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Yum! Brands expands rollout of Voice AI for faster, more accurate drive-thru orders to more Taco Bell locations

Yum! Brands expands rollout of Voice AI for faster, more accurate drive-thru orders to more Taco Bell locations. (Image source: Business Wire)
Yum! Brands expands rollout of Voice AI for faster, more accurate drive-thru orders to more Taco Bell locations. (Image source: Business Wire)
Yum! Brands will expand the rollout of its Voice AI for faster, more accurate drive-thru orders to more Taco Bell locations this year. The AI relieves human staff from the mundane task of order taking so they can focus on delivering hot, fresh food quickly. The system also allows for a reduced staff count to help increase restaurant profitability.

Yum! Brands will expand the rollout of its Voice AI for faster, more accurate drive-thru orders to more Taco Bell locations this year. This follows two years of real-world testing at 100 select US locations across 13 states. The AI relieves human staff from the mundane task of order taking so they can focus on delivering hot, fresh food quickly. Besides Taco Bell, Yum! Brands owns Habit Burger, KFC, and Pizza Hut with over 57,000 restaurants in over 155 countries.

The company has been acquiring AI companies and integrating AI into its portfolio of restaurants after CTO Joe Park came up with the SuperApp concept in 2019 to give managers inventory management, staff scheduling, and forecasting tools in one mobile app. The company uses various AI-powered software to meet profitability and staffing challenges including Voice AI at Taco Bell drive-thrus.

According to CEO David Gibbs, “Voice AI in places like the drive-thru and phone orders could have a massive impact on franchisees’ unit economics and the efficiency of our restaurants.” The system allows for a reduced staff count while providing a consistent ordering experience. Fast-food staff should prepare for the future where restaurants don’t even need human cooks. The AI can also recommend add-ons to help increase restaurant profitability.

Additional AI technologies powering Taco Bell’s 4% sales growth in Q1 2024 include Dragontail to help optimize order production and delivery, Kvantum to help model and understand consumer behavior, Tictuk to help chat with customers across channels from SMS to Facebook, and Collider to identify ways to improve marketing to consumers among shifting trends.

Readers who often eat in their cars can put their tacos on a car tray (like this one on Amazon), dispose of trash in a car trash can, and wipe their hands clean of hot sauce with wipes that smell amazing.

Yum! Brands to Expand Voice AI Technology to Hundreds of Taco Bell U.S. Drive-Thru Locations in 2024, with a Future Vision to Bring the Technology to Its Brands’ Drive-Thrus Around the World

07/31/2024

The Company’s expansion of Voice AI will modernize its drive-thrus and elevate the experience for consumers and restaurant team members alike

LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) announced today the expansion of Voice AI technology across Taco Bell drive-thru locations in the U.S., targeting hundreds of stores by the end of 2024. The Company aspires to implement Voice AI technology in drive-thrus at its brands globally in the future.

Yum! Brands to Expand Voice AI Technology to Hundreds of Taco Bell U.S. Drive-Thru Locations in 2024, with a Future Vision to Bring the Technology to Its Brands’ Drive-Thrus Around the World (Photo: Business Wire)

The rollout of Voice AI technology in Taco Bell, currently in more than 100 Taco Bell U.S. drive-thrus across 13 states, is designed to enhance back-of-house operations for team members and elevate the order experience for consumers. Benefits include easing task load for team members, improving order accuracy, providing a consistent, friendly experience, and reducing wait times, while driving profitable growth for Taco Bell, Yum! Brands and their franchisees.

“Yum! Brands is integrating digital and technology into all aspects of our business with exciting new capabilities, and AI is a core piece of that strategy,” said Lawrence Kim, Chief Innovation Officer, Yum! Brands. “We’re expanding and accelerating our AI capabilities like Voice AI to deliver leading-edge technologies to our franchisees and to enhance the consumer and team member experience. With over two years of fine tuning and testing the drive-thru Voice AI technology, we’re confident in its effectiveness in optimizing operations and enhancing customer satisfaction.”

Yum! Brands and Taco Bell have collaborated closely, including incorporating input from Taco Bell franchisees, so that Voice AI benefits both team members and consumers. This technology takes advantage of Taco Bell’s strong drive-thru customer experience ecosystem, which is powered by digital menu boards, Yum! Brands’ propriety Poseidon POS system and the next generation of the Taco Bell Rewards loyalty program which the brand is excited to integrate later this year. The Voice AI technology uses a holistic approach that leverages feedback, data, and insights to enhance consumer relationships with an emphasis on intuitive, user-friendly technology to create a seamless ordering experience.

“Innovation is ingrained in our DNA at Taco Bell, and we view Voice AI as a means to improve the team member and consumer experiences,” said Dane Mathews, Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Taco Bell. “Tapping into AI gives us the ability to ease team members’ workloads, freeing them to focus on front-of-house hospitality. It also enables us to unlock new and meaningful ways to engage with our customers.”

In addition to the expansion of Voice AI across Taco Bell U.S. drive-thrus, five KFC restaurants in Australia are simultaneously testing Voice AI technology in drive-thrus, which is also being positively received by consumers and restaurant team members.

Yum! Brands has been both acquiring and creating technologies, and in select cases working with leading partners, powered by its global scale that enable and accelerate easy experiences, operations and insights for consumers and team members while driving profitable growth for franchisees. The Company has made massive strides in scaling its proprietary digital and AI-driven ecosystem in partnership with franchisees, equipping them with distinctive capabilities to differentiate its brands.

2023 marked a significant milestone for successfully scaling Yum! Brands' suite of proprietary technologies globally. In 2023, Yum!’s digital sales approached $30 billion with over 50% of its sales coming through digital channels as of the first quarter of 2024. The Company’s digital business has more than doubled since 2019, demonstrating the power of its digital ecosystem and capabilities to meet changing consumer needs around the world.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, and its subsidiaries franchise or operate a system of over 59,000 restaurants in more than 155 countries and territories under the company’s concepts – KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and the Habit Burger Grill. The Company's KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut brands are global leaders of the chicken, Mexican-style food, and pizza categories, respectively. The Habit Burger Grill is a fast casual restaurant concept specializing in made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches and more. In 2024, Yum! was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America for the eighth consecutive year, and the company was recognized among TIME Magazine’s list of Best Companies for Future Leaders, Newsweek’s list of America’s Most Responsible Companies and USA Today’s America’s Climate Leaders. Yum! also received widespread recognition in 2023, including being listed on the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index; and Forbes’ list of America’s Best Employers for Diversity. In addition, KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut brands were ranked in the top five of Entrepreneur’s Top Global Franchises Ranking for 2023.

About Taco Bell Corp.

For more than 61 years, Bell has brought innovative, craveable Mexican-inspired food to the masses, and was recently recognized as one of Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies, one of TIME’s Most Influential Companies, and Nation’s Restaurant News’ Brand Icon. For more information about Taco Bell, visit our website at www.TacoBell.com , our Newsroom at www.TacoBell.com/news , or check out www.TacoBell.com/popular-links . You can also stay up to date on all things Taco Bell by following us on LinkedIn , TikTok , X (formerly Twitter), Instagram , Facebook and by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

Members of the media are invited to contact:

Rick Maynard, Yum! Brands, at 502-874-8200 or [email protected]

Natalie Hochberg, Taco Bell, 949-863-3915 or [email protected]

Source: Yum! Brands, Inc.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2024 07 > Yum! Brands expands rollout of Voice AI for faster, more accurate drive-thru orders to more Taco Bell locations
David Chien, 2024-08- 1 (Update: 2024-08-15)