Image: Flickr/David Tan

In the current economic climate, there’s a lot of worry that technological developments present a growing threat to an already precarious job market. With hyped projects like delivery drones and even a robot that can churn out 360 burgers an hour, the need for a sentient being to carry out a job that can be achieved by a hunk of metal and processors is shrinking every day.

However, what if it’s not robots taking our jobs, but apps? They’re cheap to create and purchase, can be used for a myriad of purposes, and the smartphones they rely on are ubiquitous. The perfect workforce, perhaps.

Recently, we’ve seen apps edge into the service industry; pieces of software designed to augment the lucrative business of eating are a hot topic at the moment. The Cover app makes splitting the bill a streamlined process, and this “realtime restaruant status app” keeps you up to date with how large the queue is, meaning you can time your visit and never have to wait in line again. 

FlyPay, a new iOS app, goes a step further and allows you to pay for you bill “waiter-free.” Instead of trying to get a waiter’s attention, which in my experience is usually a delicate balance of glaring eye contact and waving your arms around as if you’re experiencing an epileptic seizure, customers can simply scan a QR code on their table or type in a pin number. The itemised bill then appears on your screen, allowing you to check it over and split if you like. Enter your card details, push a button, and your bill has been paid, hassle free—and human-free.

The app is currently available in a handful of London restaurants, and it will soon be rolling out across parts of the city including the South Bank and Stratford. And with the company’s £1 million ($1.6 million) in funding, which will be used to secure new restaurant partners, we could see this becoming a common sight in trendy London eateries. That cash injection is in addition to the £150,000 ($250,000) sourced from other unnamed donors six months ago. 

FlyPay are keen to emphasise not only the benefit to customers that this provides, but also the amount of time it will give to overstretched waiters. Instead of fumbling around with a credit card machine at your table, they are free to serve drinks or bus tables. “Everyone likes a win-win situation”, FlyPay’s website says.

That might be the case for now, but what happens when even more apps are developed? Will we see the entire eating out experience streamlined and dealt largely via technology?

Of course, there are limitations on what software on your phone can accomplish. Without having arms or legs, someone—or something mechanical, such as a conveyor—is always going to have to carry your drinks to your table, unless you fancy picking them up yourself. There’s also no doubt some will miss the human touch of a waiter taking their order, recommending a dish, and listening to their problems—not that that’s stopped other jobs, like telephone sales for instance, from being passed on to automated systems.

So unless you’re going to a restaurant to have a chat with the waiter, and if apps like FlyPay improve the efficiency of customer service, why stop there? A lot more in the hospitality industry could be augmented or replaced by an app, and those in the business will see little reason not to move along with the trend. Unless they’re the ones being rendered superfluous by a bit of code, that is.

@josephfcox