There were many swift food restaurants experiments with artificial intelligence in recent months, he has been trying to figure out how to best operate emerging technology to drive sales and escalate efficiency. Many restaurant bonds I tested Artificial intelligence-assisted crossing lanesbut the recent struggles of one artificial intelligence company illustrate the potential shortcomings of this model.
Presto Automation provides AI solutions – specifically voice recognition technology – to many major swift food chains, including Checkers and rallies, With Tacoand Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s. Presto voice bots are used in 145 Hardee’s, Carl’s Jr. stores. and Wiener schnitzel restaurants as of February 1, 2024. Restaurant operations reports that the company also provides digital ordering tablets to regular restaurant chains such as Applebee’s, ChilliAND red lobster.
Recently, however, Presto has had difficulty reassuring investors. The company is running out of money and must figure out how to pay its lenders $6 million this month. Worse still, Presto is losing some of its biggest customers.
Brisk food chains do not agree to AI solutions
Del Taco began using Presto’s voice AI on its drive-thru lanes in 2022, and in early 2023 said the technology was “exceeding expectations.” Del Taco plans to expand the operate of this technology to more of its 600 restaurants – Restaurant Business reported then. But now Del Taco has made a decision stop using this technology in their restaurants.
Presto’s technology uses AI voice recognition to take orders at the drive-thru, but much of the process still requires actual employee involvement. The bot takes the order from the customer, but it is still the employees’ responsibility to enter the order and check its correctness. Voice assistant technology has gone through many iterations, but even its most advanced version still only fulfills 30% of orders without human assistance.
Other chains, e.g white castle and McDonald’s also tested AI voice recognition in their drive-thru lanes. However, from a customer perspective, these recent technologies were a mixed bag. When McDonald’s first tried similar technology in one of its drive-thru lanes, Internet users I smoked online bots for misinterpreting their orders.
Presto’s AI-powered voice recognition has been the company’s flagship offering since its inception — but even its ordering tablets apparently failed to impress in the long run. Applebee’s, Chili’s and Red Lobster have confirmed they will not renew their contracts with Presto.
Nevertheless, Presto’s leadership appears to have looks optimistically at the future. “Today we are seeing sturdy interest from franchise operators who are interested in talking to us about Voice AI,” Presto CEO Xavier Casanova said in a November 2023 statement. “We look forward to broad adoption of our Presto Voice AI solution in North America as brands and franchisees adapt to the recent reality.”
A version of this article originally appeared on The Takeout.
