Nvidia and Yum! Brands team up to expand AI ordering
Yum! Brands — the parent company of Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut — is teaming up with technology giant Nvidia in a move that could accelerate the adoption of AI ordering in drive-thrus.
Why it matters: The future of fast food is here with AI already taking orders at some restaurants' drive-thru lanes.
Driving the news: Yum! — the world's largest restaurant company with more than 61,000 locations — and Nvidia announced an "industry-first collaboration" Tuesday.
It's Nvidia's first AI restaurant partnership and the technology will power and scale the fast-food company's existing Byte by Yum! platform.
The big picture: Artificial intelligence can help restaurants simplify and speed up the drive-thru experience, which could boost sales and cut costs.
Andrew Sun, Nvidia's global director of retail, CPG and QSR business development, said working with Yum! they hope to "drive forward innovation for the industry by solving some of the hardest problems together."
Zoom in: Joe Park, Yum! Brands' chief digital and technology officer, told Axios they've already "begun piloting AI solutions in select Taco Bell and Pizza Hut locations."
Park said the companies plan to roll out AI solutions to about 500 restaurants across the four Yum! Brands, including Habit Burger & Grill, starting in the second quarter of the year.
One focus is on "voice automated order taking" in the drive-thru or when calling into a call center for Pizza Hut, Park said, noting AI can also help count the number of cars on the drive-thru to alert restaurant employees.
"If our restaurant knows that there are four or five cars in line, they can then possibly suggest different items to customers that have a quicker turnaround time so that we could speed up the line," Park said.
Between the lines: Yum! also plans to use AI to improve order accuracy and to use AI-driven analytics to access restaurant performance.
The Golden Arches ended its AI drive-thru ordering pilot last summer after a number of errors embarrassed the company on social media.
McDonald's said that it saw "tremendous opportunity" in the IBM-powered technology and had "confidence that a voice ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants' future."
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