What does the future of the foodservice and hospitality industry really look like? That’s the burning question often asked by those who wonder how changing demographics, mounting legislation and technological advances will impact the industry and alter the landscape? A new study recently released by the Toronto-based C.D. Howe Institute helps to shed some light on the future of foodservice and hospitality by determining that this industry is most at risk for automation. The results of the study, highlighted in a March 18 Globe and Mail story, point to the foodservice industry as being vulnerable, given that fast-food chains such as McDonald’s are already embracing self-ordering technology, while other chains such as Starbucks allow customers to pay without ever needing to speak to an associate. Similarly, Burger King and Tim Hortons plan to launch a new order-and-pay app later this year.
As the Globe and Mail story states, “Although the C.D. Howe Institute found that Canada’s labour market is concentrated in industries that have a low probability of being taken over by robots, the report said that 72 per cent of employment in the accommodation and foodservice industry was highly susceptible to automation,” adding that jobs such as bartenders and wait staff are less at risk. “There’s a lot of tasks that you can automate, but since a large portion of their job is interacting with people, they are pretty safe,” said Rosalie Wyonch, co-author of the study and a policy analyst with C.D. Howe quoted in the story.
So which jobs are most at risk? According to other Canadian research from the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurs, also cited in the Globe and Mail article, hosts, servers, food-counter attendants and kitchen helpers had the highest likelihood of being replaced by automation, followed by cooks, bartenders and foodservice supervisors.”
Interestingly, for years the foodservice and hospitality industry has fretted about impending labour shortages, and with millennials’ seeming reluctance to work long, inflexible hours, the fear is exacerbated. Now, disruption promises to change the face of the industry even further, with mounting speculation that many jobs will disappear thanks to artificial intelligence.
While it’s normal for employees to fear automation and disruption regardless of where they work and, understandably, no one wants to see jobs disappear in any industry, could automation possibly free this industry from repetitive, banal tasks and allow employees to instead focus on creative and engaging ways to provide inspirational customer service driven by the passion of excellence? What will this industry look like in the future? Different for sure — and, if we’re lucky, maybe even better than before.