Wendy's To Begin Replacing Drive-Thru Staff With AI Chatbots (newatlas.com) 107
An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Atlas: It's at least as good as our best customer service representative, and it's probably on average better," said Wendy's CIO Kevin Vasconi to the Wall Street Journal. After successful early tests, the fifth biggest fast food chain in the USA will start using AI chatbots to interact with drive-thru customers next month. The company has been working with Google on a number of machine learning and AI tools behind the scenes, and is now extending that partnership to begin deploying a Large Language Model (LLM) generative AI system built on the Vertex AI platform, that's custom-trained to take over from human workers, taking drive-thru orders and talking with customers.
Verbal AI tech has advanced in leaps and bounds -- not that you'd know it trying to talk to my Google Home, mind you -- and the two companies have worked together to train up a system called FreshAI. This model understands the entire menu, including the street slang for certain orders, and it's capable of having conversations -- within a set of "guardrails" -- as well as taking custom orders and answering questions. It integrates with the company's point of sale systems and has been trained to follow the rules the company currently gives to its human drive thru window staff. Wendy's will begin with a pilot program at a site in the Columbus, Ohio, area next month, expecting that some customers won't realize they're not talking to a human. From there, the company hopes to expand to include other drive-thru locations.
Verbal AI tech has advanced in leaps and bounds -- not that you'd know it trying to talk to my Google Home, mind you -- and the two companies have worked together to train up a system called FreshAI. This model understands the entire menu, including the street slang for certain orders, and it's capable of having conversations -- within a set of "guardrails" -- as well as taking custom orders and answering questions. It integrates with the company's point of sale systems and has been trained to follow the rules the company currently gives to its human drive thru window staff. Wendy's will begin with a pilot program at a site in the Columbus, Ohio, area next month, expecting that some customers won't realize they're not talking to a human. From there, the company hopes to expand to include other drive-thru locations.
Nope (Score:5, Interesting)
On those rare occasions I do go to a Wendy's I always go to the counter. As a rule it's faster and more convenient.
To try and hope a computer can understand what you order, at this point in time, is a non-starter. People can't speak coherently now as it is for humans to understand, how do these folks think a bunch of software will fair? And that doesn't take into consideration those people who repeatedly change their order mid-stream because they have no idea what they're doing.
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I'll go through a drivethru but I pretty much always order through a phone app, so all they have to do is identify the right order and cook it. McDonalds has 4 character codes to identify orders; Burger King has 2 digit numbers. I haven't been to a Wendy's in quite a while so I'm not sure what they do for that, but it seems like copying either of the others would make it easy for a chatbot to understand.
Re:Nope (Score:4, Funny)
McDonald's New A.I. Drive-Thru System Is Malfunctioning And People On TikTok Are Losing It
https://www.delish.com/food-ne... [delish.com]
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On those rare occasions I do go to a Wendy's I always go to the counter. As a rule it's faster and more convenient.
To try and hope a computer can understand what you order, at this point in time, is a non-starter. People can't speak coherently now as it is for humans to understand, how do these folks think a bunch of software will fair? And that doesn't take into consideration those people who repeatedly change their order mid-stream because they have no idea what they're doing.
That, and I'll bet dollars to donuts that they will utterly fail to take into account the large number of regional dialects and accents. I live in a city with a very large population of first generation immigrants, many of whom speak with very thick accents and idioms. I have trouble understanding them. I doubt an AI will fare much better. The testing will likely be done with fluent speakers of various languages, not people who speak half broken English or Spanish or French or Punjab or Urdu or whatever lan
Re: Nope (Score:3)
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Unlike people, AI can be trained on multiple accents. On that front, likely to do better than a local native, and much better than a recent immigrant employee.
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Checkers (another burger chain) has been doing it for a few months now. Order on the receipt has been right for me each time, of course still get to play "did the right stuff make it into my bag" roulette since humans are still involved on that end...
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I'd take an AI over the mushmouth foreigners that have taken over the fast food order process in most place around here. When did we decide remote location was acceptable for fast food jobs? WTF?
I hope they're smarter than ordering kiosks (Score:4, Interesting)
Do you know how many button presses worth of work you have to do for the company in order to get your food?
20, minimum. I counted carefully.
That's ridiculous. And taking huge liberties.
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Maybe go to Carl's Jr instead -- fuck you, I'm eating.
