Last fall, Yum! Brands said it was bringing AI ordering to hundreds of Taco Bell locations. After that rollout was a success, it is expanding that technology to even more restaurants and incorporating AI in even more ways.
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In a press release this week, Yum! Brands announced a partnership with NVIDIA to develop AI technologies for its restaurants around the globe. The company is the world’s largest restaurant company, with more than 61,000 locations, including KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Habit Burger & Grill.
What’s on the way?
Voice automated order-taking AI agents: Both drive-thrus and call centers at selected restaurants will feature conversational AI that adapts to human speech patterns, understands complex menus and customer preferences, suggests add-ons, and enables a more natural ordering experience.
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Computer vision-enhanced operations: Restaurants will use computer vision to optimize drive-thru efficiency and back-of-house labor management by using real-time analytics and alerts. If AI senses that a certain time of day is usually busier, for example, it can adjust staffing.
Accelerated restaurant intelligence: AI will analyze restaurant performance and generate personalized action plans for restaurant managers. If a restaurant is struggling in an area that leads to slowdowns or inaccurate orders, AI can suggest changes. If a certain restaurant is doing something that leads to success, AI can detect what’s different and suggest changes to other stores.
Upgrading hundreds of restaurants
Yum! says it is targeting 500 restaurants across its lineup to receive the new technology. Wendy’s has introduced similar technology at some of its stores, bringing AI order-taking to hundreds of locations and even a bilingual AI to locations in Florida and Ohio. McDonald’s pulled the plug on AI ordering last summer, opting to stick with humans.
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The company added that an even bigger expansion of AI is on the way, including AI agents with sentiment analysis that can provide personalized customer interactions.
I’ve encountered AI ordering at several locations, including at Bojangles, a North Carolina-based chicken and biscuits chain. It was jarring at first, but now I find myself choosing locations I know have AI because the process is significantly faster and more accurate.
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