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Wendy's Expanding Use of AI Chatbot To Take Orders At Drive-Thrus 154

Posted by BeauHD from the ready-or-not-here-it-comes dept.
According to Bloomberg, Wendy's is expanding its test of an AI-powered chatbot that takes orders at the drive-thru. From the report: Franchisees will get the chance to test the product in 2024, the Dublin, Ohio-based chain said Monday. The tool, powered by Google Cloud's AI software, is currently active in four company-operated restaurants near Columbus. More locations are slated to start using it soon. Wendy's announced the pilot in May, joining the AI race as fast-food joints contended with elevated labor costs and the enduring popularity of drive-thrus.

In writing for the chain, Matt Spessard, senior vice president and global chief technology officer, said Monday the software could on average take 86% of orders without intervention from restaurant staff, just exceeding the 85% target outlined earlier this year. The system, called Wendy's FreshAI, uses generative AI to create responses and adapt to customers in real time, Wendy's said. In one location, service times were 22 seconds faster than the average for Columbus.
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Wendy's Expanding Use of AI Chatbot To Take Orders At Drive-Thrus More

Wendy's Expanding Use of AI Chatbot To Take Orders At Drive-Thrus

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  • Old jokes get fresh start (Score:4, Funny)

    by goombah99 ( 560566 ) on Monday December 11, 2023 @08:31PM (#64074989)

    I think that if people know it's a bot then more abusive ordering practices will ensue

    I'd like a furr burger, some French thighs, and a hot cherry bend over

    • Re:Old jokes get fresh start (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Burdell ( 228580 ) on Monday December 11, 2023 @08:38PM (#64075001)

      But what would be the point? You're not going to irritate a computer. The computer is just matching against the menu, so it's either going to match (and I'm guessing put it up on a screen as you order, rather than doing a read-back) or not (and reject your attempt). Sure, you could hold up the line, but you could do that by speaking Klingon to the minimum-wage person taking your order today, until they come tell you to leave.

      And I bet they'll keep recordings of orders for some period, so if you show up to complain that you didn't get your order, they can just replay the recording and see you're screwing around.

      If they can get that level of accuracy, this seems like a win. I avoid drive-through because it seems they can't reach 86% accuracy with people handling it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dbialac ( 320955 )

        But what would be the point?

        Venting.

        • Re:Old jokes get fresh start (Score:4, Funny)

          by NFN_NLN ( 633283 ) on Monday December 11, 2023 @09:04PM (#64075047)

          It's pronounced Venti, sir.

          • Re:Old jokes get fresh start (Score:4)

            by iAmWaySmarterThanYou ( 10095012 ) on Monday December 11, 2023 @09:13PM (#64075073)

            Yeah, I just order small or large. Fuck that venti nonsense.

            • Hey! Thanks to Starbucks, I now have a tall penis!

              • Have you considered making an onlyfans page?

                You could be "Tall, not venti, penis guy". Make bank if you go viral.

                • I wouldn't expect too big an income. I mean, if the average onlyfans user wanted to watch an old neckbeard wank, they'd just need to buy a mirror.

                  • Never know, takes all kinds. You could be the first serving an unserved market! First mover advantage!

                    • Erh... let's put it that way, every time I get a scam mail about how they filmed me wanking and now want to extort money or else they send it to everyone I know, I feel like answering that they might want to extort the money from the ones they plan to send those videos to, they're after all the ones that would be scarred for life.

                      You cannot unsee what has been seen.

            • Apparently, "venti" is Starbucksese for "cardboard bucket filled with warm milk with just a hint of coffee."

              • That would be better than the "TikTok drinks" people ask for. My wife had to fill in when the franchised one at her hotel was short staffed after Covid so I heard about all the weird shit people would order, often with 20+ shots of this n that. Then they'd be shocked at the drink they got because the TikTok person told them how awesome it is. Often people just held up their phones to show her the mish mash of crap they they thought wanted in their cup. TikTok has even ruined the simple ritual of the mor

                • TikTok has even ruined...

                  One hardly has to restrict that statement to morning coffee.

