SBA Offers Grace Period to Business Owners With Covid-Era Loans

New Small-Business Applications Surged by 5.5 Million in 2023, Marking Yet Another Record

7 Successful Founders Share Their Favorite Leadership Advice

How These Hollywood Entrepreneurs Saved Their Company After Its Founder Died Unexpectedly

What's Driving Entrepreneurs This Presidential Election

What You Need to Know About Amazon's 'Buy With Prime' Button Now Available on Salesforce

5 Documentaries for Business Owners at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival

Think you've tried everything to get your employees back to the office? How about a really, really fancy coffee machine-one that can take custom orders, chat with employees about their day, and even do a little dance? That's just one possible future that Nevada-based Richtech Robotics president Matt Casella envisions for ADAM, the company's cutting-edge barista/bartender robot.

At the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), attendees got an up-close look at ADAM, which with its round head and body resembles EVE from the Pixar film Wall-E. ADAM's "torso" is bolted to the floor so it can swivel with full 360 degree freedom, allowing it to pick up and manipulate items with its claw hands. All in all, the robot takes about a minute to prepare a beverage.

Currently, Richtech has only sold around 6 ADAMs, mainly due to its price point of $180,000, but the company has started renting out its robots for events, which is how ADAM was hired to tend bar at a party for Kendall Jenner's 818 tequila brand, as featured in Hulu's "The Kardashians." As a barista, ADAM can be found slinging drinks at Botbar Coffee's two New York City locations in Times Square and Brooklyn, as well as at ClouTea, a boba tea shop found at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

At CES, Richtech unveiled a few new capabilities for ADAM, which will allow it to go beyond just making drinks to also being able to hold a conversation with drinkers, like an AI-powered Sam Malone from Cheers. The update also enables ADAM to work more seamlessly with a human staff.

As for ADAM's possible future in your office cafe, Casella says he's received interest from businesses with "large scale cafeterias inside their corporate headquarters," who see ADAM as a potential element in their efforts to incentivize employees to come back to the office. "He is a show," says Casella of ADAM, "and people want to use him as such, to drive traffic."

A refreshed look at leadership from the desk of CEO and chief content officer Stephanie Mehta