The AI-powered drive-thru revolution strikes again, and this time it’s bilingual.
Just a week after Taco Bell announced Plans to implement AI Wendy’s, which offers drive-thru ordering at hundreds of its restaurants across the United States, is bringing AI-powered ordering in Spanish to 28 drive-thru locations in Florida and Ohio.
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These selected locations will be in areas with a high Spanish-speaking population. More than 22% of Florida residents speak Spanish at home.
AI isn’t exactly new territory for Wendy’s or other fast food brands. Wendy’s has been slowly rolling out its Fresh AIpowered by Google Cloud’s great language model, since late last year. McDonald’s has ended its current artificial intelligence experiment in favor of human workers, but says he still sees AI in the future of the chain.
Here’s how Wendy’s new system works: When customers approach the menu, an AI voice greets them and asks what they want. English will remain the default language for each customer. To take advantage of the new technology, customers must say “Spanish” and the AI will switch languages throughout the process.
The idea behind the technology is that when AI takes over order taking, restaurant workers will have free time to attend to other tasks, Wendy’s said. This results in more accurate orders (and a faster process overall) because orders aren’t being taken by one multitasking employee.
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Critics argue that AI in drive-thrus could have several negative effects, including: job lossinaccurate orders due to regional accents or dialects and difficulties with unusual orders.
In fact, AI might struggle with menu questions or special requests, but in my own experience with drive-thru ordering with AI At Bojanglesa North Carolina-based chicken and biscuit chain, I have found it to be significantly faster and more accurate than humans, especially if I request modifications to items.
Wendy’s said it plans to expand the technology in the future.