At a high-tech new KFC restuarant in Shanghai, customers can order food via a voice-activated robot named "Dumi".

And the automaton is even sophisticated enough to handle order changes as well as substitutions – but sadly it can't quite manage the English language yet.

Dumi is the culmination of ten years of research and development into artificial intelligence by Baidu – a Chinese web services company. The robot is said to appear soon in other real-world environments, although Baidu has not provided any specific details.

Located inside Shanghai's National Exhibition and Convention Center, the KFC "concept store" has been designed to be completely digitalised.

Called "Original+", as a reference to the brand's traditional recipe, it features wireless charging stations that also enable the customer to stream music, and pay for their meals via mobile payment services including Baidu Wallet.