Singapore restaurant Wok A.I has been forced to close down after running into an ironic shortage of actual manpower.
The use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) has been in numerous industries for many years. Car manufacturers have used robots alongside humans to build cars, and it has slowly been creeping into the food and beverage space as well.
There have been a number of restaurants that have branded themselves as AI-focused, including Singaporean street vendor Wok A.I.
The street food stall went viral on TikTok after opening in November 2024, with owner Ang Chip Hong showing off their S$14,000/$10,000/£8000 robot that would make Hokkien Mee.
A.I. restaurant shuts down store after lacking chefs
Human assistance has been required to help the robot, mainly with loading and unloading ingredients. However, manpower has been hard to come by, prompting Ang to shut Wok A.I.’s outlet on Margaret Drive in late September.
“Manpower is still needed to cook stock, peel the prawn,” Ang told Mothership about the robot.
The restaurateur also told Mothership that manpower has been a consistent issue, with the search for new employees lasting for almost two months. He’d even upped the monthly salary to S$5,000, which is about $3900 in the US and £2800 in the United Kingdom.
Ang still has a second Wok A.I. unit open, which is about a 15-minute drive from Margaret Drive. So, he hasn’t totally abandoned the robot-inspired cooking.
As noted, it isn’t the first instance of a viral AI-backed restaurant. Back in July, Chef Aiman – yes, AI Man – was appointed as menu curator for WOOHOO in Dubai. Aiman doesn’t do any of the cooking, but helps with service, adjusting the vibes of the restaurants, and setting the menu.
Most notably, though, Chef Aiman also had TikTok and Instagram pages developed so that customers could meet an avatar ahead of their WOOHOO experience.
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