"AI Staff Appearing in US Fast Food: No Human Employees in Drive-Thrus Within 3 Years"

Store Installation Starting in June... Aiming to Improve Order Speed
"Menu Abbreviations and Intonation Recognition, Distinguishing Order Content from Noise"

"Three Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers (JBC), please."

Amid a global AI boom sparked by ChatGPT, U.S. fast-food chain Wendy's will introduce an AI chatbot at its drive-thru locations starting this June. Wendy's assured that although AI will take orders without staff or kiosks, communication will be as natural as conversing with a human employee.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and others on the 9th (local time), Wendy's plans to deploy an AI chatbot developed based on Google's large language model (LLM) at its Columbus, Ohio drive-thru starting this June to take orders.

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

The goal is to streamline the ordering process and reduce drive-thru wait lines. During the COVID-19 pandemic, customers using drive-thru services surged significantly, expanding this channel to account for up to 80% of Wendy's total store orders.

This AI chatbot has been trained with customized natural language learning to understand the diverse expressions used by fast-food customers. One of the drawbacks of AI speakers upgraded by companies like Amazon has been difficulty in comprehending users' varied expressions. However, this AI chatbot has learned common abbreviations and unique phrases people use when ordering hamburgers, fries, drinks, and more.

For example, if a customer refers to a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger as "JBC" or calls a combo meal with side and drink a "biggie bag," the AI understands these terms, WSJ reported.

Even for Wendy's signature milkshake, the AI is designed to recognize orders without the customer needing to say the product name "Frosty" precisely.

The system can recognize changes made mid-order and distinguish between external noises such as music or children in the backseat when ordering from the car.

Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, explained, "It might seem easy for AI to take orders at a drive-thru, but it is actually one of the most challenging tasks."

Automation of drive-thru stores has been pursued for years. Besides Wendy's, chains like McDonald's have also built AI-powered ordering systems for their drive-thru locations. (Related article: January 10, 2023, '"AI hands you a Big Mac" Why McDonald's is focusing on full automation')

Krishna Gupta, chairman of Presto Automation, a provider of AI ordering platforms for restaurants, recently told Bloomberg, "I don't think there will be drive-thru stores with human order takers within three years."

Meanwhile, market research firm PitchBook projected that the global generative AI market will reach $42.6 billion (about 56.4 trillion KRW) by the end of this year and grow at an average annual rate of 32% to reach $98.1 billion by 2026.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.