21, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/22/business/restaurant-robots.html
[7] “Cal Poly Wins $700,000 Federal Grant to Study the Social Impacts of AI Kitchens and Robot Cooks | University Communications and Marketing.” Accessed: Sept. 21, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://ucm.calpoly.edu/news/cal-poly-wins-700000-federal-grant-study-social-impacts-ai-kitchens-and-robot-cooks
[8] P. Lin, “Robots are coming to the kitchen − what that could mean for society and culture,” The Conversation. Accessed: Sept. 21, 2025. [Online]. Available: http://theconversation.com/robots-are-coming-to-the-kitchen-what-that-could-mean-for-society-and-culture-237000
[9] V. Sharma, M. Kapse, J. Poulose, and Y. Mahajan, “Robotic dining delight: Unravelling the key factors driving customer satisfaction in service robot restaurants using PLS-SEM and ML,” Cogent Bus. Manag., vol. 10, no. 3, Dec. 2023, doi: 10.1080/23311975.2023.2281053.
[10] P. Pataranutaporn, S. Karny, C. Archiwaranguprok, C. Albrecht, A. R. Liu, and P. Maes, “‘My Boyfriend is AI’: A Computational Analysis of Human-AI Companionship in Reddit’s AI Community,” Sept. 18, 2025, arXiv: arXiv:2509.11391. doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2509.11391.
