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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

SoundHound

Jersey Mike’s Jumps on the AI-Voice Order Bandwagon as it Deploys Soundhound to 50 Locations

The AI-voice bot customer service wave is coming at us fast, and the latest chain to roll out the technology is the sub-sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s.

Soundhound announced this week that Jersey Mike’s will deploy its voice AI ordering system to allow customers to place orders by phone. According to Soundhound, the AI has been trained on the entire Jersey Mike’s menu and can handle order placement and answer queries about menu items, specials, store information, and more, all while ensuring orders are taken accurately and efficiently.

The video below shows Soundhound’s Jersey Mike integration in action.

DEMO: Jersey Mike's Automated Phone Ordering System - Powered by SoundHound AI

Like many voice AIs, it sounds about 90% natural in action, but there’s still something of an Uncanny Valley stiltedness to it. Listening to the order, it seems to handle the natural conversation flow deftly, but I have to wonder just how nimble it is with various dialects and slang, which can be a natural part of incoming phone orders.

Soundhound, a company that’s been around since the mid-aughts and had focused on auto installations and music until its move into customer service interaction layers for restaurants and retail over the past couple of years, announced the acquisition of SYNQ3 Restaurant Solutions last month. At the time of the deal, Soundhound said the merger extended “its market reach by an order of magnitude to over 10,000 signed locations and accelerating the deployment of leading-edge generative AI capabilities to the industry.”

Soundhound isn’t alone in chasing fast food chains to provide voice AI customer service platforms. Par Technologies, ConverseNow, and OpenCity also offer third-party solutions, while some players, like McDonald’s, have brought voice AI in-house through acquisition.

After a decade of pushing towards digital ordering kiosks and new ways to serve customers in-store and through apps, AI-powered customer service layers have moved to the top of the list for many big chains, including Jersey Mike’s.

As More Tech Comes to the Drive-Thru, Will Consumers Agree to T&Cs Regarding Their Privacy?

Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a flood of new technology making its way into the restaurant customer experience in everything ranging from mobile ordering apps to digital touch screens. And now, with perhaps the biggest wave of new technology yet, we’re seeing new ways in which restaurants will use tech to reinvent the customer drive-thru experience.

And, as just as we’ve seen in other areas in which new technology enters our lives, this means a growing presence of something else we’ve become all too familiar with – a screen with lots of small print asking for permission to use (i.e. monetize) information about us.

The terms and conditions (T&C) agreement has become a regular feature of modern life, something we see whenever we sign up for a new app or connected gadget. I’d even seen them in restaurants, where I’d agreed to T&Cs for a mobile ordering app or a bio-authentication payment system. But, I must admit I was surprised to see a T&C show up in a place I’d never seen one before: the drive-thru.

I didn’t see this new T&C screen in person, but in a video showcasing technology from voice tech specialist Soundhound. The video shows the Soundhound AI-powered voice assistant being used at White Castle, which is partnering with Soundhound and Samsung, the provider of the digital display screen used at the restaurant’s drive-thru.

The video, which you can see below, is impressive, but I was struck by the fact the customer in this video is asked to verbally approve the T&Cs that ask to record the customer’s voice. The request, which you can see in the video, states, “White Castle and its contractors, including without limitation Mastercard and Soundhound, will capture, collect, store, share and use an audio recording of your voice. The specific processing purposes and the length of the voice audio recording is being collected, stored, and shared is available at the below link, along with the retention schedule and guidelines for permanently destroying the audio recording.”

Below the small print is a call to action that says, “To agree and proceed, say ‘ok, I’m ready.'”

It really shouldn’t be surprising that White Castle and others decided to ask for permission from the consumer, particularly given the bad press and legal problems companies like Samsung have come under fire for with products like smart TVs. If they didn’t, there’s no doubt at some point, some organization would out them and probably file a class action lawsuit. It’s also somewhat refreshing for a company to ask for permission from the get-go, especially as more and more technology like cameras and sensors are coming into retail and food service as a way for operators to monitor, market, and enable commerce with their consumers.

All that said, however, I must admit it’s a bit of a jolt for anyone who’s used to going through a drive-thru their whole lives to be asked to agree to share their personal data, including the sound of their voice, when ordering a burger and fries. And if someone like me, someone who’s been following the evolution of the drive-thru voice ordering technology, finds it a bit weird to be presented with a T&C screen at the drive-thru, I have to wonder what everyday drive-thru customers think of being asked to record their voice and use it in some mysterious way?

There’s a good chance many will be ok with it. After all, many of us – maybe the majority -quickly scroll down to the bottom of the T&Cs when signing up for a new product to get to the experience of using it. And most of us, even if we wanted to read through all the legalese, probably can’t quite precisely decipher the terms of what we’re agreeing to. But I think some will find this new request to use our personal info disturbing and say “No way” instead of “It’s ok.”

For those types, my guess is White Castle and others in this space will have an order tree path that enables users to connect with a live person to take their order.

It’s hard to say how exactly new technology will change restaurants in the future. Still, one thing we can probably be sure of is that we’re going to have to get used to that mainstay of modern digital life, the T&C screen, becoming a fixture at the drive-thru of the future.

Mastercard Partners with Accel Robotics for Cashierless Checkout Retail

Mastercard. So worldly, so welcome, and now so contact-free. The global payments company today announced its Shop Anywhere and AI Powered Drive Through tools to help retailers create low-touch shopping experiences for consumers.

Mastercard’s ShopAnywhere program is using the AI and computer vision of Accel Robotics to create cashierless checkout for stores. According to the press release, Shop Anywhere can be deployed across a variety of physical formats. Mastercard has already lined up several Shop Anywhere customers including Circle K convenience stores in U.S. and Canada; Delaware North, a global hospitality company that operates at entertainment venues, national parks, resorts and more; and at a Dunkin’ location.

Accel Robotics is based in San Diego and raised $30 million in funding at the end of last year. The company has been relatively quiet compared with its cashierless competitors like Zippin, Grabango and Trigo. But what it lacks in showiness it has made up for with a large partner like Mastercard, which can leverage its massive presence to increase adoption of the Accel’s cashierless tech.

Mastercard’s other initiative, AI Powered Drive Through, is being implemented through partnerships with SoundHound Inc. and Rekor Systems. The program promises to help QSRs “transform their drive through or drive in interactions through vehicle recognition, voice ordering, and artificial intelligence.”

Part of that vehicle recognition technology used by Rekor involves the system knowing your license plate as well as make and model of car. Knowing who you are as you pull into the drive-thru lane means that an order can be rushed out to your car faster or a digital menu could offer up a personalized set of options based on your purchase history. That is, if you don’t mind the privacy implications of a restaurant chain knowing all about the car you drive.

Mastercard’s Drive Through builds on a partnership it had with Sonic Drive-In last year, and will being doing on-location pilots at White Castle locations in October of this year. While it didn’t mention Mastercard, KFC has hinted that it could adopt this type of technology as well.

Of course, Mastercard is announcing both of these initiatives during a global pandemic. As a result, many retailers are looking for ways to reduce human-to-human contact, and the number of touchpoints in stores, including things like touchscreens and even payment terminals where consumers swipe their credit cards. In other words, we’re going to see a lot more announcements similar to this in the coming months as we establish a new normal in a coronavirus world.