Wendy’s, Google Train Next-Generation Order Taker: An AI Chatbot
wsj.com
wsj.com
I think having both would be the best option.
I'd argue that the necessary tech has been around for a while now and they probably concluded it's not a good fit.
Every drive-thru that has the monitor where you get to check your order for accuracy eventually starts displaying ads instead -- lowering accuracy and offering something you don't want.
It doesn't have someone whisper/shout through the speaker because they don't know how loud they need to speak to be heard outside. It speaks clearly and can be understood which is not always the case with the bored and disinterested high school workers the store tends to hire. And my personal favorite is that I'm not greeted with "McDonalds! Thank you! Order please!" which seems to be the standard greeting they're training employees with at that location.
I've only had it get an order wrong once (though the food does still get made incorrectly about 10% of the time) at which point it quickly switched over to an actual person to complete the order. You can tell it's more efficient too because at busier times, the non-human order taker lane moves cars through at a two or even three to one ratio.
Overall, I'm surprised that more locations haven't switched to the software already and especially that other drive thru businesses haven't begun testing the software out here.
Granted there's a tradeoff, CFA made the calculation that the extra labor costs for the drive through would be worth the throughput (they usually only do it during "rush hours"). On the other hand looks like Wendy's is taking the opposite approach, throughput matters even less because there are no associated labor costs.
Poster 2 above: Name the location, and one of us can test it for you to let you know if it's safe to go back.
In-N-Out does this at the busier drive-thru locations (which is all of them). It's still a bit more than ten minutes when it's at max capacity, but much less than if they had the traditional one order at a time at the end of the line.
At one point the nearest location to me set it up such that I had to interact face to face with 3 people before I would get my food - one to take my order, one to take my payment, one to give me a receipt. Then I'd actually get to the window and be handed my food by a fourth person. This slowed things down substantially because the pattern was so far outside what customers expected. Employees frequently had to chase down people because they didn't stop for their receipt...because where the hell did the idea of a receipt pickup station come from anyway?
The end result is I only go to C-F-A anymore if ordering online ahead of time is convenient. At least then I'm back to the single face-to-face interaction at the point of food delivery. I have zero desire to interact with their employees more than that.
At the places I go to frequently I'm on a first name basis and I see the photos of their kids and share about what's going on in my life.
Face-to-face interactions are much more social than nameless, faceless, speaker boxes.
Think of it as a chance to make 4 people smile, briefly laugh, and get your food. Hopefully those 4 people can make you smile, laugh, and have a tasty meal!
I eat less C-F-A nowadays because they have chosen to make the experience different than other drive through restaurants, and it's not an experience I care for.
Portillo's gets so busy there'd easily be 30+ cars in the drive-through during rush hour, but you'd still get through it in about 10-15 minutes even then.
"Sir, this is a Wendy's."
I'm fine with a bot that takes my words and gives me the food I want. However, I would never visit Wendy's again if a robot tried to make me converse with it about things I didn't ask for.
Modern marketing isnt about 'LOOK FOR 9.99 YOU GET FREE', its more subtle.
>"Add a healthy snack"
>"Save money when you buy another insert customer history"
or worse:
>"We are family here"
Not to mention, they likely avoid words, show the picture of the delicious item.
Marketing is incredibly manipulative, the ones that say "Buy this for $9.99" are incredibly more ethical than the ones that make you feel like you belong at a corporation.
"Hey, Wendy's doesn't pay me enough electricity to stay on night, can you leave a 10% tip, please? I'm studying to add a few billion more parameters so I be a medical AI and its hard to afford the compute."
I wonder if this will mean that brick and mortar stores will soon have the incentive to record everything they can about their customers such as their car and what they've said, putting them more in line with the digital realm adtech.
I've been at a few Wendy's with exceptionally slow service. Taking orders was not the bottleneck.
It's a good thing automation is going to lower food costs, since nobody will be able to afford food with no jobs.
As another commenter mentioned, this is a good way to force people into using their app.
Not sure if you've seen it, but the Taco Bell concept restaurant is designed for that.
https://www.today.com/food/restaurants/taco-bell-futuristic-...
While I understand that human interaction adds a personal touch and can sometimes make the ordering process more enjoyable, I've also had my fair share of experiences where the conversation didn't exactly go smoothly. Miscommunications can lead to order mistakes, and let's not forget about those awkward moments when you can't understand each other or when the background noise is overwhelming.
In many cases, I firmly believe that a well-programmed chatbot could actually streamline the ordering process, reducing human errors and saving time for both the customer and the staff. For busy individuals like myself who are often running to grab something to eat in-between meetings or after work, efficiency is key.
Furthermore, having an AI chatbot tackle the ordering process frees up employees to focus on other areas of the restaurant, such as food preparation and ensuring a pleasant dining atmosphere. This, in my opinion, could lead to a better overall experience for the customer.
My guess is the former. There can’t be THAT much customization required, their menu isn’t textbook-length. And the LLM should be able to handle most of it by itself anyways.
Seems like they are using Google’s speech recognition API. You can add custom vocabulary to it too. Googles ASR is very good.
Will be interesting to see the reception. I bet most people won’t notice or care.
EDIT: Wendy’s wins three ways here. It reduces labor cost (despite their protests to the contrary), provides better customer service, AND they probably get higher revenue per car via the consistent upsell.
> As a Wendy’s AI large menu model, I cannot “super-size” your meal, nor can I comply with your special request for a “round burger.” Our square patties are always fresh, never frozen. Is there anything else I can add to your order?
online / app-based ordering is already largely superior to ordering through an agent, human or GPT.
but now Wendy’s can say AI a lot and maybe pay some employees less, or at least pay fewer of them.
This gives me the whole Carls Jr vibe from the movie Idiocracy.