We put a robot barista in our coffee shop. Here are 3 things I learned about physical AI. 🤖☕

25 Oct 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:59

In this YouTube video, Justin R. Lester shares the three key insights he gained from installing an autonomous dual‑arm robot, nicknamed Kenny (officially Adam), to run the coffee‑making operations at his and his wife’s shop, Kindled and Grounded, in downtown Napa. He explains that the robot has actually created more jobs than it eliminated, because new roles are needed for development, maintenance, and cultural alignment. The presence of the robot has allowed the human staff to focus on higher‑value, people‑centric tasks, making the business more scalable while preserving a human touch. Finally, he stresses that physical AI requires constant software and hardware updates, and that humans must remain the creators and caretakers of these systems rather than fearing replacement. Throughout, he frames his role as a “tech pastor,” advocating for proactive, creator‑mindset engagement with technology, and invites viewers to visit the shop or follow his content for more insights.

Chapters

Here are the 3 things I've learned using physical AI in my wife and my coffee shop in downtown Napa. If you don't know this, my wife and I own an amazing coffee shop called Kindled and Grounded. We do candles, we do coffee, we do slime. It's amazing things. But one of the major things we have inside of it is called Kenny, our robot. And Kenny's a really— his real name is Adam, Autonomous Dual-Arm Machine, where he does all of our drinks, everything inside of our shop. Here's one of 3 things I've learned about autonomous or physical AI in this era. Number one, It's creating more jobs than it's taking. When we brought this robot on, it actually created more positions for people to work than it took away individuals. So that was developers, that was, that was the people we have actually working in the space because it's autonomous in terms of its service. It's not autonomous in terms of its sustainability. Number 2, it scales your business. So it actually made us more human. I believe that robots can actually make us remember what it means to be human because for many of us, we've gotten so consumed with the things that are easily automated Instead of doing the things that we're actually gifted to do. So now our team is actually being more present with people, and the developers we have are learning more about our organization so that Kenny matches our culture and not our culture matching Kenny the robot. Then number 3, constant updates are key. We're constantly updating the work of the robot. We're constantly updating the work of Kenny because Kenny needs to make— needs to be supported. Kenny has a lot of things he has to do, which speaks to the role of humanity in this era of physical artificial intelligence. No, Assumptions that humans are going to be negated because of robotics comes out of a place of fear and not a place of truth. If you think you're really going to be replaced by a robot, you're really giving more honor to the people who are building it instead of becoming the builder yourself. You can either be the creator or the consumed. I choose to be the creator. You can stop by Kindled and Grounded. We're in downtown Napa. We're open every single day. Or you can support the work we're doing here by liking and following for more. Because when I talk about being that tech pastor, it's not just doing it in work. It's also doing it in church and doing it in the world because I believe that I'm not going to let technology hit me. I'm going to be the one that leads it. All right, like and follow for more.