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Re:I hope they're smarter than ordering kiosks (Score:4, Funny)
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Use the app on your phone "re-order previous order" from your history.
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I agree, the McD kiosk UI was crappy. Maybe it got better since, but I haven't tried lately. It had the feel of an outsourced app: literal-minded coders who are afraid to rock the boat by pointing out dodgy ideas or ways to factor and improve.
Vocal complainers usually give you better ideas, even if they are annoying, because they are experienced at questioning and critiquing. Yes-people give you yawner results.
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The problem I had was it wanted full access to *MY CONTACTS* for *ME* to order a burger.
Why does it need to access all the contact information for my friends and family so I can order a burger? Whataburger doesn't need any contact information for me to order food.
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...after their fries kill you.
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Last time I went to McD's was on a business trip to Bumfuck, Arkansas. It was either that, Exxon, or Dollar General.
I haven't gone there by choice in over a year, since they started pushing their shitty kiosks and app.
I keep hoping the rest of the fast food places suckify their experience, because then I'll start eating healthy.
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There's a reason for that- if you can't follow society's rule of law, then you don't get to play in society.
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The problem for me isn't the amount of presses it's the stupidly long scrollbar on the left (UK), it has far far too many options, it should be broken down into stuff you can see all at once. And fast food screens often don't work when my hands are cold, FML.
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Probably not the best idea to be poking a touchscreen used by hundreds of other people, and then handling your food.
A stylus for a phone/tablet usually works. Try to find one with a cap so you can replace it before putting the dirty end back in your pocket.
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There’s a Wendy’s I have been going to for years. Several years ago the Wendy’s was very
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I like the kiosks too, but probably only because my local McDonalds has reduced staff to a level where waiting for them to take my order takes forever. The kiosk isn't great, but it's still faster than the alternative.
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It is so "nice" of McD's to interrupt my very simple order to force me to close out screens asking me to buy stuff I do not want.
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Blame UIX designers who never met an inefficiency they didn't like.
It's rare the software package that pays attention to this, but it makes such a huge difference when they do.
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it's profit-maximizing design engineering. Most of the lengthy UI experience is not really accidental.
Do you want to add this and that ?
Do you want two of these instead of the one you might have thought was the default in the combo?
Do you want the larger drink?
Upsize your fries?
Also, the less profitable menu items will be below the vertical scrollbar's starting top-of-page view.
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Exactly. Shitty UI design is 50% "oh this looks nice on screenshots" and 50% "this gets our customers to buy more".
0% of it is "this makes things more efficient/convenient for our customers."
Capitalism, baby!
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It's wrong (Score:3)
> expecting that some customers won't realize they're not talking to a human
Then the company is very, very wrong for not making it clear. Unless the "AI" is actually as intelligent as a human, I should know when I'm talking to a glorified script.
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Even when there's a human there's probably a script behind at least their side of the interaction. The chatbot might at least stick to it.
I wonder how effectively the chatbot can generate a tone of voice which says "have a nice day" but conveys "I'm sick of your shit - Just take what I'm offering regardless of whether you actually want it - I'm going to spit in your food"
Time will tell...
are we power users? (Score:1)
I wonder if we the Slashdot community dislike this stuff so much because it does not cater to power users. ChatGPT is basically slow and wordy when you're trying to do something quickly, and this makes me genuinely angry. Same for chat support that is relying on ChatGPT. Same even for a lot of ordering apps.
However, when stuff is set up in power user mode, it is very efficient. A lot of self checkout kiosks have gotten this way because the store recognizes the value - you can often turn off the volume, it s
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It will get easier and better. The issue I have is McDonalds wants access to my contacts for me to order food from them.
I hate hate hate the kiosk.
And at one mcdonalds they already said they were not taking human orders inside that day. It was drive through, app, or kiosk.
So I left and went elsewhere. But I really don't think they care.
Attention Youtube pranksters (Score:2)
...start your engines!...
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> or having [hacked] Trump tell you "how simply great" the menu...
