Wendy’s has recently joined the bandwagon of companies who employ artificial intelligence to power their services. The fast-food chain is introducing a chatbot at its drive-thru that can recognize customer lingo such as “JBC” for their Junior Bacon Cheeseburger, and “biggie bags” for their combination orders. Set to launch in June in a Wendy’s restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, this AI chatbot is Google’s internal software.
According to Todd Penegor, the CEO of Wendy’s, the aim of this chatbot is to facilitate ordering and streamline the process in order to reduce ordering wait time. It is programmed to be highly conversational, and customers won’t know that they are conversing with a robot or a human. The software has been trained to recognize customer lingo when ordering burgers, chicken nuggets and other food items, as well as additional items such as the daily specials and bigger sizes. As soon as the order is made, staff within the restaurant get a notification on their screens and the meal is prepared and handed to drivers at the drive-thru window.
The chatbot was created to supplement, not replace, the work of employees. However, the VP of Wendy’s IT Kevin Vasconi noted that tests at the Colombus restaurant showed that the chatbot was just as good as their best customer service representative, if not better. In addition, Wendy’s spokesperson stated that because customers can customize their orders at Wendy’s, it is a complex process that has made AI conversational ordering difficult to implement.
This development of AI-driven technology for the customer service industry echoes the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and various other businesses are beginning to invest in the AI-for-service sector. CEO of one of the energy companies, for example, reported that their AI can respond to one third of customer emails, which would be often equivalent to the work of 250 people.
To sum up, Wendy’s has introduced an AI-driven chatbot tailored to customer lingo to help streamline their drive-thru service. This is also projected to improve customer satisfaction and reduce ordering wait time. As businesses turn to AI software to better their services, Wendy’s could be the start of a new era of customer service.
