Could 5G help redesign the future of your food delivery and dining experiences?
5G technology will disrupt industries. Here is how it could impact the food services industry.
5G technology will be revolutionary as it will allow wireless networks in cities to be consistent in the delivery of high speeds for the enactment of tasks. While envisioning what all could be possible, we need to understand the core overarching components that will change in terms of the design of a business concept. One of these components is the possibility of tasks getting accomplished with the toggling of signals through a wireless network. With 5G technology, high-powered, efficient, and extremely dense networks will drive low latency coupled with high speeds will mean that tasks that were earlier disrupted by lags and inconsistencies in network performance are now more likely to be possible.
Envisioning 5G replicating remote robotics in the food service industry
Have you heard about remote surgeries? They have been possible for a while (~2001).
The reason that such surgeries have not been so mainstream has been that we have faced the usual hurdles in technological and business parameters not being as feasible as you need them to be for scaling. 5G technology changes that and in January 2019, a surgeon in China performed the world’s first remote operation using 5G technology in Fujian, using the next-generation network to control robotic arms in a remote location 30 miles away.
With remote surgeries possible, we now know that you can get robots to perform complex tasks such as surgeries while being far away. So what does that mean in terms of restaurants and the food service industry as a whole? You could possibly get robots to cook remotely. Well, how does that help with anything? I wouldn’t want a robot permanently stationed in my kitchen and take up more space. Before I bring everything together it is important to understand another concept that has been introduced in the food services industry — “cloud kitchens”.
The concept of Cloud Kitchens
In short, cloud kitchens are spaces that you can leverage to expand your restaurant (or food service business) kitchen space as needed. This concept also enables aspiring food business entrepreneurs that don’t have the capital to invest in real estate for getting that kitchen space and would rather pilot with a flexible model. The fact that Amazon has already invested in a firm that delivers such a service does ring alarm bells for the industry while also hinting at how this concept could take off in the near future.
5G technology will help enable the value chain of tomorrow for the Food Services Industry
It is very possible that to advance our needs in terms of sustainability and efficiency, we will have a lot of cloud kitchen spaces across cities. Let us think about the number of restaurants in your neighborhood, and now picture the kitchen space for all of them aggregated into one big space. Consider investments in robots as a service (RaaS) by some of the big companies such as Amazon to station them at these cloud kitchens to cook meals and exotic dishes. This means that the robot doesn’t need to be in your kitchen for you to enjoy a meal cooked by the robot. The robot in turn would be controlled by a cook as it would be by a surgeon for remote surgeries. Thus, this enables a whole new model for freelancing chefs. The delivery aspect can be covered by robots or self-driving vans or the fact that these cloud kitchens may be within walking distance.
An important point that we must mention is that the food services industry lags a lot in terms of technology adoption and such innovation would completely change the business model. Restaurants and food businesses may be hurt the most, and power will shift to the individual creators and chefs. It is very similar to how Uber disrupted the cab/taxi industry. There is a difference though. Getting from one point to another can be seen as a commodity, and the product varieties are impacted by only the aspect of the size of the vehicle. However, different levels of cooking can have varying price points — and so will allow the customers to still seek the varieties of food specialties currently available in the market. If you are a chef, you should start thinking about how to leverage this. If you are a business owner operating in this industry, you should think about the ways you can adapt.
Let me know what you think? Do you see this as a possibility? What will be the good and the bad about this? Can you recommend adaptation strategies for those players who would suffer from this evolution? For players benefitting from this, how could they leverage such a model even further and create more value? I would love to hear ideas and discuss more.
