Mixue Bingcheng, artificial intelligence, two completely unrelated fields are actually connected.

Recently, two subsidiaries of Mixue Bingcheng jointly invested in the establishment of a new company - Xuewangai Intelligent Technology (Zhengzhou) Co., Ltd. The company's business scope includes: emerging energy technology research and development, artificial intelligence Theory and algorithm software development, artificial intelligence public data platform, artificial intelligence basic software development, intelligent control system integration, intelligent robot R&D and sales, etc.

Is the milk tea business too "volatile" and "Snow King" is starting to stop doing its job? Or is it planning to use AI to replace employees, and ultimately raise prices and hit thousands of workers?

In the list of the company’s main personnel, Su Huchen, chief technical expert of Mixue Bingcheng and deputy general manager of the Process and Digital Center, serves as the general manager. Michelle Bingcheng Recruitment Management Yu Min, the head of the department, serves as a supervisor, and Cui Haijing, the head of finance, is also one of the heads of the financial center of Mixue Bingcheng Group.

Judging from the lineup of people involved in management this time, Mixue Bingcheng has a strong determination to explore and invest in AI technology. In fact, in addition to Snow King Loves Wisdom, Mixue Bingcheng has also established three other smart supply chain subsidiaries this year, two of which also have artificial intelligence as their main business scope.

According to information from Tianyancha, Snow King Smart Supply Chain (Zhengzhou) Co., Ltd. was established in January this year with a registered capital of 10 million yuan. In addition to supply chain management, warehousing, Internet sales and other businesses, its business scope also includes Including artificial intelligence application software development, artificial intelligence theory and algorithm software development, and artificial intelligence general application systems.

Snow King Smart Supply Chain (Guangxi) Co., Ltd. was established in June this year with a registered capital of 10 million yuan. In addition to supply chain, warehousing, and daily necessities sales, its business scope also includes artificial intelligence application software development, artificial intelligence Theory and algorithm software development, artificial intelligence general application system.

According to Su Huchen’s interview with the media in August 2023, Mixue Bingcheng’s national stores are gradually upgrading and improving the “Internet + Bright Kitchen and Bright Stove” project construction, and will introduce AI recognition to determine whether the cooking meets the requirements. Standards and other issues can be monitored.

During March 15, 2023, a reporter made an unannounced visit to two stores in Mixue Bingcheng, and revealed that they frequently changed labels and continued to use them after expiration, cutting corners and materials to save costs. In June this year, some netizens photographed an employee at a branch in Mixue Bingcheng taking off his shoes and washing his feet in the sink where fruit tableware is washed. Subsequently, the official issued a statement saying that the emergency response was taken because the employee's foot was accidentally burned.

Technology Whirlpool believes that food safety and hygiene is a top priority in the catering industry, but the management problems caused by numerous stores are not easy to solve. However, the emergence of AI technology has allowed Mixue Bingcheng to see new paths. Maybe Mixue Ice City will make a big moveThe purpose of AI is not to cross borders, but to better manage stores.

In fact, it has always been Mixue Bingcheng, who is 8G surfer, has also chased the Yuanverse and robot trends before.

In November 2021, the Tianyancha App showed that Mixue Bingcheng applied to register a series of metaverse-themed trademarks: "Mixue Metaverse", "Snow King Metaverse", "MIXUEMETA" and "SNOWKINGMETA". Some media contacted Michelle Bingcheng and were told: "The Yuanverse trademark is only a protective registration of Michelle Bingcheng to avoid counterfeiting. There are no other plans or actions for the time being."

In March 2022, according to Tianyancha shows that on March 14, Snow King Interstellar Technology Co., Ltd. was established with a registered capital of 50 million yuan. The company is wholly owned by Mixue Bingcheng Co., Ltd. Within the scope of its company's business, it includes the research and development of intelligent robots.

