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Automation's Impact on Dining Experience

The document discusses the impact of automation on everyday businesses, particularly focusing on the introduction of fully automated restaurants like McDonald's. While automation can enhance efficiency and reduce labor costs, it also risks diminishing personal interactions and job opportunities in the service sector. The author highlights the need to balance technological advancement with the value of human connection in dining experiences.

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13 views4 pages

Automation's Impact on Dining Experience

The document discusses the impact of automation on everyday businesses, particularly focusing on the introduction of fully automated restaurants like McDonald's. While automation can enhance efficiency and reduce labor costs, it also risks diminishing personal interactions and job opportunities in the service sector. The author highlights the need to balance technological advancement with the value of human connection in dining experiences.

Uploaded by

commalpha6
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

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The Impact of Automation on Everyday Businesses

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The Impact of Automation on Everyday Businesses

Automation is being advanced rapidly across the board, and one clear example is the

introduction of the first fully automated restaurant by McDonald's. The positive and negative

impacts that this innovative approach promises to produce vary for owners, employees, and

customers. Therefore, as a frequent personal visitor, I have visited many fast-food places, and I

can easily imagine how such automation will modify my new experience.

To begin with, the goal of these automated restaurants is to limit the amount of human

error and shorten the delivery time. But when customers walk in, they order off digital screens

there, and sometimes robots deliver the food to the tables. Additionally, drive-through customers

can order ahead online and pick up their food from a designated lane—no hassle! If you're in a

hurry, it can save some time, too (Houser, 2023).

However, there is no human aspect. It’s negative because, as someone who likes

interacting with staff, automation removes that personal connection. Seeing a friendly face at the

counter or having someone recommend a dish is nice. So automated systems can feel impersonal

and can’t say, “How can I help you today?” and there is no room for those little windows of

humanity that make dining pleasant.

Things will likely change in both directions with automation for businesses I visit almost

daily, like coffee shops or local diners. Owners will reduce labor costs, and businesses will be

more profitable. At the same time, for example, in case machines take over petty jobs, employees

could lose jobs, or have fewer hours. Such a shift could upset the local job market — particularly

in the smaller towns where hospitality and service sector jobs form an essential part.

The initial part of hardware automation may be expensive for owners, but costs could be

outweighed by profits in the long run (Smith, 2022). This will mean less human oversight is
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necessary—leading to better consistency in service. However, that could mean fewer job

opportunities for employees in some fields. On the one hand, this will help to get customers such

as myself through faster, but on the other hand, at the cost of that personal touch.

Therefore, automation benefits—speed, efficiencies, and consistency—create challenges.

One of the things to balance is between human connection and technological advancement or a

delicate balance. Is this the world we want — a world in which robots serve us everything we

want or a world where we still value the personal touch when we visit the counter and smile?
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References

Houser, K. (2023). McDonald’s opens its first automated restaurant in Texas. Freethink.

[Link]

Smith, J. (2022). The impact of automation on the fast-food industry. Journal of Business

Technology.

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