Hi Auto has expanded its artificial intelligence platform to include intelligence that analyzes performance at the pickup window, the company wrote in an email to Restaurant Dive.
The technology is currently in beta testing with three brands, and is available as a modular add-on for existing Hi Auto customers and new deployments, the tech company said.
The company is piloting the technology with Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken, which plans to use it to improve interactions between staff and customers when they pick up their food in the drive-thru, Chuck Doran, Lee’s co-owner, said in a statement.
“The pickup window is one of the most important moments in the drive-thru experience, and it’s historically been a blind spot,” he said.
Lee’s originally partnered with Hi Auto to deploy its AI Order Taker at drive-thrus, testing the technology in 30 stores. Earlier this year, the 130-unit chain opened up the technology as an option to franchisees.
Window intelligence uses a microphone that is installed at the pickup window to capture every guest and employee interaction, Hi Auto said. Since the system knows what each guest ordered, it correlates window audio with point-of-sales transaction data, and can monitor order changes by tracing back to the source to see if it was a human- or AI-error.
“Window Intelligence … gives operators a real-time view of what's happening at the window, so they know when service is great, when it isn't, and exactly where it broke down,” Roy Baharav, Hi Auto’s co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “For the first time, the entire guest experience is visible, from order to handoff.”
The window intelligence provides a friendliness score, and detects greetings, thank yous and tone of voice at the window. It doesn’t use biometric or personal data, Hi Auto said. The technology can also detect employee theft and customer disputes and analyze window times, including time used for greetings, payments and food handoffs. It also measures order accuracy.
This technology is a significant step forward for drive-thru artificial intelligence, as several chains, including Bojangles and Checkers and Rally’s, have been adopting and testing drive-thru voice automation from Hi Auto. The voice platform is in operation at about 1,000 stores and Hi Auto claims to have about over 93% order completion and 96% accuracy.
Restaurant Brands International said earlier this year that Burger King would deploy voice-AI in its restaurant headsets to help workers and managers to answer questions about menu item preparation and products. The burger brand’s tech also analyzes drive-thru audio for accuracy and to provide insights on service, making it similar to Hi Auto’s new intelligence system.