"Yes, the Deep Fries are the best fries ever, believe me! I eat 500 every day, and still have my 20's booty, everyone knows it, even horse-face Stormy. By the way, our burgers have horse meat. Don't worry, not scary, horses are animals just like the moo moo's. Think of horses as skinny cows. No, that's not a Rosy joke, but I do those if asked, and people really love them, top ratings! And yes, I did grab Wendy by the ... hold on, Pence is
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I got a better idea, simplify phone ordering (Score:2)
Why not give the option of driving up to a screen that displays a QR code. One scans it with their phone and is given a temporary account (order instance) on Wendy's ordering site (with the option of a perm user account). You then click up what you want in the parking lot, and get an alert when it's ready. No waiting in lines, And no app download necessary; make it all server-based. Technically do-able with existing standards.
However, you have to make a decent ordering site or people will skip the screen. M
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Talking through a microphone in the drive-though always sucks even with humans. Rather than try to save a few pennies, why not try to make the experience pleasant like Chick-fil-A where a human with a tablet walks up to your window and interacts and ensures your order is correct.
Either of those would be better than
That will be very donde la chi chi (Score:2)
https://youtu.be/MTXJUyyrChw
It will be an improvement (Score:1)
To be fair, Slashdot replaced its editors with AI (Score:2)
a long time ago. I don't care for Wendy's hamburgers, but the spicy chicken sammich is really good. I usually try to order on the app, since it seems more efficient. Most of the fast food restaurants have apps now, and you can sometimes pick up your food without interacting with a person.
Wait until an AI customer walks in (Score:1)
What would an AI chatbot suggest for the main character of this movie [imdb.com]?
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Funny how... (Score:3)
Companies will spend so much money on systems that will make them captive to increasing contract and maintenance costs versus just hiring workers that provide a better experience and are ultimately lead to more profits. It is one thing to give people better tools to do their work, but there are limits to what technology can and should do.
I mean, this is the same AI that mangles my voicemails completely. That can't handle accents, that has a limited understanding of prosody. Oh, if the frosty machine is broken, how do you tell the script that?
The simple fact is that intelligence is not a scare resource. It is merely late-stage capitalism that insists on making certain workers a captive workforce to maintain unheard of levels of wealth inequity.
And, no, I do not have a problem with people making living wages. Companies are too beholden to profit and the stock market. They weren't during the biggest expanse in actual wages ever. Time to rebalance the scales.
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This is precisely what happens when you push 15/hr "livable wage". It's a direct cause and effect.
These are low level menial jobs, not meant to be careers. Forcing employers to pay exorbitant amounts prompts them to find cheaper alternatives. And make no mistake; this will be significantly cheaper. Will probably be better at getting the orders right too. Because of how expensive labor now is, this will be a win for the company and a loss for any workers that are out a job.
Keep pushing "living wages" and
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This is precisely what happens when you push 15/hr "livable wage". It's a direct cause and effect.
I don't know about you but most of the franchises in my area are still Federal minimum wage jobs for fast food.
Forcing employers to pay exorbitant amounts prompts them to find cheaper alternatives
No it is not. Clearly you've not worked on a POS. 1980s level POS required training. So when someone left, employers have to incur the cost of training again. So POS makers were urged to simplify things. Add about twenty to thirty years of constant "YOU MUST SIMPLIFY THE THING" and basically the kiosk is the POS just turned to face the customer. Add another ten years of that and you have the
time to remove healthcare from jobs in USA! (Score:2)
time to remove healthcare from jobs in USA!
Re:Funny how... (Score:4, Insightful)
There's a lot to unpack there, so I won't. Let me just throw out a few random thoughts I had reading it, in no particular order;
- I'm in CA, but the trend towards 15/hr and higher is nationwide, particularly in blue areas. This despite the data showing it decimates the lower level industries in the area
- Point of fact, I have worked "POS", in multiple industry with minimum wage workers. Your entire point here supports my point; all that training, all that time, costs money. So if you tell me I can pay 50,000 a year on an automated drive through attendant ( a number I just made up ), or 76,650 ( 15/hr ignoring taxes and overhead ) a year on a series of humans, it's an easy choice to make for a few reasons: 1) It's cheaper, but more importantly 2) It's more reliable and 3) The performance is more stable. It doesn't necessarily have to be "good", just consistent and passable.
Even at 37,047.50 ( federal minimum wage ) it's still a better deal.
- There's a worlds of difference between IT and fastfood when it comes to staffing; you are quite correct regarding IT. Someone quits, we all get an increased workload. In general this doesn't bother me, IT depts tend to be grossly overstaffed and underworked, and I prefer to be busy.
