new York
Cnn
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In recent years, White Castle restaurants in Wendy have invested in artificial intelligence technology for driving. They say that it is a means of relieving the burden imposed on overworked employees, and a solution to the ability of the driving service overwhelmed by a wave of customers.
But customers – and workers – may not be delighted with technology.
Frustrated customers have already documented cases From the AI that are wrong their orders, and experts warn the noisy drive-Thru is a difficult environment for technology. And AI can slide hours or even whole jobs far from fast food workers.
But the restaurants are launching forward, raised by the promise of higher sales and faster driving service, whether we like it or not.
Some fast food aficionados may not yet have noticed AI in their driving tracks, but since about 2021, the channels have tested AI tools such as automated voice control, where an AI rather than a person takes your order in training.
These efforts recently increased, with two announcements in May. CKE Restaurants (owner of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.) said that he would more broadly deploy the AI order capacity after a successful pilot. Shortly after, Wendy’s said that he had expanded his partnership with Google Cloud to include an AI control tool at Drive-Thru. The chain pilots the program in Columbus, Ohio this month.
Even suppliers of technology note the challenges of a fast food application: “You may think that driving and talking to a driving service is an easy problem for AI, but it is actually one of the most difficult”, Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said to the Wall Street Journal in reference to collaboration.
Voice recognition technology “is really difficult,” said Christina McAlister, principal analyst of the Forrester research agency, who studies the impact of the use of AI in call centers.
Accents can discourage the system and “it doesn’t work particularly well in noisy areas,” she noted. Shout an order on a car full of children who are arguing or laughing friends can confuse technology and, in turn, annoy the customer.
“One of the things that frustrate customers the most is to have to repeat themselves when they shouldn’t have to do it,” she said. These customers can end up freeing their anger with the next employee they see.
In real world situations, reactions to the AI administration service are always mixed.
Out of ten orders placed by the customers of an Indiana white castle which uses AI in its driving service, three people asked to speak to a human employee, due to an error or a desire to simply speak to a person, The Wall Street Journal recently reported.
That said, AI is intrinsically improving because it collects more data. Experience can improve after the tools take more orders and learn to recognize the voices better.
For companies, a start of Hiccup-Y seems to be well worth the potential for sales.
According to Presto, one of the main advantages of the use of AI in the Drive -Thru is that it is up to customers – which has led customers to spend more, according to Presto Automation, an AI company that works with restaurants and has teamed up with CKE.
Presto Voice “reversed in each order,” said the acting CEO Krishna Gupta, during a May Analyst call. “The result is higher control sizes.”
Customers, he said, “want a faster service speed. They want better customer satisfaction and they want higher control sizes and they get everything with Presto Voice. ”
It is hard to believe that customers want to spend more – but restaurant operators certainly want it. On its website, Presto describes “the perfect seller” as the one that can be adapted to the weather, the day of the day, the order itself or the customer orders.
Some analysts are also bullish. “We believe that the vocal recognition of the AI and the digital routes only could accelerate the average reader through the service time of at least 20 to 30%,” wrote analysts in a research note from Bernstein published in March. “We expect AI to increase the competitive advantages of restaurants with digital culture.”
Short -term restaurants can see AI as a way to fill the gaps. During restaurants and bars added jobs In recent months, employment in the leisure and hotel sector has decreased by 349,000 in May compared to February 2020. Some Restaurants are still struggling to find staff.
Meanwhile, restaurant trends have changed. The pandemic sent customers while driving and some have kept in the habit, contributing to slower steering wheel times.
At Wendy’s, the “slowest point of the entire Drive-Thru is this order station,” said CEO Todd Penegor during an analyst call.
With AI, Wendy’s “try to make our lives a little better for our employees and much better for our customers,” added Penegor. Instead of taking orders, he said, workers can focus on making food and send it more quickly.
The adoption of new technologies could mean fewer jobs or part -time work for employees, said Yong Suk Lee, assistant professor of technology, economics and world affairs at the University of Notre Dame, where he focuses on the impact of AI on work.
“This is a work reduction exercise,” he said, adding this from his point of view, “he replaces workers directly.”
In the end, customers can eventually miss a human touch – even if it slows them down.
In a survey last year, Chick-Fil-A, with Carl’s Jr., won first place for satisfaction with regard to the service. However, Chick-Fil-A failed to make the first five for the precision of the order, according to the annual survey at the Annual Drive-Thru by Intouch Insight and QSR Magazine which follows the experiences of Drive-Thru in hundreds of places on ten major channels.
How did the chicken chain manage to remain beloved despite the control screws? Using a system, he calls Face -to -face commandin which employees walk on the line of cars to take orders with a tablet.
For the moment, it remains to be seen what customers really want.
“There are not enough examples on the scale of the AI voice in action, in particular in this case of use”, to say that people would prefer AI to an employee, said McAlister.
As these examples exist, AI in driving service can already be the norm.