Daniel Wiener Bronner, CNN
New York (CNN) — Over the last few years, restaurants from White Castle to Wendy’s have invested in artificial intelligence technology for their drive-thru. They argue that this is a way to reduce the strain on overworked employees and is a solution to drive-thru stalled by a surge in customers.
However, customers and employees may not be happy with this technology.
Disgruntled customers are already documenting cases of AI getting their orders wrong, and experts warn that noisy drive-thru is a challenging environment for technology. And AI could steal hours, or even an entire job, from fast-food workers.
But restaurants, like it or not, continue to push forward, fueled by the promise of higher sales and faster drive-thru speeds.
challenging environment
Some fast food enthusiasts may not yet realize there is AI in their drive-thru lanes, but starting around 2021, chains will have automated drive-thru orders taken by AI instead of humans. We are testing AI tools such as voice ordering. .
These efforts have recently stepped up, with two announcements made in May. CKE Restaurants, owner of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., said it would roll out its AI ordering feature more broadly after a successful pilot. Shortly after, Wendy’s announced an expanded partnership with Google Cloud to introduce an AI ordering tool for drive-thru. The chain is piloting the program in Columbus, Ohio, this month.
Even the suppliers of this technology are eyeing the challenges of fast food applications. “Walking past or talking to a drive-thru may seem like an easy problem for an AI, but he’s actually one of the hardest,” said Thomas Kurian. says. Google Cloud spoke to The Wall Street Journal about the partnership.
Speech recognition technology is “very difficult,” said Christina McAllister, senior analyst at research firm Forrester, which studies the impact of using AI in call centers.
Accents can wreak havoc on the system, and “doesn’t work particularly well in noisy places,” she noted. Ordering loudly in a car full of children arguing and friends laughing can confuse technology and, in turn, irritate customers.
“One of the most frustrating things for customers is having to repeat themselves when they don’t need to,” she said. Those customers may end up venting their anger at the next employee they meet.
In real-world situations, responses to AI drive-thru remain mixed.
At White Castle, Indiana, which uses AI in its drive-thru, 3 out of 10 orders from customers asked to speak to a human employee because they made an error or simply wanted to talk to a person. The Wall Street Journal reported. was recently reported.
However, AI inherently improves as it collects more data. The experience may improve as the tool takes more instructions and can recognize speech better.
For companies, it looks like there’s a good chance that sales will grow even with a rough start.
Would you like some French fries as well?
According to Presto Automation, an AI company that works with restaurants and has partnered with CKE, one of the main benefits of using AI in drive-thru is to increase customer spend by constantly upselling.
Presto Voice is “upselling on every order,” interim CEO Krishna Gupta said on a conference call with analysts in May. “As a result, the check size increases.”
Customers “want faster service. They want better customer satisfaction and larger check sizes, and Presto Voice does it all.”
It’s hard to believe that customers want to spend more money, but restaurateurs certainly want it. Presto explains on its website that a “perfect upsell” is one that can be tailored to the weather, the time of day, the order itself, or the customer’s order history.
Some analysts are similarly bullish. “We believe AI voice recognition and digital dedicated lanes will reduce the average drive-thru service time by at least 20-30%,” analysts said in a Bernstein Research note published in March. “We expect AI to enhance the competitive advantage of restaurants through digital culture.”
Restaurants that are understaffed might consider AI as a way to fill the staffing gap. Restaurants and bars have added jobs in recent months, but employment in the leisure and hospitality sector fell by 349,000 in May compared to February 2020. Some restaurants are still struggling to find staff.
Meanwhile, dining trends have changed. Due to the pandemic, customers went to the drive-thru in droves, but some maintained the habit, slowing drive-thru times.
“The ordering station is the slowest overall drive-thru,” Wendy’s CEO Todd Pennegor said on a conference call with analysts.
By leveraging AI, Wendy’s is “looking to make a little bit better for our employees and a lot better for our customers,” Penegal added. Instead of taking orders, employees can focus on making food and shipping it faster, he said.
Yong Seok Lee, assistant professor of technology, economics and global affairs at the University of Notre Dame, who focuses on the impact of AI on work, said the introduction of new technologies will lead to fewer jobs for employees and fewer part-time jobs. said it could mean
“This is a job cut,” he said, adding that from his perspective, “we are replacing workers directly.”
Ultimately, customers may miss out on the human touch, even if it slows them down.
In last year’s survey, Chick-fil-A shared the top spot with Carl’s Jr. for service satisfaction. But according to the 2022 Drive-Thru Annual Survey by Intouch Insight and QSR magazine, which tracks drive-thru experiences at hundreds of stores across 10 major chains, Chick-fil-A did not rank in the top five for order accuracy. .
How was the chicken chain able to continue to be loved despite the order error? receive an order at
For now, it remains to be seen what customers actually want.
“We still don’t have enough examples of voice AI in action at scale to say that people prefer AI to employees, especially in this use case,” McAllister said.
By the time these examples exist, AI in drive-thru may already be the norm.
CNN wire
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