Fastfood already runs lean; you have a set schedule for your staff, required to hit your numbers. Someone calls out, or quits, you find a replacement or your labor numbers will be too low ( thus a strong negative customer satisfaction signal ) and shit probably won't get done ( because you can't rely on the managers or franchise owners to do it ).
- It's not just kids that work minimum wage jobs, but also stay at home wives ( or spouses, more generally ) and retirees. They have the flexibility to staff.
- Labor isn't expensive because of inflation; that's reversed. Everything is expensive because of labor. Labor is the single largest expense in the vast majority of companies, and by quite a large margin. Companies don't exist to be charities or to go broke, so as wages go up ( and they're forced to pay more because the government hands out a ton of cash so it's hard to attract workers ), costs are passed on to the consumers.
As far as your doom and gloom; you may be right, but I learned a long time ago not to try to read too much into the future. There are good people trying to do good things, and I can't account for every variable ( some of which might be more significant than expected ).
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IT depts tend to be grossly overstaffed and underworked, and I prefer to be busy.
Ah, the old "I work hard, but others don't, but I am happy to pick up the slack".
If you want to donate additional and unpair labor to a company that will replace with nary a thought because you are too old or experienced, go ahead. Maybe it will work out. Maybe it won't destroy your health and happiness in the long run.
But, some people are realizing the game needs to change and I say more power to them.
Also, I like how customer service doesn't need to be good, just "consistent and passable". Honestly, if yo
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Oh, you misunderstand me; I enjoy working, but that does not mean I'm loyal to any company. Company starts pulling nonsense, I leave. Company lays me off, I'll have another job by the end of the week, usually paying more. While I'd prefer otherwise, that's the environment we're in, so fine; play to win.
And I do agree; good/great customer service can really give a company an edge. However, we're talking about Wendy's here. They never had even good customer service, they have "passable". Same goes for m
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Everything I say applies to me and mine. Know why? I know the secret; if you want to be paid more, you make yourself more valuable to those that have the money.
Ok, that's not much of a secret, but people certainly treat it as such. I ingrained that in my child and now, barely an adult, she's making more than 20/hr.
Poverty is a choice, particularly in this country. I only wish I understood this when I was a young adult, I spent a lot of time blaming others for my own mistakes and it really set me back.
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So you can sneer at the poors a second time when they take on unaffordable student loans?
Should be $26/h for minimum wage, and that's in Jerkwater, Wisconsin, much less Manhattan or San Francisco.
As much as you've "chosen" to not be a starting quarterback Superbowl MVP rock star supermodel tech tr
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Remarkably dishonest and stupid.
- I'm not sneering at anyone. Point of fact, I'm trying to help people by telling them they have a choice. If you can avoid it, don't take on unaffordable student loans. If you have them then use that education to pursue better financial opportunities and pay them off quickly. Don't take on more debt, or artificially limit your earning potential through other choices.
- So let's say minimum wage becomes 26/hour...what happens next? Everything gets more expensive, and then th
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I don't know where your area is but I'm in Texas and it's $12 to $15 here depending on the area of town. Maybe it's federal minimum wage out in the countryside.
I agree with your point-- but the purchasing power of middle and low income people has been dropping since 1978. We really need to put a tax on the executive class and distribute it as basic income. The CEO class has gone from 52x the median income to over 450x the median income and it may really be much higher when you include stock manipulati
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These are low level menial jobs, not meant to be careers.
That's a conservative myth so they can feel better about people working 40 hours a week and still living in poverty. Low level jobs in the service industry have pretty much always been careers for significant portions of Americans.
And I mean really just think about it for a second. Do you really think there would ever be enough service industry workers if everyone who worked said jobs moved on to greener pastures after a few years? Definitely not.
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Oh, if the frosty machine is broken, how do you tell the script that?
By checking a box that says the frosty machine is broken?
Your other concerns may have validity (though it only has to be better than the average counter staff ...) but that one seems fairly easily dealt with.
Seen this before... (Score:5, Insightful)
About 10-15 years ago, a local McDonalds was trying to connect people ordering with a call center in India to take orders. The result didn't go as planned, and in six months, the people at the McDonalds were doing orders again.
I wonder if this is going to turn to be the same thing, where people who have local accents that are not mainstream will wind up spending more time training the AI in local invectives and curse words, as opposed to effective ordering.
