Automation introduces unforeseen complexity and consequences which counteract supposed labor savings
Not as advertised
McDonald’s touchscreen kiosks, once thought to be fast-food labor killers by replacing employees at the cash registers, have shown themselves to be an interesting exercise in proving wrong the naive presumption of “labor-saving tech.”
What’s happened since the introduction of those self-service kiosks? Well, instead of having the intended effect of getting rid of people working to take orders at the counter, it did some unexpected things:
1. It made people order more things.
Sounds great, right? People ordered more stuff because the upsale was easily and constantly displayed right on the monitors.
…Except, of course, to people in the kitchen who have to work extra hard to deal with the extra workload that brings. This isn’t mentioning the rest of the staff. The gain comes with its own labor and monetary costs and isn’t a reduction of work at all.
2. It made the entire business more complicated.
The article succintly described this unintended effect:
Some McDonald’s franchisees — which own and operate 95% of McDonald’s in the United States — are now rolling out kiosks that can take cash and accept change. But even in these locations, McDonald’s is reassigning cashiers to other roles, including new “guest experience lead” jobs that help customers use the kiosks and assist with any issues.
“In theory, kiosks should help save on labor, but in reality, restaurants have added complexity due to mobile ordering and delivery, and the labor saved from kiosks is often reallocated for these efforts,” said RJ Hottovy, an analyst who covers the restaurant and retail industries at data analytics firm Placer.ai. Kiosks “have created a restaurant within a restaurant.”
Now on to the consequences that may not have been encountered by McDonalds or their customers in large amounts but have been by others:
The tech sometimes just go unused.
Bowling ally chain Bowlero added kiosks in lanes for customers to order food and drinks, but they went unused because staff and customers weren’t fully trained on using them.
The tech can worsen customer experience.
(I’ve actually experienced some of this myself…)
Even some of the benefits of kiosks touted by chains — they upsell customers by suggesting menu items and speed up orders — don’t always play out. A recent study from Temple University researchers found that, when a line forms behind customers using kiosks, they experience more stress when placing their orders and purchase less food. And some customers take longer to order tapping around on kiosks and paying than they do telling a cashier they’d like to order a burger and fries. Not to mention the kiosks can malfunction or break down.
“If kiosks really improved speed of service, order accuracy, and upsell, they’d be rolled out more extensively across the industry than they are today,” Hottovy said.
The tech may even lead to direct losses.
Self-checkout also has not caused retail job losses. In some cases, self-checkout backfired for chains because self-checkout leads to higher merchandise losses from customer errors and more intentional shoplifting than when human cashiers are ringing up customers.
Conclusion
The article also puts it best so there’s no need for me to reword (bolded by me):
“What I think will be central for customers is that they see how this technology is providing them with more or better service rather than more unpaid busywork,” he said. “Otherwise, the public is just likely to view it as yet another attempt to reduce labor costs via automation and self-service.”
Edit May 3rd 2025: Starbucks the latest to find out how trying to replace people with machines don’t work