Following a recent media feature that included insights from our CEO & Founder, Ravi Sawhney, this perspective expands on the implications of automation in fast food and retail environments. As brands introduce self-service systems to increase efficiency, the underlying value exchange is shifting, with customers taking on more responsibility while expectations continue to rise.

This article explores why efficiency alone does not define a successful experience, how subtle changes in effort and interaction impact perception, and where trust begins to erode. It highlights the importance of designing not just for operational performance, but for human response, where adoption, satisfaction, and long-term value are ultimately determined.

When Automation Breaks the Experience: The Hidden Risk of Self-Service Design

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The Shift Customers Feel Immediately

Automation isn’t the issue.

The issue is how it changes the experience.

A recent article featuring Ravi Sawhney highlighted a growing shift in fast food: customers are being asked to do more, while paying more.

At first glance, automation promises efficiency. Faster ordering. Shorter lines. Lower operational costs.

But that’s not how people evaluate experiences.

They evaluate value.

As Ravi noted, “What’s changing here is the value exchange. Customers are doing more of the work while paying more. People feel that immediately.”

The Shift Most Companies Miss

Most automation strategies are built around optimization, focusing on speed, throughput, and cost reduction. These are measurable and easy to justify from a business perspective, but they are not how customers actually experience a system.

Customers are not thinking about operational efficiency or evaluating labor models. Instead, they are asking a much simpler question:

Does this feel worth it?

That judgment is not analytical; it is instinctive. It is formed quickly based on how much effort is required, how clear the process feels, and how the interaction makes them feel overall.

When customers are asked to navigate more steps, make more decisions, or take on tasks that were previously handled for them, their perception of value begins to shift. This can happen even if the system is technically faster or more efficient.

Effort is not neutral. People feel it, and they factor it into how they evaluate an experience.

When effort increases without a corresponding increase in perceived value, something begins to break. Not at an operational level, but at an emotional one. That is where friction builds and trust starts to erode.

When Convenience Stops Feeling Convenient

There is a point where convenience crosses a line.

What once felt simple and intuitive begins to require more attention and effort. Ordering becomes navigating through screens and options. Speed becomes dependent on self-service. Ease shifts into responsibility.

Individually, these changes may seem minor. Together, they reshape how the experience is perceived.

At that point, the interaction no longer feels like a benefit. It starts to feel like work.

As Ravi explained, “At a certain point, convenience stops feeling convenient and starts feeling like responsibility.”

That shift is subtle, but it is critical. It marks the moment when customers begin to reassess the value of the experience, not based on efficiency, but on how it feels to engage with it.

This is where trust begins to erode, often without companies realizing it is happening.

Automation Without Meaning

Automation can make experiences faster, but speed alone does not determine whether an experience is better.

In some cases, automation removes the very elements that made the experience work in the first place. While those elements may seem small or inefficient from an operational perspective, they often carry meaning for the customer.

Human interaction is not just functional. It signals attention, care, and a sense of being understood. Even brief moments of interaction can reinforce trust and create a feeling of value that extends beyond the transaction itself.

When that layer is removed, something needs to replace it. The experience must still communicate clarity, ease, and a sense of consideration for the user.

If nothing replaces it, the interaction can begin to feel impersonal or incomplete. Even if it is technically faster, the experience lacks meaning, and efficiency alone is not enough to compensate for that loss.

The Real Design Challenge

The question is not whether to automate. Automation will continue to expand across industries, driven by efficiency, scale, and technological capability.

The real question is what is being replaced, and what is being added back.

Every element that is removed from an experience, whether it is human interaction, guidance, or a sense of ease, carries meaning for the customer. If that meaning is not intentionally replaced, the overall experience begins to degrade, even if the system itself is more advanced.

Companies that succeed will not be the ones that automate the most. They will be the ones that understand how the experience feels from the customer’s perspective and design accordingly.

Because adoption is not driven by capability alone. It is driven by perception, trust, and whether the experience feels valuable in the moment it is used.

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When we discuss how design is going to intersect or be affected by artificial intelligence the conversation almost inevitably drifts towards the loss of jobs. Will the algorithms replace industrial designers, engineers, researchers? Yes. Not entirely of course, and due to the complexity of the work it will take a little longer to replace some of the jobs than others, however, we are only in the very beginning stages of AI, and they can already compose music, write articles, win complex games, and most recently design themselves.

Creativity is complex, but at its core, is a form of intelligence, of information processing. Eventually, even this will be possible and will surpass human capability. That is why I get bored when the conversation revolves only around the loss of jobs. This is an inevitability, a very scary one, and one that needs creative thought. What is the world going to look like when narrow and some more general AI can complete 80 percent of the jobs? The conversation around design and AI should be focused on what our generation of designers can do to direct a future that is closer to utopia than dystopia. Design thinking needs to turn a portion of its attention to the human experience when “designers” are no longer required.

The scariest part of a society without jobs is not the economy in my opinion. If or when we get to that point, we should have the intelligence, artificial or otherwise, to keep everyone out of poverty and increase the standard of living across the globe. Things like food production, logistics, housing, and wealth distribution are all critical challenges and will need to be addressed. This important work has already started. Even in the US, we now officially have a presidential candidate, Andrew Yang, running on a UBI (Universal Basic Income) platform, or as he calls it the “Freedom Dividend.” Although these are challenges, the real challenge is going to be human happiness.

More people today live above the poverty line than ever before; unfortunately, we still have far too many below, but if trends persist, this could be a thing of the past. The crazy thing is, some of the wealthiest societies in the world have increasing suicide, depression, and anxiety rates. How is it that possible?

Happiness is the product of self-actualization. Once basic needs are met, where do we turn to fill our time and search for value? The primary source of this comes from relationships and in our society, work. Most of a person’s self-worth is tied to work. It brings value to their lives and connects them to others and society.

So, what does society look like when work is no longer needed? This is the question we need to turn our design thinking minds towards solving, and preferably before the algorithms do it for us, although like many other things, they may be able to do this better for us than we can for ourselves.