The fast food industry is participating in a controversial trend that customers may not be fans of. Many restaurants have found a smart way to reduce labor costs and this involves altering the way customers order their food.
White Castle is the latest restaurant chain to revamp its drive-thru operations at several locations where humans will no longer serve customers' orders. The chain is starting to play with voice ai technology in 15 of its restaurants, according to a ai-says-more-accurate-than-humans-2024-6?ref=biztoc.com”>new report from Business Insider. At those locations, drive-thrus customers place their order with an artificial intelligence robot called Julia that is marketed as more accurate than humans.
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When the white castle ai-partnership/”>Announced After the change in August last year, it said the technology will be rolled out to more than 100 restaurants by the end of 2024. The technology was developed by a company called SoundHound and has been shown to be able to process orders “in just over 60 seconds.” Additionally, White Castle says 90% of order completion rates exceed staff benchmarks.
In the Insider report, White Castle says the technology allows its workers to focus on other tasks, such as preparing orders and checking on customers when they receive their food. The company also claims that orders have been more accurate than before the technology was installed.
ai in restaurants receives mixed reviews
Many restaurants have recently embarked on the same path that White Castle has chosen to explore. KFC and Taco Bell have also been testing ai in their drive-thrus. McDonalds has also used the technology to take drive-thru orders, but recently suspended the effort after it appeared to draw mixed reviews from customers.
Shortly after McDonald's launched ai in 100 of its units across the United States, as part of its partnership with IBM, some customers took to TikTok to demonstrate that the technology was ruining their orders.
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“While there have been successes to date, we believe there is an opportunity to explore voice ordering solutions more broadly,” Mason Smoot, director of restaurants at McDonald's USA, said in a leaked email to franchisees, which was obtained by technology/mcdonalds-ending-its-drive-thru-ai-test”>Restaurant business. “After careful review, McDonald's has decided to end our current partnership with IBM on AOT and the technology will be turned off in all restaurants currently testing it no later than July 26, 2024.”
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Amid the rise of ai at fast food chains, which can save companies money, many restaurants have recently revealed that skyrocketing costs have posed a major challenge. According to a recent survey According to the National Restaurant Association, 98% of restaurant operators say high labor costs are a problem for their establishment, while 97% cite higher food costs as a major obstacle.
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