To borrow a phrase from the movie The Graduate, “I have one word for you: Automation”. Just like Mr Maguire was prescient in telling young Benjamin Braddock to invest in the material of the future (in 1967), I can tell you most-assuredly that automation is the growth industry of the 2020’s.
That point was driven home a few days ago during a visit to a local fast food establishment. After spending 15-minutes in a ten vehicle drive-thru back-up–during which time all of two vehicles placed orders and pulled up to the window, I decided to leave the line and go into the restaurant itself, figuring that a customer right there in front of the staff would be served in a faster fashion.
What I was greeted with was depressing. A total of three people were trying to operate the entire restaurant during the noon lunch rush. One of the workers was a young man with obvious physical disabilities that were limiting his productivity–and he was the one working the drive-thru. The woman in the back in charge of making the actual sandwiches was having an argument with Siri on her phone because Siri wasn’t playing the music she wanted to hear. And trying to keep it all together was what I believe was the shift manager running between the counter, the freezer, and the deep fryer–all while apologizing constantly to everyone inside the building waiting for food.
And in that slow-moving chaos I could see the process by which all of our “convenience” items are going to be produced in the future. The current model of a hybrid drive-thru, sit-down establishment will be replaced with strictly a drive-thru or walk-up facility. It will be a non-descript structure with no need for windows or play areas or restrooms. You will pull up to a video screen to be greeted by an image of a person asking for your order. But that person doesn’t actually work at that location. It will be an actor or actress who has been recorded saying all of the lines that would be required to take an order, read back an order, and answer some questions about the menu items. It’s possible that the same person would “greet” you at multiple locations around the country–and in the language of your choice.
You will pay with your debit card or your phone using a QR code on the screen and then pull ahead to the pickup window. Meanwhile, inside the building, a series of machines and robots will assemble your order. Burgers will move along conveyers to meet buns and other toppings. Robotic arms will drop fries and dump out the baskets for other robotic arms to scoop up and put into the bag. Anything that cannot be produced in this mechanical fashion will be dropped from the menu. And as you pull up to the pickup spot, a drawer like they use at the bank drive-thru will extend out with your order inside, “fresh” and hot. There may be one or two actual humans inside the restaurant restocking items or troubleshooting when the mechanized process breaks down–but you will never see them or have to interact with them. Once the automated trucks hit the roads, restocking will be automatic and done every night if necessary without anyone having to be around to do it.
I can see the “stores” of the future as well. Shelves and display cases will be replaced with what can best be described as giant vending machines behind shatter-proof glass where you just punch in the code for the items you want and they slide down a chute for you to put into your cart. Amazon is already offering a grab and go option at its stores where all of the items in your cart are automatically scanned and tracked, so you just walk out to your vehicle and everything gets billed to your debit card on file. No need to check out. And no way for organized shoplifters to “smash and grab” thousands of dollars of merchandise while no one does anything to stop them.
And that is if retailers even decide to still allow public access. Facilities could be even smaller–with no need for parking lots–if you just require shopping through an app, with conveyors and scanners and robots assembling the orders from glorified warehouses with all of your items run out by laser guided carts to your vehicle parked in the pickup area. And again, automated re-stocking systems keep everything in supply, without anyone having to touch it.
Other service industries struggling to find staff will replace humans with robotic lawnmowers and trimmers, and window washing systems. Garbage trucks and snow plows will drive themselves via GPS and respond to obstacles through lasers and cameras. Bulldozers, graders and concrete placers will all operate autonomously creating roads with just a couple of people standing around to make sure the machines don’t go haywire and drive themselves into a river. And of course, machines will build the machines that build those machines.
So now I’m off to continue work on my artificial intelligence radio show host that in just a few years will be giving you its Two Bitcoins about how great it used to be when you got actual customer service from real humans.
