Last Updated on: 22nd November 2023, 09:27 am
Serial entrepreneur Josef Chen, 22, is paving the way for a revolution in the restaurant sector, combining AI and robotics to automate the industry’s repetitive tasks.
Alongside a star-studded team of innovators, Chen’s venture, KAIKAKU, is striving to empower hospitality staff to focus on creativity and innovation.
The company’s CEO and founder has been immersed in the industry his whole life, having grown up in a Chinese restaurant family, helping out with chores since the age of 7.
Chen said: “Having experienced all the problems first-hand and seeing my parents struggle to find staff, I have thought about ways to radically change the industry almost every day.”
The team comprises of Dr David Sharp, former Head of Ocado Technologies 10x and Head of Engineering of Ocado’s Autonomous Mobility Team, and Piers Millar, who at 17 years old has already worked as a Crew Trainer at McDonald’s and helped Chen scale a dark kitchen dessert brand to six-figure revenues within three months.
Millar is confident that by 2030 robotics will be a common sight at restaurants and cafes: “No doubt!”
The venture is also supported by a board of industry veterans, such as Don Fertman, former Chief Development Officer of Subway, David Crean, former Global Chief Science Officer at Mars Inc and Jonathan Hart, former Managing Director of Caffè Nero and CEO of Thorntons.
Chen said: “To achieve our hyper-ambitious goals, we also needed expertise on scaling the world’s largest locations of F&B chains, creating delicious food consistently at massive scale and the details on creating and opening new F&B concepts from ground 0.”
The restaurant sector is set for a radical transformation as leading chains worldwide embrace technology to streamline their operations and elevate customer experiences. Josef Chen and his team at KAIKAKU are well-positioned to harness this immense potential.
