Chipotle is on a roll in 2023 with total revenues up 13.6% in the second quarter of 2022 on a year-to-year basis and with rolling out 47 new restaurants, 40 of them with “Chipotle” drive-thru access.
Now the company is testing a new artificial intelligence technology that automates burrito, quesadilla, and salad making and leaves the human touch out of the meal-making process.
Related: Chipotle Set for 2022 Rebound Despite Covid, Other Headwinds: Keybanc
The Newport Beach, Cal.-based high-end fast-food chain infers the intelligent automation food preparing system, known as “collaborative robot” (or “cobots”) is a big step in enabling technology to run its kitchen.
(“We’re) testing an automated digital makeline in collaboration with Hyphen, a foodservice platform designed to help restaurant owners, operators, and budding chefs move their business forward by automating kitchen operations,” Chipotle stated in an October 3 statement on the new program.
The new system creates bowls and sales “by an automated system that moves the entrées through the bottom makeline where ingredients for the order are dispensed automatically,” the company noted.
Here’s how the new cobot system works, according to Chipotle.
- Digital orders are transmitted via the Chipotle app, Chipotle.com, or third-party platforms.
- If the order included a bowl or salad, those entrées would be routed to Hyphen's automated system. The bowl traverses along the bottom makeline and positions itself under the specified ingredient container. The intelligent dispensers dynamically portion each ingredient into the bowl. If the order included burritos, tacos, quesadillas, or kid's meals, a Chipotle team member would use the top of the same makeline to create those entrées.
- The completed bowl or salad would be raised from the bottom makeline and revealed at the end of the makeline through an opening in the countertop. A Chipotle team member would place a lid on the entrée and add any final items such as chips, side salsas, or guacamole to the order.
- Completed orders would be placed in their designated pick-up area: in-restaurant pickup shelves, walk-up window, or Chipotlane.
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For now, the new bot-making system is for digital-only orders, and in-store line customers won’t have their meals auto-prepped. But don’t count that scenario out a year or two down the road, as Chipotle management sees dollar signs in digitizing its food preparation and making that process more efficient.
About 65% of all Chipotle digital orders are bowls or salads, the company noted.
Consequently, the automated kitchen system “has the potential to free up more time for employees to service the front makeline and deliver exceptional hospitality, while simultaneously increasing capacity for digital orders during peak periods.”
The new system is also expected to cut down on food ordering and preparation mistakes by “helping enhance digital order accuracy, improving the guest experience,” Chipotle noted.
The company is hoping to make a bigger dent in the burgeoning fast casual/quick restaurant sector, a retail restaurant sector where consumers spent over $320 billion in 2022, according to Statista.
It has the size and cash to get the job done. All told the eatery business has 3,100 store locations around the world with revenues valued at approximately $8.63 billion as of the second quarter of 2023.
By rolling out a new intelligent automation food prep system, the company is betting that its new “burrito bots” can add to those totals, one tortilla at a time.
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