Pizza Hut Singapore to hire Pepper to take order

In a five-day trial ending on Sunday, diners at the Safra Punggol Pizza Hut outlet will be the first in Southeast Asia to be able to try out the new technology. After the trial, Pizza Hut will consider customer feedback before deciding if the robot will stay.

Patrons are greeted with “Hello” in a female voice from the robot, and to place an order first must greet the robot and pair their Mastercard Masterpass account embedded in the Pizza Hut Singapore mobile app.

They can then tell the robot their orders and show a QR code that will provide their table information. The robot is not exposed to payment instruments or customer credentials, which minimises the chance of sensitive information being compromised.

“This initiative gives people more choices without ever compromising security, and provides more reasons for people to go cashless,” says Labs at Mastercard Asia Pacific VP Tobias Puehse.

The robot was developed by Japan’s SoftBank Robotics, which makes the Pepper robot used in customer service and retail. “We are focusing on how robots can help how people live,” says SoftBank marketing director Kan Kiyota. “The humanoid robot is an add-on to the value provided.”