Six ways robots are working in the background to serve you food

Throughout the pandemic, restaurants and supermarkets have increasingly turned to automation and robots to deal with ongoing labor shortages in the service industry.

Businesses in the leisure and hospitality sector been raising wages to record highs, surpassing $15 an hour on average, to attract and retain workers. Labor costs continue to rise in response to state and city-implemented wage increases and high prices.

Executives are eager to lower labor costs. The mentions of “automation” on earnings calls rose 67% from 4,706 in 2017 to 7,042 in 2021, according to transcripts compiled by Sentieo, a financial services company.

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