                  • Truth. It's got dumb people doing all sorts of shit. My kid's HS bathrooms were getting trashed when TikTok was telling the little morons to do that (for example). I know people are dumb in general and kids are extra dumb but I have a hard time understanding why even the dumbest kids would trash their own school bathrooms because some TikTok pos told them to.

                    • Truth. It's got dumb people doing all sorts of shit. My kid's HS bathrooms were getting trashed when TikTok was telling the little morons to do that (for example). I know people are dumb in general and kids are extra dumb but I have a hard time understanding why even the dumbest kids would trash their own school bathrooms because some TikTok pos told them to.

                      If we think Tik Tok influence is bad, imagine being blind to the kind of trashing brought on by allowing 18-year old grown-ass children to vote.

              • coffee gatekeeping... how petty.

        • But what would be the point?

          Venting.

          Exactly.

          Am I the ONLY one out here who just cannot fucking stand to talk to a computer prompts?

          I get so quickly frustrated by the ever increasing phone voice prompt systems everyone is using.

          I don't like speaking my choices first...I mean, if you're in an office or there are people around...I'd rather push a fucking number key on the phone rather than have to basically let everyone know my business I'm conducting on the phone, you know?

          And they take forever to ge

        • But what would be the point?

          Venting.

          Impotently venting your frustration at no one is not really a point, it's just a dumb meme: "Old man yells at clouds".

      • What if he orders a hamburger repeated ad infinitum?
    • Reply: Sir, this is a Wendy’s

    • Tuna, no crust.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jddj ( 1085169 )

      Wait 'til it gets to McDonalds:

      Quarter hound dog with fleas, large flies and a medium goat...

    • This makes a lot of sense. Spend many millions of dollars across all your restaurants just so you can replace a few minimum-wage workers. To quote the great Red Foreman:

      Dumbass.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by narcc ( 412956 )

        That's an awful lot of confidence you have in an estimate based on nothing. How well do you think it will hold up to just a little scrutiny?

        Let's say Wendy's spends $100 million developing an AI that can take orders at the drive thru.

        Just in the US, Wendy's has 7166 locations. They're open 7 days a week, though hours vary by location and for holidays. We'll estimate ridiculously low and say that they're open just 10 hours a day, 360 days of the year. That means the drive thru at each store will be open

    • Hey!! I ordered 2 large fries and you gave me a hundred little ones.
    • You seem a little wound up, like you need a release. Are you sure you wouldn't prefer to go a Starbuck's for a nice, relaxing latte? ;)

      Maybe Wendy's executives saw Idiocracy & were inspired by Carl's Jr.'s automatic vending stations?

    • Yes, I look forward to the chance to tell the AI that I want Kentucky Fried Children. Look, there are definite benefits to having been a computer programmer since those things were carved out of rocks. If you think I can't convince the AI to fry up some children, stand back and hold my beer, and put your damned kids back on their leashes if you want to keep them.

    • My mom is in her 70s; she hates the automated voice shit. It will be 10 seconds before she's screaming "HUMAN! CUSTOMER SERVICE! PERSON! OPERATOR! NO! NO! NO! PERSON!" at it like every phone call to many companies these days.

  • Cheeseburger ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Monday December 11, 2023 @08:34PM (#64074995)

    ... Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger!

    No Coke. Pepsi.

  • Ordering isn't the slow part (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ThosLives ( 686517 ) on Monday December 11, 2023 @08:35PM (#64074997) Journal

    If anyone has been to fast food lately, ordering in a drivethrough isn't the slow part. The food preparation times have skyrocketed in my area since COVID.

    Preparation accuracy is also way down - food in the bag doesn't match the order receipt way more than should be acceptable.

    Whoever designs the "order yourself" kiosks also needs a lesson UI efficiency...it's astonishing how bad they are.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dfm3 ( 830843 )

      Preparation accuracy is also way down - food in the bag doesn't match the order receipt way more than should be acceptable.

