By Alana Semuels

Visitors to Henn-na， a restaurant outside Nagasaki， Japan， are greeted by a peculiar sight： their food being prepared by a row of humanoid robots that bear a passing1 resemblance to the Terminator. The “head chef，”incongruously2 named Andrew， specializes in okonomiyaki， a Japanese pancake. Using his two long arms， he stirs batter in a metal bowl， then pours it onto a hot grill. While he waits for the batter to cook， he talks cheerily in Japanese about how much he enjoys his job. His robot colleagues， meanwhile， fry donuts， layer soft-serve ice cream into cones， and mix drinks.

H.I.S.， the company that runs the restaurant， as well as a nearby hotel where robots check guests into their rooms and help with their luggage， turned to automation partly out of necessity. Japans population is shrinking， and its economy is booming； the unemployment rate is currently an unprecedented 2.8 percent. “Using robots makes a lot of sense in a country like Japan， where its hard to find employees，”CEO Hideo Sawada said.

Sawada speculates that 70 percent of the jobs at Japans hotels will be automated in the next five years.“It takes about a year to two years to get your money back，” he said. “But since you can work them 24 hours a day， and they dont need vacation， eventually its more cost-efficient to use the robot.”

This may seem like a vision of the future best suited—perhaps only suited—to Japan. But according to Michael Chui， a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute， many tasks in the food-service and accommodation industry are exactly the kind that are easily automated. Chuis latest research estimates that 54 percent of the tasks workers perform in American restaurants and hotels could be automated using currently available technologies—making it the fourthmost-automatable sector in the U.S.

The robots， in fact， are already here. Chowbotics， a company in Redwood City， California， manufactures Sally， a boxy robot that prepares salads ordered on a touch screen. At a Palo Alto café， I watched as she deposited lettuce， corn， barley， and a few inadvertently3 crushed cherry tomatoes into a bowl. Botlr， a robot butler， now brings guests extra towels and toiletries in dozens of hotels around the country.4

One robot， Flippy， can flip5 150 burgers an hour. Ostensibly6， this is worrying. Americas economy isnt humming along nearly as smoothly as Japans， and one of the few bright spots in recent years has been employment in restaurants and hotels， which have added more jobs than almost any other sector. That growth， in fact， has helped dull the blow that automation has delivered to other industries. The food-service and accommodation sector now employs 13.7 million Americans， up 38 percent since 2000. Since 2013， it has accounted for more jobs than manufacturing.

These new positions once seemed safe from the robot hordes7 because they required a human touch in a way that manufacturing or mining jobs did not. When ordering a coffee or checking into a hotel， human beings want to interact with other human beings—or so we thought. The companies bringing robots into the service sector are betting that well be happy to trade our relationship with the chipper8 barista or knowledgeable front-desk clerk for greater efficiency. Theyre also confident that adding robots wont necessarily mean cutting human jobs.

Robots have arrived in American restaurants and hotels for the same reasons they first arrived on factory floors. The cost of machines， even sophisticated ones， has fallen significantly in recent years， dropping 40 percent since 2005， according to the Boston Consulting Group. Labor， meanwhile， is getting expensive， as some cities and states pass laws raising the minimum wage.

Wendys， McDonalds， and Panera are in the process of installing self-service kiosks9 in locations across the country， allowing customers to order without ever talking to an employee. Starbucks encourages customers to order on its mobile app； such transactions now account for 10 percent of sales. The early success of the kiosks suggests that， at least when ordering fast food， patrons prize speed over high-touch customer service.

Technology obviates10 old jobs， but it also creates new ones. At Zume Pizza， in Mountain View， California， I watched an assembly line of robots spread sauce on dough and lift pies into the oven. Thanks to its early investment in automation， Zume spends only 10 percent of its budget on labor， compared with 25 percent at a typical restaurant operation. The humans it does employ are given above-average wages and perks11. Zume also offers tuition reimbursement12 and tutoring in coding and data science. Freedom Carlson， who started in the kitchen where she toiled alongside the robots， has been promoted to culinary-program administrator， and is learning to navigate the software that calculates nutritional facts for Zume pizzas.

