Why Digital Healthcare Can Never Replace Doctors

By Jack Penner

Minutes after Fast Company broadcast Bodega’s mission to put corner stores out of business, Twitter users fired back in defense of the local shops, their employees, and the social anchor they bring to neighborhoods.

Founded by two ex-Google employees, Bodega plans to combine artificial intelligence and machine learning with employee-free vending machines to meet your every last-minute need. Its software’s high-level analytics helps machines predict exactly what local customers will buy, giving each its own customized inventory. Rather than trotting down to your local corner store full of history, character, and family-owned pride, Bodega aspires to have their machines, which will integrate into already existing structures, such as apartment buildings, dorms, offices, and gyms, become your one-stop shop.

While the company seeks to solve the problem of efficiency and convenience, it creates a new one in eliminating the human touch and sense of community central to the customer experience. Advocates for traditional bodegas rave about kind, generous owners, the shop’s role as a financial opportunity for families immigrating to the United States, and most importantly, the personality and warmth each store brings to crowded concrete cities that can swallow our sense of belonging. For some, it’s the…