      That's always been the case at Wendy's though... they seem to get my order wrong far more often than any other fast food place. It's especially aggravating when you have a really simple order, like a side of chicken nuggets and fries.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dbialac ( 320955 )
      I don't go to fast food often, but when I go I go inside because at this point it's faster. Regarding the "AI", bean counters seem to be the type that don't understand emotions and hence don't understand that many people prefer the human interaction that a cashier provides. It's not all about the robotics of the transaction. That's why you still see a lot of people still lining up for the cashier even though the self-serve scanner has no line. I know because I'm one of them, and I talk to a lot of others wh

      • And plenty of people are the opposite. I loathed and despised shopping until self checkout came to super markets.

        I hate waiting in line while they're yakking it up in front of me in line and most of them are slower to scan and pack than I am and omg when they put heavy shit on top of eggs and other breakables. I go to the store to buy shit and leave not socialize with the counter clerks.

      • That's why they do test runs.

    • The fast part is your bank balance dropping.

    • I got so tired of incorrect items after ordering that I don't bother with Wendy's or any other fast food joint any longer. For a while I was asking the person at the window to verify the order, item by item, before handing it to me, which worked and showed their mistakes, but I got rather dirty looks and attitudes doing this. So instead of being the bad guy I simply don't eat fast food any longer (still the occasional pizza delivered though). Hell, I'm surely healthier for it too, thanks Wendy's!

    • Agree, I've tried the kiosks a couple if times, and they're annoying. But consider the design goals:

      - Up-sell, up-sell, up-sell

      - Usable by literally any idiot, even if drunk or high

      So, yeah, click on the pretty pictures, press yes (more), yes (bigger), yes (empty my wallet), done. For those goals, they are pretty well designed.

    • They're not designed so you can order efficiently, quite the opposite. You're not supposed to order efficiently, you're supposed to rethink everything you want to order in order to make you buy more. Upselling is the goal.

      You want a burger. Sure, they could put that burger right at the front page, especially if it's a popular item. But then you'd order that burger and be done. If they first list (list? Oh no, show you pretty pictures of) other items that have a better profit margin, you're tempted to rethin

      • You want a burger. Sure, they could put that burger right at the front page, especially if it's a popular item. But then you'd order that burger and be done. If they first list (list? Oh no, show you pretty pictures of) other items that have a better profit margin, you're tempted to rethink. I mean, don't you want a shake with that? Or a hot pocket dessert? And when you finally get to the burger, why not make it a meal for just 3 bucks more? And why not replace that fries in that meal with our special varia

    • If anyone has been to fast food lately, ordering in a drivethrough isn't the slow part. The food preparation times have skyrocketed in my area since COVID.

      Preparation accuracy is also way down - food in the bag doesn't match the order receipt way more than should be acceptable.

      Whoever designs the "order yourself" kiosks also needs a lesson UI efficiency...it's astonishing how bad they are.

      I'm not sure what happened during COVID, but fast food really changed during that period. Used to be you placed your order, you drove up, paid, maybe there's a second window to get your food. During COVID that changed to, place your order, pull up, pay, pull up, get drinks, get told to drive around the place to the front door and park and wait. And wait. And wait some more. Pull out your phone and consider calling in to see if anybody still exists inside the place to make the food. About the time you start

      • I'm not sure what happened during COVID, but fast food really changed during that period. Used to be you placed your order, you drove up, paid, maybe there's a second window to get your food. During COVID that changed too, place your order, pull up, pay, pull up, get drinks, get told to drive around the place to the front door and park and wait. And wait. And wait some more. Pull out your phone and consider calling in to see if anybody still exists inside the place to make the food. About the time you start

        • I'm not sure what happened during COVID, but fast food really changed during that period. Used to be you placed your order, you drove up, paid, maybe there's a second window to get your food. During COVID that changed too, place your order, pull up, pay, pull up, get drinks, get told to drive around the place to the front door and park and wait. And wait. And wait some more. Pull out your phone and consider calling in to see if anybody still exists inside the place to make the food. About the time you start to dial, the food comes out. You go through the bag, then sigh and walk into the place to tell them they didn't get a single item correct. Then you wait for another half hour or so while they argue about whose fault it is, then another half hour to get the food.

          Wow...WTF do you live where this still happens?

