A clawlike contraption lurched forward, like a bird pecking at feed, to snatch dishes holding a faux-chicken cutlet and potatoes, then inserted them onto a metal track that snakes through a 650-degree-Fahrenheit oven. Seven minutes, some automatic food dispensers, and two conveyor belts later (with a healthy assist from human hands), my meal was sitting on a shelf of mint-green cubbies. It was a vegan fried-chicken sandwich, a cucumber salad, crispy potatoes, and a smattering of other sides. This is Kernel, a fast-casual venture that opened its first store, in Manhattan, this February. Its founder, Steve Ells, kicked off the lunch-bowl boom when he started Chipotle in 1993.

Welcome to the future: A robot can now prepare your favorite Chipotle order. Just as long as you don't want a burrito, taco, or quesadilla. The robot cannot handle those. Your order must be a burrito bowl or a salad, and it must be placed online. Then and only then--and once the robot makes it out of testing at the Chipotle Cultivate Center, in Irvine, California--your queso-covered barbacoa bowl might soon be assembled by the chain's new "automated digital makeline." Announced on Tuesday, the result of a collaboration between Chipotle and the automation company Hyphen looks like a standard stainless-steel Chipotle counter, burrito components arrayed on top.

CyberGuy shows you which industries are seeing more and more bots take jobs. Bots and artificial intelligence (AI) are leading this revolution, reinventing traditional roles and reimagining what it means to work in the 21st century. CLICK TO GET KURT'S FREE CYBERGUY NEWSLETTER WITH SECURITY ALERTS, QUICK TIPS, TECH REVIEWS AND EASY HOW-TO'S TO MAKE YOU SMARTER AI is replacing jobs across many sectors, and banking is one of them. The realm of banking has felt the ripple effects of the automation wave. Automation, once associated merely with ATMs, has come a long way.

Chipotle isn't done experimenting with robots that could make life easier for restaurant staff. The chain has teamed up with robotics company Vebu to test a prototype Autocado robot (yes, that's the name) that cuts, cores and peels avocados to be used in guacamole. Kitchen workers only have to fill the bot with up to 25lbs of ripe avocados and choose a size. After the processing is done, they collect the fruit in a bowl, add remaining ingredients and start mashing. As Autocado improves, Chipotle expects to cut guacamole prep time in half -- no mean feat when it usually takes 50 minutes to make a batch.

Kurt "The CyberGuy" has all the details on why you will see more AI and robots working fast food locations. I've been seeing AI pop up everywhere lately, from automatic-driving cars to AI-narrated audiobooks. Now, it looks like the advanced technology is taking over our favorite fast-food chains too, and I'm growing more and more concerned about this taking over yet another sector of American jobs. CLICK TO GET KURT'S CYBERGUY NEWSLETTER WITH QUICK TIPS, TECH REVIEWS, SECURITY ALERTS AND EASY HOW-TO'S TO MAKE YOU SMARTER Wingstop has become the latest fast food restaurant to start using AI bots to take customers' orders. It is joining the likes of some of the most famous fast food chains around, including McDonald's, Taco Bell, Chipotle, Popeye's and Domino's.

When Curt Garner became Chipotle's first CIO in 2015, the only technology used for online restaurant ordering was, "believe it or not," a fax machine, he says. Seven years later, the Newport Beach, Calif.-based company is piloting a system with a robotic arm dubbed "Chippy" that prepares the fast-casual chain's famed fried salt-and-lime chips homemade every day without human labor, with the aim of tailoring output to the daily needs of each restaurant. "We are using robotic technology to do all the manipulation that a human would be doing in that process," says Garner, noting that "Chippy" is currently in use in only one of Chipotle Mexican Grill's 3,000 stores but use will expand. "We've spent several months in our lab refining the recipes and the processes to make it possible." The former Starbucks CIO didn't waste time jumpstarting the restaurant chain's digital transformation in 2016, applying and evolving his "learnings" from Starbucks to pilot a digital ordering system that would enable Chipotle customers to order online in advance and pick up their food from a drive-through window -- without use of speaker boxes or menu boards typical of drive-through fast-food restaurants. Removing the physical speaker box on site was a simple concept but a key part of a bigger digital transformation Chipotle kicked off in 2018 that led to an explosion in business, in large part because the digital ordering system required less human labor during the pandemic.

Restaurants have been struggling with labor shortages since the worst days of the pandemic, and the situation doesn't seem to be getting any better. After employees quit in droves and millions of restaurants shut down and laid off their entire staff, people seem to have found other ways to earn a living. Long waits, slow service, and disappointing meals. While there may not be a ton that robots can do to help at traditional sit-down restaurants, they're quickly moving in to fast food and fast-casual restaurants. Miso Robotics' Flippy, initially debuted in 2017 to flip burgers at a California fast food chain, got hired at 100 White Castles earlier this year (with expanded capabilities!).

A few years ago, Samsung had major battery issues when several faulty Galaxy Note 7 phones had exploding batteries. The devices were recalled, and the company spent a lot of time over the following years outlining all the rigorous battery tests it did to ensure it didn't happen again. Now, YouTuber Mrwhosetheboss, as well as others, have noticed batteries in Samsung phones are swelling up at a disproportionately high rate. This usually affects older devices, but some are only a couple of years old – the 2020-era Galaxy Z Fold 2, for instance. Samsung hasn't formally responded yet, but battery swelling isn't a new problem, nor one unique to Galaxy phones.

Chipotle’s next era of technology has begun to take shape inside restaurants, with a central focus on optimization. On Tuesday, the fast casual announced it’s piloting multiple technologies to streamline operations and strip friction from its business. The first, piloting in select Southern California restaurants, is a cook-to-needs kitchen management system that provides demand-based cooking and ingredient preparation forecasts to “optimize throughput and freshness while minimizing food waste,” the company said.

Chipotle's tortilla-making robot will soon help out in a restaurant you can visit. The chain has unveiled a slew of technology updates that include moving the Miso Robotics-made Chippy robot to a real restaurant. The machine will start cooking tortilla chips in a Fountain Valley, California location in October. Feedback from customers and workers will help the company decide on a national rollout. Artificial intelligence will influence some human cooks, too.