Facing a shortage of staff, this restaurant turned to robots

It's been a tough few years for the service industry.

The pandemic meant restaurants and bars were forced to close doors, and since then it's been hard to find staff to fill the many vacancies left in its wake.

But, one restaurant inMadison Heights, Mich., may have found a solution: robot servers.

Li Zhaiis the owner of that restaurant, Noodle Topia and he now has three robots.

According to Zhai, the robots are being used for various roles: one is an usher that helps customers to seats, one delivers the food and another helps to collect dirty dishes. These robots have become such an integral part of the team that each even has a name.

During the pandemic consumers and operators have gotten used to technologies ... and that is carrying into the customer side as well now.-

"I'm super happy," Zhai says. "It's significantly reduced the labour cost ... We're finding it very hard to find people. I've closed two locations in different places because we just don't have people to work."

The struggle for staff

The service industry is finding it exceptionally hard to find staff right now, andprofessor in the School of Hospitality and Business at Michigan State University Karthik Namasivayamsaid it'll continue to be difficult for businesses.

"The industry is going through a certain amount of change since the pandemic," he told Windsor Morning. "We lost a lot of jobs during the pandemic and those jobs haven't really returned back."

Namasivayamsaid it's been estimated that there are twomillion jobs open in hospitality and leisure.

"During the pandemic consumers and operators have gotten used to technologies ... and that is carrying into the customer side as well now."

He also said that a lot of experimentation is going on in the back end as well with robots taking part in the kitchen.

But, can robots replace human-to-human interaction in service industry spaces?

Zhai seems to think his robots have been a hit with customers so far, as so many of them have been posting videos and images of them on social media.

"All of the customers have been loving the robots," he said. "It's a very positive way of promoting my business.