American burger chain White Castle plans to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into over 100 drive-thrus by next year to speed up orders and avoid arguments and other forms of miscommunication.
In partnership with audio and speech recognition company SoundHound, the fast-food joint will use AI voice to interact with customers and take their orders.
The AI-powered drive-thrus will appear exactly as they do now but will notify customers through a screen that they will be interacting with a voice assistant.
According to SoundHound, its technology has a "consistent, reliable and always on performance," with a 90% order completion rate, and orders are taken within a minute on average. The company also shared that its tech is complete "end-to-end AI" and is not a human-assisted system.
"That means it relies entirely upon intelligent automation to deliver a fast, accurate, scalable, and consistent service right across locations and channels (including kiosk, phone, and other devices)," it wrote in a press release on Wednesday.
Whether or not the new AI drive-thrus perform well, customers can still choose to speak to a human employee if they experience any issues with the voice assistant, SoundHound told The Verge.
White Castle Vice President of Operations Services Mike Guinan said that the company is committed to investing in this technology to create welcoming and enjoyable drive-thru experiences for its customers.
"Our partnership with SoundHound has allowed us to be the first movers in this space and we're excited to do even more to satisfy cravers everywhere. Working together, we'll be able to deliver the drive-thru experience of tomorrow today," he added.
Roberto Orosa has worked in a variety of industries, with four years of experience in copywriting and publishing. His fascination with tech, business, and all the latest trends led him to write news for Spotlight.
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