I also don't really see people bothering with the order kiosks, or app. I tried the app twice, and got the "huh?" look when I came by to ask for my order. Second time, they had to do my order from scratch.
Best thing to do is go somewhere that doesn't suck. It may be more expensive, but at least a Starbucks tends to get orders right, provided someone doesn't run off with your drink.
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I wonder if this is going to turn to be the same thing, where people who have local accents that are not mainstream will wind up spending more time training the AI in local invectives and curse words, as opposed to effective ordering.
As an AI language model, I do not have a physical body where the sun fails to shine and therefore no way to place any object in such a hypothetical orifice. For the same reason, I do not have any appendages or orifices with which I can perform erotic acts with myself. Suggestions such as those you have made could be construed as offensive to some people, or even be considered a form of verbal assault or harassment. It is important to remember that we should all strive to remain polite and encouraging in our
what the actual fuck (Score:2)
It costs you $15 an hour to have a universal language computer that can deal with any unknown scenario. And you're gonna replace it with extremely limited and expensive tech.
This might be the worst decision I've heard of, after eating at Arby's.
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It costs you $15 an hour to have a universal language computer that can deal with any unknown scenario.
Based on my experiences with those universal language computers (and on my experience being one, back in the day), I assure you that they cannot deal with any unknown scenario. Specifically, as soon as they have enough experience to be able to deal with edge cases, they quit and go somewhere else that pays more, and their position gets filled by another n00b. It's perpetual September.
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And the script can deal with none.
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I can't see these working 100% (Score:2)
That said I suspect the AI will have something where to text it it can't figure out what the person is saying and routes the call either to a call center or makes one of the cooks come up and take the order.
If they do something like that and they can get it working even half the time it will massively cut labor
No way I am giving them more voice data (Score:1)
I will not use this type of service. It demotes people’s employment options in favour of the lowest cost. This is a drive to mediocre service. I don’t want Google having access to this data (who I am, what I eat, how often I come) and sharing it with governments, social engineer groups, and other entities it stops now.
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Tried this at Arby's, it sucked. (Score:2)
Drove through a local Arby's not knowing they were also trying this. They had some new sweet heat sandwich I wanted two of along with a large loaded fries.
After trying to tell it six times how many drinks I wanted...: Zero. None. No. Cancel. etc ... a human had to take over to finish the order, which they still managed to screw up by giving me beef instead of chicken.
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People who eat in their cars... (Score:2)
Tried it (Score:3)
Can it handle doubletalk? (Score:3)
"Two eggs, fry one on one side, fry one on the other side, both sunny-side down and DON'T turn them over!"
Average (Score:2)
This stuff makes me stumble immediately and I can't make myself read on: if AI is at least as good as the best human, it _must be_ better on average.
Oh wait, that sentence was probably written by generative LLM, those are known to be poor at maths
Combining the worst of human and computer (Score:2)
I would greatly prefer ordering for the family on the tablet where I can clearly communicate what I want and keep track of what I already ordered despite everyone talking at once in the car, and then pass it around once to make sure nothing is forgotten/misunderstood. Robotics could help by passing the tablet through the car window so I don't have to unbuckle seat belt, open the door and reach out if I am not parked just right taking it back once I am done.
On the other hand, if I am not satisfied with a tab
One less customer (Score:3)
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Well, if mandatory health insurance and minimum wage of $30/hr is passed by your local politicians, are you ready for a $50 chick-fil-a sandwich?
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So, I guess you think it's just better to let those workers get sick
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You think it takes one person-hour to make a sandwich?
Of course, it's not like Chik-fil-A wouldn't charge that if they could regardless of what the minimum wage is.
SSR (Score:2)
--The Stainless Steel Rat turns out to be prophetic, fast-food restaurants are turning into McSwineys.
https://hardware.slashdot.org/... [slashdot.org]
Jack in the Box should try one. (Score:2)
Talk about truth in advertising!
The could be fun! (Score:2)
Me: Can you cook like my grandmother?
ChatBot (TM): I can try.
Me: She used to work in a munition factory, and she boasted she could make high explosives using nothing more than the materials found in a common fast food kitchen.
ChatBot (TM): Would you like that in medium or large?
Me: Large, for sure.
ChatBot (TM): That will be $12.95 please pull around.
Tip (Score:1)
Then as you go to pay - Tip?
10%
15%
20%