As chief operating officer of a company that makes robot baristas, Cynthia Yeung is well aware that some people may view her as the villain who wants to replace human workers. But Yeung believes robots can make a worker’s job better, not worse.

Yeung spends a lot of time thinking about how her company can “set the tone” and be “responsible players” in the robotics and automation industry, she said during a recent interview in San Francisco, where Cafe X has a robotic barista at each of its three locations downtown — along with its human workers.

“My parents didn’t go to college,” she said. “I was incredibly privileged to go to a great university, and I think a lot about other people who didn’t have the opportunities I did.”

Like other robot enthusiasts, Yeung says robots can take the “dirty, dull and dangerous” parts of jobs so humans can be freed up to do other things that may be more enjoyable. Our conversation with Yeung has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: How is Cafe X changing jobs done by humans?

A: The responsibilities of certain jobs have changed. We’re having the robot do the boring, repetitive parts of the job. What our coffee bar specialists are responsible for is having conversations with our customers. We actually hire many former baristas. They’re helping people understand the technology, showing customers how to use the touchscreens to order their drinks, rather than writing names on a cup and yelling out your name. Maybe helping customers with their cameras when they want to take photos with the robots. They’re explaining that we have three different roasters here. They’re almost like a coffee sommelier in some ways. And you don’t have a bunch of people waiting in line behind you, like at Starbucks, where you don’t feel you can ask questions about the coffee.

Q: You’ve said elsewhere that we need to take care of the people who will be most affected by automation — low-skilled workers. What types of initiatives are addressing this now, and is there political will for such things?

A: Well, I will say American democracy is incredibly resilient. We get to vote every four years, which is more than I can say for my hometown of Hong Kong.

Under the Obama administration, there were a number of initiatives that addressed those issues (of how to help workers that might be displaced by technological advances). They were thinking of longer-term consequences. This latest batch of congressmen and women, I think they are talking about this.

Q: You call yourself a robot evangelist. Have you always been one?

A: I didn’t used to call myself one, but I’ve always loved technology and science fiction. I love Isaac Asimov. There is a recurring character featured in many of his books, Susan Calvin, who was a robot psychologist. She was brilliant, she didn’t take nonsense from anyone and she got the job done. It was just so refreshing as a young girl to read about someone who fit my mold of the world. Susan Calvin made her way around the world using her brains, and that was great.

Q: You’ve worked at giant companies such as Google and SoftBank. Tell me about your switch to leading a startup.

A: I was at Google and realized I wanted to do something else. I was looking for do-gooder-type opportunities. Then I came across a crazy opportunity to join a social enterprise based on a ship, traveling around the world with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Megan Smith (former Googler and U.S. chief technology officer under President Obama) wrote a recommendation for me, so I got the job.

I traveled with amazing entrepreneurs to a lot of developing countries. They were working on things like oil-spill cleaning robots, solar-powered hearing aids — amazing technology.

I learned two important things. First, not everyone in social enterprise is automatically a saint. Some people were in it because they like being on magazine covers, and some wanted to be on the conference circuit to speak about how inspirational they were. And I learned that some people may have the best intentions, but it didn’t mean they knew how to build a sustainable business.

In the case of Cafe X, CEO Henry Hu is so incredibly transparent. I place a lot of stock on character. I want to work for someone who wants to do the right thing, which isn’t always the case in Silicon Valley. When I met him, it was refreshing. I was like, OK, I know who you are, I know what you’re trying to do here, and I think I can help.

Also, this is definitely the right moment (for robotics). You can see it in the demographics and the way the world is trending. This is a completely tractable problem with a huge opportunity. If we don’t do it, someone else is going to do it. It might as well be us. The market is ready. People understand it, they want it.

Q: What can the tech industry do to attract and retain women?

A: Having more women in positions of leadership can really help. For me, there were many strong, influential women I could look up to, like Megan Smith at Google.

Related Articles Robot-made coffee and burgers in SF? How automation is affecting jobs Also, it’s important to have a good culture and the right policies in place. At Cafe X, we offer 12 weeks of paid parental leave, regardless of gender. That’s something that the company hadn’t really thought about because everyone’s so young. (Hu, a Thiel Fellowship recipient who dropped out of college to start Cafe X in 2014, is in his 20s.) I said, “this is what we’re doing, guys.”

CYNTHIA YEUNG

Age: 34

Position: COO of Cafe X

Previous jobs: Google, SoftBank Robotics and several startups

Education: Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology at the University of Pennsylvania (two bachelor’s degrees, one from Wharton and the other from Penn Engineering)

Residence: Oakland

Family: Wife

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT CYNTHIA YEUNG