Meet your new coffee barista. His name is Adam. He likes to put on a show when he makes your drink, but he doesn't have a lot of personality, at least not yet. Adam is a "collaborative robot," or cobot, the product of recent IPO Richtech Robotics.
Adam made quite a spectacle at the CES 2024 tech trade show in Las Vegas last week. Attendees lined up at the Richtech Robotics booth to get a personalized cup of coffee served by Adam.
Richtech Robotics designed Adam for the hospitality industry to fill persistent labor shortages, President Matt Casella told Investor's Business Daily.
"We are trying to pursue a path of cobots, where robots are going to be working alongside and interacting with humans," Casella said.
Adam Provides Gourmet Experience
Adam is a beverage robot. In addition to serving coffee, it can make cocktails, pour beer and serve boba tea.
To date, Richtech Robotics has deployed about a dozen bots, mostly in partnership with Botbar Coffee. Botbar operates several coffee shops in New York City and Oakland, Calif.
Aiming to create a franchise, Botbar plans to buy over 100 units in the next year or so, Casella said.
Richtech also has deployed an Adam robot at its boba tea restaurant, Cloutea, in Las Vegas.
In addition to serving beverages, Adam provides entertainment as whizzes and whirs to pour drinks. Plus, the AI-enhanced robot offers small talk to amuse customers.
"Hospitality is about providing an experience for people," Casella said. Adam also aims to be faster and more productive that human workers, he said.
Consumers want a gourmet experience, Chief Operating Officer Phil Zheng told IBD. That's not something they get from vending machines, he said.
"People like robots," Zheng said. "People do enjoy these experiences. It feels like the future is coming and they're witnessing it happening."
Richtech Robotics Is Recent Stock Breakout
Richtech Robotics went public on Nov. 17 with its initial public offering priced at $5 a share. The Las Vegas-based firm is an "emerging growth company" and isn't yet profitable. In addition to robot baristas and bartenders, Richtech makes robots for hotel room service delivery, food service delivery and floor cleaning.
On Jan. 5, RR stock broke out of a cup-with-handle IPO base at a buy point of 6.25, according to IBD MarketSmith charts.
On the stock market today, Richtech Robotics stock dipped 1.3% to 7.88.
Follow Patrick Seitz on X, formerly Twitter, at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.
