The world is going through a staffing crisis and industries that were worse hit by the pandemic are taking the hit once more. Both the hospitality and the restaurant industries are in for a tough time this year, with over 50% of workers saying they don’t plan to return. 

In an attempt to counteract this exodus, many restaurants and hospitality venues look for ways to encourage their staff members to stay and thrive. However, the difficult work conditions are still a deterrent and many of the workers who were left without a job at the start of the pandemic have moved on to different industries. 

As a result, the hotel and venue labor shortage is still a problem in most of the western world. So to cope with this situation, business owners have turned to technology - more specifically, automation. 

What is Automation in the Hospitality & Food Industries?

Automation is a process that uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms, along with what the German industry calls Hotelverwaltungssoftware - literally hotel management software - to understand how various real-life systems work and learn how to perform tasks without much human supervision.

With automation, restaurants can speed up the checkout process by removing the need to ask for the bill (a computerized system will calculate and notify you about payment methods and amounts). 

Plus, digital menus help reduce the number of servers needed in the restaurant since the order is automatically sent from the table to the kitchen. 

Plus, AI and ML systems are designed to collect and interpret data in real-time, which helps restaurants understand the needs of their customers at a more in-depth level. 

How Can Automation Help?

Here are a few ways automation can help solve the staffing crisis:

Fewer Servers & Helpers

As more and more restaurants and hotels automate the check-in/checkout process, businesses will be able to make do with fewer people on board. Plus, payments will be handled via mobile devices. This also means less contact between staff members and clients, which is ideal during pandemic times. 

We also start to see robotic helpers taking over redundant tasks in kitchens and hotels all over the world. For instance, cutting onions and other ingredients needed to cook the food doesn’t require much skill. Instead, it requires precision, speed, and stamina and all these are easy for a robotic arm that can chop, dice, and mince all day long. 

Increased Resource Efficiency

Both restaurants and food delivery services have an issue with resource management. For instance, in most kitchens, around 20% of food (if not more) ends up being wasted. Plus, when you deliver food, you have to properly manage resources like fuel and packaging. 

This is why AI systems are ideal to combat waste and increase resource efficiency. An intelligent system will collect and analyze the data in the field, delivering competent analyses and pin-pointing towards solutions to reduce waste. 

Right now, there are systems that can help chefs cut food waste in half. They do so by identifying the main source of food waste which also cuts down the costs without affecting any of the quality. 

Does Automation Threaten Human Jobs?

As long as your main audience is human customers, there’s no danger for human employees. Customers still want to have a person greeting them, helping them navigate the menu, or making recommendations. 

Plus, automation systems can only take over redundant and repetitive tasks while collecting data. So the tasks that require creativity, empathy, and originality are still for grabs for human workers. 

Therefore businesses must learn how to take care of their people, especially in an industry where the human touch is one of the main selling points!