Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken uses AI to take drive-thru orders

A conversational artificial intelligence (AI) assistant running on Intel technology at Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken restaurants in Ohio is taking drive-thru orders in lesser time. The AI solution runs on Intel Xeon processors in the cloud and Intel NUC.

The assistant is built by automated drive-thru ordering company Hi Auto. The AI welcomes drive-thru customers, answers their menu-related questions and suggests menu items before confirming the order into the point-of-sale system.

Drive-thru orders in the US increased by 22% in 2020 due to the pandemic and these orders made up 44% of all off-premises orders across the restaurant industry. However, at the same time, average drive-thru time increased by close to half a minute.

“The automated AI drive-thru has impacted my business in a simple way,” said Chuck Doran, owner and operator of Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken Restaurant in Englewood, Ohio. “We don’t have customers waiting anymore. We greet them as soon as they get to the board and the order is taken correctly.”

He added, “It’s amazing to see the level of accuracy with the voice recognition technology, which helps speed up service. It can even suggest additional items based on the order, which helps us increase our sales.”

When employees were running the drive-thru, they might suggest a sale in one out of 20 orders, said Doran. With the AI solution, he further said, it happens feasibly with every transaction.

“If a person is running the drive-thru, they may suggest a sale in one out of 20 orders,” said Doran. “With Hi Auto, it happens in every transaction where it’s feasible.”

He further added, “So, we see improvements in our average check, service time and improvements in consistency and customer service. And because the cashier is now less stressed, she can focus on customer service as well. A less-burdened employee will be a happier employee, and we want happy employees interacting with our customers.”

To take the order accurately, the technology isolates customer’s speech from the noise and talks just as a person does. The drive-thru AI is always polite. Upon being asked any unrelated question or about any off-menu item, it automatically switches to a Lee’s employee so that they can step into the conversation. Moreover, it seamlessly integrates with Lee’s employee headset system, letting the staff provide real-time updates to inventory, as required.

McDonald’s is also testing Hi Auto’s drive-thru ordering solution. CNN Business reported back in February that a McDonald’s in a Chicago suburb was testing out an AI-driven system to speed up its drive-thru service.