However， transitioning to a new type of work is never easy， and it might be particularly difficult for many in the service sector. New jobs that arise after a technological upheaval13 tend to require skills that laid-off workers dont have. A college education helps insulate14 workers from automation， enabling them to develop the kind of expertise， judgment， and problem-solving abilities that robots cant match. Yet nearly 80 percent of workers in food preparation and service-related occupations have a high-school diploma or less， according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The better hope for workers might be that automation helps the food-service and accommodation sector continue to thrive. Paneras Hurst told me that because of its new kiosks， and an app that allows online ordering， the chain is now processing more orders overall， which means it needs more total workers to fulfill customer demand. Starbucks patrons who use the chains app return more frequently than those who dont， the company has said， and the greater efficiency that online ordering allows has boosted sales at busy stores during peak hours. Starbucks employed eight percent more people in the U.S. in 2016 than it did in 2015， the year it launched the app.

Of course， whether automation is a net positive for workers in restaurants and hotels， and not just a competitive advantage for one chain over another， will depend on whether an improved customer experience makes Americans more likely to dine out and stay at hotels， rather than brownbagging15 it or finding an Airbnb.

That could be the case. James Bessen， an economist at Boston University School of Law， found that as the number of ATMs in America increased fivefold from 1990 to 2010， the number of bank tellers also grew. Bessen believes that ATMs drove demand for consumer banking： No longer constrained by a branchs limited hours， consumers used banking services more frequently， and people who were unbanked opened accounts to take advantage of the new technology. Although each branch employed fewer tellers， banks added more branches， so the number of tellers grew overall.

And as machines took over many basic cashhandling tasks， the nature of the tellers job changed. They were now tasked with talking to customers about products—a certificate of deposit， an auto loan—which in turn made them more valuable to their employers. Therefore， as Bessen said， “Its still not clear that automation in the restaurant industry will lead to job losses.”

在日本长崎县外一家名为Henn-na的餐厅里，游客们看到了一种奇特的景象：一排人形机器人在为顾客准备食物，这种景象与《终结者》中的情节有点儿相似。机器人“主厨”名叫安德鲁，这个名字显得不那么适合；他擅长制作大阪烧（一种日式煎饼）。只见他挥起两条长长的手臂，在一个金属碗里搅拌面粉，再将面粉倒在一个炙热的烤架上。在等待面糊烤熟之时，他用日语开心地说着他有多喜欢自己的工作。与此同时，他的机器人同事们在炸甜甜圈、把软冰淇淋层层挤进甜筒里以及调制饮料。

这家餐厅由H.I.S.公司负责经营，公司旗下还有一家位于附近的酒店，也由机器人为客人办理住宿，并帮助他们搬运行李。H.I.S.公司这种自动化发展趋势在一定程度上是出于所需。日本的人口正在不断减少，但经济正在蓬勃发展；目前，日本的失业率已降低到史无前例的2.8%。“在日本这样的国家，使用机器人有非常重要的意义，因为在这里，员工非常匮乏。”首席执行官泽田秀雄（Hideo Sawada）说。

泽田秀雄推测，在未来五年内，日本酒店中70%的工作将实现自动化。“只需要一到两年的时间，就可以收回成本。”他说道，“但由于机器人可以一天工作24小时，而且不需要休假，因此最终看来，使用机器人会更加合算。”

这看起来像是最适合——或许是只适合——日本未来的一种设想。但麦肯锡全球研究院合伙人迈克爾·崔表示，餐饮服务以及酒店行业的许多任务都很容易实现自动化。迈克尔·崔在最近的研究中预测，在美国的餐厅和酒店里，工人们54%的操作都可以通过现有技术实现自动化，因而使其成为美国第四大可自动化行业。……