Robot Bartender Can Serve 120 Drinks an Hour
Sometimes it can be difficult to find a good bartender for your event. But a company in Israel may have a solution: a robot bartender named Cecilia.
Cecilia can mix and serve drinks, and uses artificial intelligence to talk to customers. The machine, which is over 2 meters tall, has a large video screen that displays an animated female bartender.
To order a drink, you can either use a touch screen or simply talk to Cecilia the same way you would talk to a digital assistant like Alexa or Siri. Once paid for, the drink is mixed in the machine and poured into a glass.
What Cecilia says can also be customized: she can tell jokes, give drink recommendations or promote your business.
According to the creators, Cecilia can be filled with 70 liters of different types of alcohol, and can serve up to 120 cocktails an hour — if she isn't too busy chatting to customers.
Cecilia was first released in February 2021 by Cecilia.ai, part of the GKI Group. Since then, she has been used by large companies such as Microsoft, Cisco and KPMG for their events. The machine costs $45,000 to buy, or you can rent one for $2,000 a month.
The company calls Cecilia "the first interactive bartender" — although she's not the first robot bartender, and isn't even the first one to be able to tell jokes. But Elad Kobi, the company's CEO, believes this type of technology may become more popular as venues try to think of new ways to attract customers.
"Companies realize they need to do different things than others to attract people there," he told the BBC. "Technology and innovation can do that."
Cecilia is being advertised for hotels, airports, casinos, stadiums and offices, as well as private events.