          I mean yes, I saw some of this right at the early start of COVID....but behavior like that at FF or even other businesses have long disappeared down here....hell, life was pretty much fully back to normal here apparently WAY earlier than other parts of the US for some reason.

          South Dakota. I'm assuming we're still playing catch-up. I remember being amazed when I moved here. It was 1990, and the biggest band among the kids in high school, my age, at the time, was the Beatles. We're like an oasis of backwards. Still.

  • Let the ordering confusion ensue (Score:4, Funny)

    by dfm3 ( 830843 ) on Monday December 11, 2023 @08:49PM (#64075013) Journal
    Yay, I can't wait for all the Tiktok videos of people ordering a frosty and having it come with four sweet teas and ten packs of chili seasoning.
  • I'd rather just have a real live person. I will try to make a mental note to not eat at Wendys if this goes live. I don't eat there anyway so it doesn't matter.

  • Carls Jr. is doing this already, and it sucks (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Monday December 11, 2023 @10:42PM (#64075225) Journal
    Unless you're ordering straight off the menu, no changes additions deletions or anything special at all, it's like pulling teeth trying to get the idiot thing to understand what you want. I wanted extra cheese, and it rattles off a list of cheeses, none of which are just the plain old American cheese it usually comes with. You can at least say 'human, please!' and it'll get you an actual human being to take your order. I just go inside and order now instead and save myself the aggravation.

  • And so it begins.

    Soon, you can expect all tech support numbers to be replaced with an "AI"... but on the upside there will be NO DAMN EXCUSE for those grating Indian accents any more. Heck, give it a pleasant British accent.

    Wait, who snuck in the deep Austrian accent? What do you mean my support call is terminated?!

    I didn't know Wendy's sold cake. Hmm, there is a lot of unsaturated polyester resin and sediment in this cake.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      there will be NO DAMN EXCUSE for those grating Indian accents any more. Heck, give it a pleasant British accent.

      Don't count on it. Someone will suggest something like 'British accents promote white supremacy' or something, because obviously there is nothing quite like associating an accent with a machine in servile role, when you want to proclaim that is the master race.

      However logic and reason like that won't prevail we will undoubtedly be subject to a diverse array of accents unintelligibly think accents and broken dialects collected from around the world at random. If you complain that synthetic voice #865, desc

  • I don't know how many times I've had to repeat my order, or got the wrong order, because the person walking around with the headset wasn't paying close enough attention, or doesn't speak good English.

  • Classic example of drive through AI training [youtube.com]
  • And then and then and then

  • AI bot to order food? Isn't there an app or dozen for that now? Haven't drive-thrus become online order pick-up lanes now?

    (Generation App-Mute) "What, you mean TALK to something to order food? Yeah, OK Boomer."

  • ... no doubt it will take time to work through the bugs, but it will be nice removing some friction from this part of the process.

    That said, I'm a little surprised to not see the kiosk concept extended to the drive through. Works for banks ... why not a drive through kiosk like the McD indoor kiosk?

  • At any drive-thru I have ever been through in my entire life, it is one of three scenarios - by the way I also worked in a drive-thru for many years, so I do know how it works...

    - You are the only person there, and inside the restaurant, the order-taker is multitasking (they are not full-time on drive-thru because it is not a busy time... so when they take your order they are walking from somewhere else in the restaurant over to the cash. In this scenario, outsourcing the order taker to AI is not going to g

  • Will you be using the mobile app today? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by TraumaFox ( 1667643 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @09:25AM (#64075927)
    I'm far more frustrated with the new trend of every drive thru playing some prerecorded message as soon as you pull up making it sound like you're talking to a person. I know well enough to just ignore it and wait, but I imagine the overwhelming majority of people immediately start rattling off their order only to be greeted with an extended silence or to be interrupted by the actual human, ultimately having to repeat themselves and unnecessarily extending the overall interaction time. I don't know what the intent was behind this practice, but it surely causes nothing but confusion and frustration for most people.

  • "I'd like two Lard Burgers, a bucket of Lard and some Lard Cola please, with spam"
    "The system is offline, please be patient."

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