The breakthrough of artificial intelligence is the boundary between human service and value.

What kind of experience would you think of drinking coffee brewed in a coffee shop?

Recently, another AI robot cafe opened in Shibuya, Japan. In this "fancy coffee shop", after guests enter the coffee shop to order, they will be served by Sawyer - it will show a welcome expression on the screen with "Welcome, delicious." "How about coffee", then Sawyer will pick up the cup for your coffee, from the selection of coffee powder to the boiling hot water into the temperature modulation device, the cooling hot water is added to the filter with coffee powder From the cup to the filter of a cup of fragrant coffee, the whole process is done by Sawyer, and only two minutes.

Among the people's impressions, the barista is a career that is both emotional and very old. As an excellent barista, you should not only be familiar with the properties of various coffee beans, but also match the five flavors of acid, aroma, bitterness, sweetness and alcohol. Even if it is a coffee flower, it is also cooked. A process that can be made. It is such a job that has high requirements for experience and skill. Why is its "rice bowl" still threatened by AI robots?

What is the robot for brewing?

Some people may ask, in the kitchen, why AI robots must first grab the barista's rice bowl, intelligent relativity (ID: aixdlun) believes that in addition to the maturity of robotics, there are two reasons.

1. The lack of creative coffee production is just repeated labor, and AI has advantages.

In an ordinary coffee shop, what kind of items do you need a barista to play freely and create? In particular, some basic models such as cappuccino, latte, mocha, American, smoothie, etc., the most sold in these cafes, most of which can meet the needs of ordinary consumers, and these coffee production processes are determined, already Without creativeness, it is easy to learn by artificial intelligence robots.

In fact, the barista in this kind of scene carries out repeated labor. Although this kind of labor has experience and skill requirements, the experience and skill of the barista only affects the quality of the produced coffee without affecting the process. There is not much change in the process. After the AI ​​system enters or masters these skills, the rest is only repeated labor, and the artificial intelligence robot has more advantages in this, it will not be tired or other uncertain factors. There is a deviation in quality.

2. Baristas who have difficulty entering the social links of consumers are more likely to be replaced.

Barista's work scene, lack of interaction with consumers, think about the process of our coffee, first go to the bar to order, and then wait for the coffee to do well, take the coffee back to the position to do their own thing, the process of consumption There are very few contacts between the barista and the barista. At most, the barista pulls a flower. People who are interested in coffee making may also discuss it, but most consumers just want to have a regular coffee, continue their work or chat with friends. In this social scene, there is no place for the barista.

The bartenders are different. They can perform fancy bartending, which has certain ornamental qualities. More importantly, the consumer order is the beginning of mutual communication, not the end. You can complain to the bartender. You can chat like a friend, you can also give a cocktail to the beauty next to the bar, let the bartender become an intermediary to make new friends, and become a part of social activities, which is not available in the cafe. .

The development of artificial intelligence technology is impacting human experience in the moat

Before the advent of strong artificial intelligence, we have always believed that relying on empirical work is safe, such as judgment, analysis and other subjective work, it is not simply repeated labor, but the ability to adapt to the long-term work experience, But unfortunately, the human experience moat has also been difficult to stop the pace of artificial intelligence. Work such as medical readers, accountants, and translators that need analysis and judgment have been quickly invaded by artificial intelligence, and coffee robots are also one of such signals. .

1. Data is replacing human "experience value" and becoming the driving force of AI

Ma Yun said in an interview with CNBC that “the machine or artificial intelligence will not replace human intelligence” because “human wisdom is related to experience”.

However, the situation is a bit different now.

Although artificial intelligence does not achieve universal wisdom, in highly specialized areas, they are extremely intelligent "experts." Although humans have experience, AI also has data. Through massive data from all over the world, artificial intelligence has acquired a large amount of training materials. The coffee robot also learns to brew coffee. Its built-in processor constantly monitors the robot. Speed, power, pressure, data from each joint and end controller will be recorded, and then under the staff's training, continuous training feedback through data combination, you can finally learn the process of brewing coffee.

And because of the maturity of deep learning, artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, etc., the training method of artificial intelligence has entered semi-supervised learning or even unsupervised learning or reinforcement learning from supervised learning, and the learning speed of artificial intelligence has begun to increase greatly.

Even if you have a human brain that is born with wisdom, you still need to learn to train and train to distinguish between cats and dogs. It can be said that every kind of intelligence is trained like this, and artificial intelligence can be imagined in this respect. .

2. A variety of technology integration, integration with hardware to form a complete product

A single AI technology may also be limited by the application scenario, and multiple technologies are different after integration. Sawyer is also a combination of various technologies such as machine vision, voice interaction, and collaborative robotic arm, and coffee robots and other intelligence. The functions of device collaboration and voice interaction with humans are controlled by the K system developed by Hard Egg Lab, and this has formed a completely open artificial intelligence platform that can help third-party applications and third-party smart devices to utilize the platform. The voice, image and other capabilities provide the corresponding services.

In real life, it is difficult for a single technology to directly meet the demand, but multiple technologies can work together to cope with real-life demand scenarios. The integration of technology and hardware will make it a complete product, allowing it to enter. Human life, thus adapting or actively creating various usage scenarios.

Wang Gang, director of public relations at Hard Egg Lab, said: "The development of artificial intelligence to today requires a set of integration of artificial intelligence applications, including the integration and integration of some mature artificial intelligence technologies with hardware products." The ability of artificial intelligence robots to complete more individual software.

It can be said that the formation of intelligent hardware equipped with AI technology will pose a real threat to human work.

3. The breakthrough of artificial intelligence is the boundary between human service and value.

In fact, the work of the coffee robot in the coffee shop is just a substitute for the brewing coffee. Then the other service links are allowed to be completed by the consumers themselves. From the self-purchasing mode of the robot cafe, the rapid production efficiency, we can see This actually highlights its fast drink properties.

Standardization + efficiency, which is more like a fast-food business model. Of course, robot cafes have great advantages in such a business model. However, cafes are not fast food restaurants. Although standardization and efficiency will affect coffee shops, But this is not the biggest pain point. Whether it can create a perfect third space experience is what consumers care about. This is also the core competitiveness of the coffee shop, and the “Mood Coffee” of many independent cafes is all kinds of A unique service experience is popular.

Carrying emotions in the process of serving consumers and creating value outside of consumption for consumers is not only the boundary of artificial intelligence robots, but also the golden rule in the service industry.

Zooming into the entire service industry, it can meet the needs of various services and create various added value for consumers, especially the human touch in the process of creating communication with consumers, which is the core value of human beings.

In a word, artificial intelligence can replace labor, but it cannot replace service and value.