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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

text-to-order

HungerRush Launches Its AI-based Text-to-Order Tech for Restaurant Chains

Restaurant management software company HungerRush announced today that it launched its artificial intelligence-driven text-to-order product.

Dubbed HungerRush TextAI, the new feature uses natural language processing to interpret and place orders that come in via SMS. The new product is the result of HungerRush’s acquisition of OrdrAI last December. In its press announcement today, HungerRush said that TextAI works better than traditional phone or other employee-assisted formats by virtually eliminating order errors.

Text AI also integrates with HungerRush’s overall suite of products that include POS, delivery management, online ordering, mobile app, reporting and management, payment processing, and loyalty program.

HungerRush’s TextAI product launch comes at an interesting moment for AI integration for restaurants. Artificial Intelligence-driven software grabbed headlines last year as Kea, Clinc and even Google all had products that used natural language processing to hold “conversations” with restaurant customers. The promise, of course is that AI can take over incoming customer orders, allowing humans to perform more food creation and order expediting.

But in a signal that AI might not work as well as had been predicted, news broke this week that McDonald’s may sell Dynamic Yield, the AI startup it acquired in 2019. Granted, Dynamic Yield’s implementation of AI is more about creating dynamic menus that improved upselling (e.g., it’s cold outside, the menu highlighted warm beverages), so it’s a bit apples to oranges when compared with text-to-order. But if McDonald’s reportedly couldn’t even get a 1 percent bump from its implementation of AI, that could impact how other restaurant chains perceive the overall value of AI.

That’s not to say restaurants will abandon AI altogether. All of these technologies are new, and, not for nothing, are being tested under the unusual conditions of a pandemic, which has us ordering more takeout and delivery. Restaurants, which are seeing diminished value in third-party delivery services, need to save money where they can. If AI-driven text-to-order can drive sales and help restaurants get more value out of their labor, then that will go a long way towards adoption.

HungerRush Acquires OrdrAI for its Text-to-Order Tech

HungerRush announced today via an email that it has acquired OrdrAI, adding text-to-order capabilities to HungerRush’s restaurant tech stack. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

HungerRush (formerly known as Revention) offer s a full suite of restaurant management software. In June of this year, the company launched a number of new features geared towards helping restaurants fulfill off-premises orders like delivery and takeout. Those new features included messaging capabilities for curbside pickup, the ability to track delivery drivers, and more integrations with third-party delivery services.

With the OrdrAI acquisition, HungerRush will offer text-to-order capabilities to its toolkit. The OrdrAI system uses standard SMS and natural language processing to allow customers to order meals almost as if they were texting with a friend. The benefit of text-to-order is that SMS is a ubiquitous feature on just about every phone, so there is no new app or website that a customer needs to install or visit to place an order.

With the pandemic continuing unabated throughout most of the country, restaurants have had to shift from dine-in operations to prioritize off-premises ordering, takeout and delivery. So it makes sense that HungerRush would want to add a tool like text-to-order to its arsenal. As restaurants move towards digital orders, they want to make placing those digital orders as easy as possible for anyone.

But OrdrAi is also part of a broader movement in the restaurant biz towards adding natural language processing and conversational ordering to their tech stack. Last month Kea raised $10 million for its natural language voice assistant that can take orders for restaurants. Google’s Duplex AI assistant can place restaurant reservations on behalf of real people. And Clinc’s tech brings conversational ordering to the drive-thru.

In the U.S., text-to-order capabilities get far less airtime than sophisticated mobile apps (though ordering via SMS is common in other parts of the world). But as mentioned above, the pandemic has forced both restaurants and their customers into digital ordering, and not every customer can or wants to download a fancy mobile app to place an order for fries. Having a simpler, more ubiquitous interface available could widen a restaurant’s potential customer base at a time when finding new ways for digital outreach is paramount. Text-to-order might never replace the mobile app, but as the industry continues to navigate its current fallout, the function is another useful tool to complement the restaurant tech stack.

Jennifer Marston contributed to this article.