#来点儿干货#
In Seattle, I met Lao Zhang, a Chinese friend who works for a high-tech company, and chatted with him about the application of AI technology. Exactly half a year ago, he was involved in some technical work on the world's first AI restaurant. His words made me wonder if I was thinking about AI technology crookedly.
Lao Zhang only summarized one thing about the application of AI technology in business: AI technology is a tool to help business owners improve work efficiency and reduce operating costs.
To give me an idea, he talked about the AI restaurant in California.
The restaurant, called Caliexpress by flippy, looks not much different from many unmanned restaurants, and is based on a combination of kitchen robots and biometrics and payment systems. But thanks to AI technology, the restaurant is no longer a fully programmed automatic lunch vending machine.
An unmanned restaurant brand that has fallen
First of all, this restaurant can realize customized menus, guest preferences, eating Xi habits, unique tastes, and health concepts can be integrated into the customized menu, and the initial menu also needs to be remotely participated by guests, and then it can be completely generated and created by AI. In other words, the future guest has not yet stepped into the restaurant, his food is ready.
According to the technical team's calculations, restaurants that use AI to customize menus and manage them can improve their service efficiency by 320%, because there is no need to order and wait, and the dining time of guests can be shortened by 35%, and in general, AI control of restaurants of the same area has increased their reception capacity by 120% compared with traditional management.
For restaurant investors, this is real money.
Of course, if the service capacity goes up, there must be enough people to consume, and AI also has its own set in terms of promotion and communication.
On the one hand, the operator of the AI restaurant is working with the University of California to develop a set of AI-controlled neon lights and store lighting systems, with AI in the background, it can identify all passers-by within the monitoring range, and according to their potential preferences, adjust the neon signs, adjust the electronic signage, and even the promotional advertising content on it, giving passers-by the most tempting visual experience.
On the other hand, the AI management system will enter the Internet social platform, automatically provide users with menu customization and recommendations, to increase their own customer base, of course, there is still a certain regulatory controversy in this field: for example, whether AI can register a real account for itself, and publish content, self-replication, and dissemination.
In fact, with the help of AI to manage the storefront and realize unmanned, there are many hidden cost advantages, such as effectively reducing the loss of ingredients, saving more than 30% of the use of edible oil in frying and other links, no more accidents in burns and scalds, etc., there will be no medical compensation problems, and the insurance costs paid by business owners will also be greatly reduced.
After listening to this buddy's flickering, I have the urge to join an AI restaurant, but I still asked a doubt, if AI restaurants are prevalent in the future, what will happen to traditional restaurants?
But this problem is not a problem at all in Lao Zhang's eyes. He told me that Chinese people always have some stereotypes about Americans, such as always thinking that Americans are keen to spend, but in fact, Americans eat out only half as often as Chinese.
He came into contact with the industry, and after looking at some data, he found that there are only 650,000 restaurants in the United States, only one-tenth of China, and there are more than 40,000 Chinese restaurants in it.
So Americans cook more at home and rarely eat out. The birth of AI restaurants is not to compete with existing restaurants at all, but to use more extreme prices, fresher ingredients, more personalized menus and faster and more convenient services to drag Americans from the home table to the outside and eliminate the home kitchen.
Essentially, AI restaurants are not about changing the restaurant industry, but about changing Americans' dining Xi. Therefore, AI restaurants will not cause large-scale job losses, but will create more jobs due to the surge in the number of restaurants.
As for Chinese restaurants, don't worry about competition from AI restaurants, at present, AI restaurants can only provide simple Western food such as hamburgers, fried chicken, wraps, pizza, salads, etc., if you can design a Chinese menu and complete it originally, it is estimated that it will take at least ten or eight years.
It's a pity that this AI restaurant is still in the trial operation stage and has not yet opened.