Nvidia partnership to expand AI use in KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell restaurants

[midian182]

What just happened? AI is everywhere these days, including at many fast-food outlets where the technology is used to take drive-thru orders. Now, thanks to a partnership between Nvidia and Yum! Brands, owner of Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut, AI adoption at these restaurants is being accelerated – and it won't just be at the drive-thru.

Announced during the Nvidia GTC conference, Yum! Brands says its strategic partnership with Nvidia has the goal of deploying multiple AI solutions using the company's hardware in 500 restaurants, including Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC, and Habit Burger and Grill, starting in the second quarter of 2025. Yum has already been piloting Nvidia tech in some Pizza Hut and Taco Bell locations.

Fast food chains have been testing AI to take drive-thru orders for a while now. Wendy's was one of the first to announce a trial of such a chatbot, made possible through a partnership with Google, at one of its restaurants in its home state of Ohio in 2023.

Yum's partnership with Nvidia – the tech giant's first with a restaurant company – will see Team Green's technology harnessed by Byte by Yum!, Yum's proprietary and digital AI-driven restaurant technology platform. The company aims to build new, more advanced AI voice ordering agents in under four months.

credit: Phillip Pessar

Beyond taking orders, Yum will also be using AI in other areas. One example is using computer vision software to analyze drive-thru traffic so the AI can optimize speed by alerting and adjusting staffing. Joe Park, chief digital and technology officer at Yum! Brands, told Business Insider that when things get busy at the drive-thru, the AI might suggest selling some quicker-turnover items instead of large, complex items that might take longer.

Yum writes that its AI agents are also being deployed in call centers to handle phone orders when demand surges during events such as game days.

Nvidia's AI hardware will also be used to analyze performance metrics across thousands of restaurant locations to generate customized recommendations for managers, identifying what top-performing stores do differently.

Not all restaurant companies' partnerships with tech firms have been successful. In June 2024, McDonald's announced it was ending its two-year automated order taking (AOT) drive-thru experiment and partnership with IBM. It had implemented the system in around 100 locations, but there were plenty of customer videos showing it getting orders wrong. McDonald's did say, however, it was confident that voice AI would be part of the restaurant chain's future.

Yum's announcement, unsurprisingly, did not mention any potential impact the partnership and additional AI agents might have on human jobs, other than stating it would "assist and enhance the team member experience."

Permalink to story:

Nvidia partnership to expand AI use in KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell restaurants

 

[ScottSoapbox]

AI taking fast food orders is a good use case. AI only has to beat a distracted ill-trained teenager to improve service (or match them for cost savings).

 

[Hexic]

AI taking fast food orders is a good use case. AI only has to beat a distracted ill-trained teenager to improve service (or match them for cost savings).

A very good use case indeed. How wonderful would it be to pull up to a drive-thru speaker, to finally NOT be ignored for 30 full seconds before some teen asks "what do you want" in the sh*ttiest tone. And these kids want $15/hr..

 

[godrilla]

A very good use case indeed. How wonderful would it be to pull up to a drive-thru speaker, to finally NOT be ignored for 30 full seconds before some teen asks "what do you want" in the sh*ttiest tone. And these kids want $15/hr..

Um new minimum wage is up to $16.50 well at least in urban NYC.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

A very good use case indeed. How wonderful would it be to pull up to a drive-thru speaker, to finally NOT be ignored for 30 full seconds before some teen asks "what do you want" in the sh*ttiest tone. And these kids want $15/hr..

-We are heading toward a perfect future, where an attentive service oriented AI takes an order from a polite and respectful AI customer.

Humans will have mostly died off an live in sewers like jobless rats at that point though.

 

[RudyBob]

This can only help the customer

 

[stewi0001]

Or they can host the AI systems there to heat up the fryers XD

 

[p51d007]

Hey CA and your $20/hour minimum wage, say BYE BYE to a few thousand fast food jobs!

