Vkusno — i Tochka keeps people on the restaurant floor

Vkusno — i Tochka says robots can already take over parts of restaurant routine work, but they are not expected to replace staff on the floor. The chain wants machines to handle order delivery, cleaning, and warehouse tasks, while employees remain responsible for guest interactions and situations where a human touch is still necessary.

That is the company’s core logic: automation should remove repetitive work, not replace staff outright. Executives say that trying to push every process into machines at once could raise operating costs — and, in turn, menu prices.

That stance fits broader market practice. Cafes and fast-food chains around the world are testing automation for cleaning, delivery, and order handoff. In Russia, similar trials are already underway at major food-service chains and in shopping-mall food courts, but they have not led to fully mechanized shifts either.

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Vkusno — i Tochka also argues that guests often care less about record-setting speed than about decent, live service, especially when an order has to be remade or something goes wrong at the register. At its pilot restaurant in Gorky Park, the company is testing cleaning robots and new self-service formats, but it is not removing people from the service chain.

For now, the chain is measuring where automation actually saves time and money — and where it simply adds costs. If the pilots show clear results, the company could expand those systems to other locations. But for the role of a universal “robot waiter,” the human worker still appears to be keeping the job.