XYZ is extending the use of its Barisbrew robot barista to entrepreneurship support for people with disabilities. An agreement with Hankyung National University is meant to help graduates of a training program prepare to open their own café.
South Korean AI robotics company XYZ, headed by Hwang Sung-jae, has signed a cooperation agreement with Hankyung National University’s Center for Strengthening Entrepreneurial Skills of People with Disabilities. The partnership builds on a training program in which participants learn to run a café equipped with a robot barista. The aim now is to support them beyond the training, through to preparing a business project.
How Barisbrew automates drink preparation during training
XYZ has already supplied its Barisbrew robotic system to the training center on Hankyung National University’s Pyeongtaek campus. The equipment is part of the “AI Robot Symbiosis Café” program, which teaches how to run a café staffed by both people and robots.
Participants practice each stage of running the business: taking orders, handling payment, preparing drinks with the robot and handing orders to customers.
The robot barista handles repetitive tasks involved in making drinks. Future operators can therefore organize their work by dividing tasks between the robotic equipment and themselves, according to their abilities and the operating conditions they have in mind.
XYZ has also brought in its operations staff to teach how to use the robot and to share its experience of managing cafés. Barisbrew is therefore already in use in a training setting, while the new cooperation focuses on bringing it into the graduates’ future commercial projects.
Business support for AI Robot Symbiosis Café graduates
The agreement between XYZ and the university center aims to give graduates continued access to the technical and business skills they need to start their own company.
The cooperation covers several areas of work:
- Supporting graduates of the AI Robot Symbiosis Café program as they prepare to start a business.
- Sharing facilities and specialist knowledge in business creation, management and robotics.
- Setting up long-term cooperation to encourage entrepreneurship among people with disabilities.
- Pooling teaching and research resources and developing advisory services.
The practical details of this support and the actions to be carried out will be decided jointly by the two partners.
Training is therefore no longer limited to operating the robot. Graduates should also be able to build their skills in running a business, customer relations and drawing up business plans.
Why XYZ wants to link its robots to opening cafés
For XYZ, the partnership widens the range of uses for Barisbrew. The company intends to draw on the technical and operational experience it has gained in commercial spaces to support people who are considering using a robot barista in their future business.
Song Ho-jin, head of XYZ’s robotics business group, stresses that mastering the equipment must go hand in hand with a practical understanding of how to run a shop. The company wants to pass on to graduates the knowledge they need to integrate robotics into their café project.
The approach relies on a tailored division of work: the robot carries out certain preparation tasks, while the entrepreneur keeps the management, organization and service roles they choose to handle themselves.
Hankyung’s Center for Strengthening Entrepreneurial Skills of People with Disabilities already provides training and advice to future entrepreneurs and to people who have started their own business. With XYZ, it plans to keep sharing teaching resources, facilities and specialist expertise to help graduates start their own companies.