This combination of "down-to-earth" and "high-end" is not uncommon in the tea drinking world. In addition to Mixue Bingcheng, Naixue's Tea and Kudi Coffee also have layouts. Nayuki's tea has previously introduced intelligent equipment - the "Ruying" coffee latte art robot, and earlier the robot "Leimeng No. 1" from Happy Lemon, Luckin's robotic arm in the unmanned retail field, etc.

But compared to robots with higher technological content, tea brands are more conservative and advance in the use of tea automation equipment. The emergence of this demand is related to the rising operating and labor costs.

In 2022, Naixue’s self-developed “automatic milk tea machine” will also be put into use. After the clerk sets the category, sweetness, and ice level, he can automatically configure and output tea soup and juice by scanning the code and other liquid substrates, further liberating manual operations. Relying on this equipment, cups can be produced in as fast as 10 seconds, and the production capacity can be increased by about 40%.

In the middle of last year, a complete set of tea drinking smart devices developed by HeyTea was put into use in all its stores, attracting industry attention. This set of equipment covers the entire process of store raw material preparation, raw material management, and tea mixing. It has greatly improved the accuracy and efficiency of products produced in Heytea stores, and increased the store's fresh fruit preparation efficiency by up to 15 times.

In addition to actual efficiency improvements, the combination of "down-to-earth" and "high-end" tea brands has also brought considerable effects in marketing. Combining tea drinks with intelligent technology brings a sense of technology. As the main force of milk tea consumption, young people are highly sought after for the technological experience brought by milk tea robots, and novel things can often attract their attention.

In January 2024, the first national store of Kudi’s newly founded “Tea Cat” brand opened in Beijing. The biggest gimmick is the “human-machine collaboration store”. In terms of division of labor, Chamao's products are mainly produced by the cooperation of two robotic arms. The two robotic arms can cooperate to complete tasks such as shaking, sealing cups, moving, and delivery. Store employees are responsible for auxiliary tasks such as packaging and answering questions.

Beijing Dayue Chunfeng has introduced a hand-brewed coffee robot to attract consumers to register as members of the mall; a robot cafe "CYBER COFFEE" once appeared on the streets of Shanghai; Shenzhen's boutique coffee shop Something For, When its Yifangcheng store opened, it also introduced a "hand punching robot".

Industry innovation drives the market, and at the same time, to a certain extent, it attracts traffic to stores and increases traffic. Using the selling point of milk tea robots for publicity can indeed attract more consumers. But on the other hand, so far, no tea brand has heard of mass-producing milk tea robots on a relatively large scale.

The trend of AI intelligence in all walks of life is becoming more and more obvious, and the price of robots is also rising. For example, Nayuki Tea's "Ruying" coffee latte art robot costs up to 800,000 yuan, and even ordinary robotic arms usually cost tens to hundreds of thousands. The high price lacks cost-effectiveness.

The consideration of price is one thing. Whether the sales volume of the store is proportional to the investment in robots is also important. If the one-time investment is too high, there is uncertainty about whether the cost can be recovered in the short term. Even if labor costs are saved and the problem of difficulty in recruiting workers is solved, the hidden costs of machine procurement and machine repair and maintenance may be beyond imagination.

In addition, the "human touch" of the tea industry is also a major factor that needs to be considered. Previously, there were sanitation workers sitting and resting in front of the Mixue Bingcheng store, and old people selling vegetables at stalls. The clerks did not It’s heartwarming news that drives away people, but milk tea robots tend to lose this inadvertent heartwarmingness.

Technology Whirlpool believes that although news of major tea brands following the trend of robots and AI continues to spread, it is more out of considerations of upgrading services and increasing supervision. The tea drinking culture that has been accumulated for a long time is obviously not something that can be replaced in a short time by the program designed inside the machine.

Currently tea The beverage industry is in an era of involution, and the dividend period of the new tea beverage track has long faded. How to maintain competitive advantages in the "Red Ocean", efficiency and marketing are particularly important. We expect that many tea shops can bring refreshing experiences and ultra-efficient operations to customers, but at the same time, we also hope to retain the long-standing "human touch" of the stores.