 

[ScottSoapbox]

A very good use case indeed. How wonderful would it be to pull up to a drive-thru speaker, to finally NOT be ignored for 30 full seconds before some teen asks "what do you want" in the sh*ttiest tone. And these kids want $15/hr..

As someone that worked fast food as a teen, you realize the person taking your order is doing other work at the same time, right? Like bagging up previous orders or taking money from someone ahead of you in line so that you can move forward in line and ultimately get your food faster than if they didn't multitask.

So takes some calming breaths while you wait -gasp- 30 whole seconds to be waited on. Or don't eat fast food. It's terrible for you and not actually cheaper than real food.

 

[Hexic]

As someone that worked fast food as a teen, you realize the person taking your order is doing other work at the same time, right? Like bagging up previous orders or taking money from someone ahead of you in line so that you can move forward in line and ultimately get your food faster than if they didn't multitask.

So takes some calming breaths while you wait -gasp- 30 whole seconds to be waited on. Or don't eat fast food. It's terrible for you and not actually cheaper than real food.

Well, ironically enough I was a franchise general manager for almost a decade for McDonald's - so I know, better than most, exactly what the expectations are.

Customer at the speaker box? Guess what, your headset beeps so it's impossible to miss. Can't speak immediately to the customer? "Hi, be with you in one moment." Not exactly rocket science, it's just called standards. Dead silence for extended periods of time is unacceptable, it's rude.

Don't make excuses for poor customer service because of "multi-tasking" - welcome to the real world, it's very doable, and required. The quality and service times of fast food establishments have DRASTICALLY gone downhill in the last decade.

The standard for McDonald's drive-thru, from car pulling up to speaker box, to car pulling away - used to be 90 seconds or less. I've experienced awkward silences at the speaker box for longer than that in recent times.

 

[New Day]

Customer at the speaker box? Guess what, your headset beeps so it's impossible to miss. Can't speak immediately to the customer? "Hi, be with you in one moment." Not exactly rocket science, it's just called standards. Dead silence for extended periods of time is unacceptable, it's rude.

Don't make excuses for poor customer service because of "multi-tasking" - welcome to the real world, it's very doable, and required. The quality and service times of fast food establishments have DRASTICALLY gone downhill in the last decade.

Right. Wireless headsets came in the early to mid 80s, right? Plus, the drive-thru people got schooled in how to take an order while away from the pad, in military fashion in our case. Unless a Red Hat or manager, only females at the front counter, button-up shirt and tie, no hair on the collar, for ****'s sake no facial hair, move without making a mess and clean as you go, etc, etc, etc.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Well, ironically enough I was a franchise general manager for almost a decade for McDonald's - so I know, better than most, exactly what the expectations are.

Customer at the speaker box? Guess what, your headset beeps so it's impossible to miss. Can't speak immediately to the customer? "Hi, be with you in one moment." Not exactly rocket science, it's just called standards. Dead silence for extended periods of time is unacceptable, it's rude.

Don't make excuses for poor customer service because of "multi-tasking" - welcome to the real world, it's very doable, and required. The quality and service times of fast food establishments have DRASTICALLY gone downhill in the last decade.

The standard for McDonald's drive-thru, from car pulling up to speaker box, to car pulling away - used to be 90 seconds or less. I've experienced awkward silences at the speaker box for longer than that in recent times.

Sounds like you were a harder boss than mine. LOL But then I was probably an exceptional employee compared to the norm.

But seriously, you make good points.

I always had fun on the drive thru by using a radio voice and exuberant adjectives to greet customers "Welcome to the illustrious Taco Bell!..."

 

[Hexic]

I always had fun on the drive thru by using a radio voice and exuberant adjectives to greet customers "Welcome to the illustrious Taco Bell!..."

I love it. Dude, back when it was more socially acceptable, we'd spend hours doing different accents in Drive-thru for each car. It was the little things like that, that got us through the day to be honest.