Taco Bell Adding Voice AI Ordering To Hundreds Of US Drive-Thrus
August 1, 2024 by Dave Haynes
The owner of Taco Bell says it has targeted hundreds of its US stores for the implementation of voice AI-based ordering in the drive thrus.
Yum! Brands says its Voice AI technology is already in more than 100 Taco Bell U.S. drive-thrus across 13 states – using it to “enhance back-of-house operations for team members and elevate the order experience for consumers. Benefits include easing task load for team members, improving order accuracy, providing a consistent, friendly experience, and reducing wait times, while driving profitable growth for Taco Bell, Yum! Brands and their franchisees.”
AI is now a core piece of the restaurant group’s strategy,” says Lawrence Kim, Chief Innovation Officer, Yum! Brands. “We’re expanding and accelerating our AI capabilities like Voice AI to deliver leading-edge technologies to our franchisees and to enhance the consumer and team member experience. With over two years of fine tuning and testing the drive-thru Voice AI technology, we’re confident in its effectiveness in optimizing operations and enhancing customer satisfaction.”
From the PR:
Yum! Brands and Taco Bell have collaborated closely, including incorporating input from Taco Bell franchisees, so that Voice AI benefits both team members and consumers. This technology takes advantage of Taco Bell’s strong drive-thru customer experience ecosystem, which is powered by digital menu boards, Yum! Brands’ propriety Poseidon POS system and the next generation of the Taco Bell Rewards loyalty program which the brand is excited to integrate later this year. The Voice AI technology uses a holistic approach that leverages feedback, data, and insights to enhance consumer relationships with an emphasis on intuitive, user-friendly technology to create a seamless ordering experience.
“Innovation is ingrained in our DNA at Taco Bell, and we view Voice AI as a means to improve the team member and consumer experiences,” said Dane Mathews, Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Taco Bell. “Tapping into AI gives us the ability to ease team members’ workloads, freeing them to focus on front-of-house hospitality. It also enables us to unlock new and meaningful ways to engage with our customers.”
In addition to the expansion of Voice AI across Taco Bell U.S. drive-thrus, five KFC restaurants in Australia are simultaneously testing Voice AI technology in drive-thrus, which is also being positively received by consumers and restaurant team members.
Along with Taco Bell and KFC, Yum owns the Pizza Hut brand.
I don’t know what software company is working with Yum on menus in drive thru and then inside the stores. Yum uses STRATACACHE as its CMS for the menu displays in the drive-thru and the screens in stores. Whatever the case, it should be readily apparent to any company with software tuned to the QSR market should be developing some knowledge, partnerships or IP around voice ordering.
Yum has its own proprietary point-of-sale system, Poseidon, and Dragontail, an AI-driven kitchen management system used in more than 4,000 locations.
Brynn Pearson, Director of Digital & Omnichannel Customer Experience at Taco Bell will be speaking at DSE alongside Jackie Walker of Publicis Sapient in a session titled “How Taco Bell is Working to Revolutionize Drive Thru Experience.” https://www.digitalsignageexperience.com/digitalsignageexperien/dse-2024-speakers
Those companies always have the best blah-blah and lexical content. You have no idea what they didnt want to say unless you invert it (interesting exercise). Maybe an AI can invert an AI? Anyway — yes, overseen monitored by employee presumably and will not suffer the same consequences as McDonalds did. All the best ones are monitored.