Are Bots and Robots the Answer to Worker Shortages?

With only 10% of people looking for work experiencing?any urgency?to secure a paycheck, service-related small businesses are having a hard time recovering from the pandemic. Despite food service, hospitality and other low-skill jobs seeing sharp wage increases — many exceeding the symbolic $15 per hour rate some have been clamoring for — “help wanted” signs proliferate in cities and towns across America.

The widespread unwillingness to reenter the workforce could not have come at a worse time for restaurants, bars, movie theaters, barbers and other companies that deliver their services in person and are desperate to find ways to return to some semblance of normality and pre-pandemic revenue levels.

People with entry-level skills simply are not willing to take entry-level jobs and entry-level pay. Unfortunately, until capacity restrictions are fully lifted, vaccination levels increase and customers feel more at ease patronizing eateries, bars and tourist attractions, business owners will find it difficult to pay the elevated wages required to bring workers back.

As occurred during the Industrial Revolution and other economic rifts, the higher wages commanded by workers in the aftermath of Covid-19 have expedited technological development and our dependence on automation, scale and productivity-enhancing applications.

Robots, of course, have become standard features of automobile assembly lines, manufacturing facilities and construction sites, but the shortage of low-skill workers in fast food, health care, reception, delivery and other industries has driven technology companies to adapt their products to small business applications. Robots can shoulder mundane and repetitive tasks, such as greeting customers, reciting instructions, describing products, providing directions and service offerings, and delivering food.

One robot that can help business owners serving customers is Pepper, a humanoid robot originally developed by SoftBank Robotics and now equipped with new AI skills through my company. Pepper is able to help small and medium businesses manage customer flow, disseminate information, serve customers, explain and compare product details, guide people to their destinations and more.

SoftBank notes that more than 2,000 companies worldwide have “hired” Pepper to?greet customers, provide information, manage queues and more. Pepper is at home in a variety of small business settings.

Robots complement, not replace, human workers. They not only take much of the drudgery out of humans’ duties, but they also make our time more valuable by making us more productive because we can focus on high-value tasks. So, wages go up, business booms and companies hire more people.

With all of this said, how can you get your business ready for automation? Start with the following:

1. Map your customer experience and identify areas where repetitive tasks can be automated — for example, greeting customers, describing menu items, comparing two products and providing location information in a store. Frequently asked questions such as “What are your opening hours?” and “Where is the bathroom?” are great examples of processes that can be delegated to robots.

2. Review your business operations and identify routine and low-value tasks — for example, sending food to tables, bringing dirty dishes back to the kitchen, flipping burgers, vacuum cleaning large lobby areas or corridors.

3. Get ahead of the competition. Find ways to delight your customers with a state-of-the-art technology.