Podcast Summary
Revolutionizing Food Ordering with AI: Kia's AI technology is transforming food ordering by making it more convenient, personalized, and efficient, particularly during labor shortages in the restaurant industry.
AI is transforming the way we interact with businesses, particularly in the restaurant industry, by making voice interactions more human and efficient. Kia, a company founded by Adam Hamad, is leading this change by using AI and voice technology to process orders for restaurants. The idea was sparked by the fact that a large portion of orders are placed via voice, and there hasn't been effective technology to digitize these experiences until now. With the world facing a labor shortage, particularly in the restaurant industry, Kia's AI solution is not only digitizing phone orders but also serving as an extension of the brand, providing a more personalized experience for customers. This not only solves the problem of processing orders during labor shortages but also caters to the majority of customers who prefer using their voice to place orders. In essence, Kia's AI technology is revolutionizing the way we order food by making it more convenient, personalized, and efficient.
Improve restaurant phone experience with voice AI: Voice AI for restaurants enhances customer experience and streamlines operations by handling common inquiries and taking orders over the phone, saving time and reducing frustration for customers and staff.
Implementing a voice AI solution for restaurants can significantly improve customer experience and streamline operations by handling common inquiries and taking orders over the phone, freeing up staff to focus on other tasks. This technology allows for a more personal and efficient interaction compared to traditional online or mobile ordering processes, which can save customers time and reduce frustration. While online ordering apps have become popular, a significant percentage of customers still call restaurants to place orders or gather information. For some restaurants, phone orders account for a majority of their revenue. By integrating voice AI, restaurants can offer a first-class phone experience and reduce the number of calls they receive, making it a valuable investment for businesses in the industry.
Partnering with providers to enhance AI voice recognition: Using a mix of proprietary and third-party tech for accurate voice recognition, continuously collaborating with the industry to improve understanding of diverse menu items and context.
While AI technology in voice recognition and understanding has made significant strides, making it more human-like and able to handle accents and diverse vocabularies is still a challenge. The speaker mentions that they've partnered with various providers to improve this, and the accuracy is impressive, but the industry is constantly evolving. Their approach is to use a combination of their own proprietary tech and the best of breed technologies from other companies to ensure high-quality models that can understand menu items and context, even with oddly named menu items. They work with numerous restaurants and continue to advance the technology by collaborating with the industry.
AI for Mid-Sized Restaurants: A Virtual Helping Hand: AI helps mid-sized restaurants optimize labor and food costs by managing orders efficiently, understanding menus, and augmenting workforce. Despite challenges, Kia finds success in this area and plans to expand internationally.
Kia is a company that specializes in implementing AI solutions for mid-sized restaurant chains in the US, primarily focusing on the voice AI aspect. These restaurants often lack significant tech resources and are looking for a "virtual helping hand" to manage their orders more efficiently. The main reasons restaurants are adopting AI are due to labor and food cost optimization, with many jurisdictions mandating higher minimum wages. Kia's AI system helps restaurants by taking orders, understanding menus, and augmenting the workforce, enabling employees to take on multiple roles and receive better wages. A significant challenge when implementing AI in restaurants is dealing with the menu's variations and nuances from one restaurant to another. Despite these challenges, Kia has found success in this area and is also planning to expand internationally.
AI technology in restaurants standardizes operations and handles unique requests: AI technology in restaurants improves guest experience and increases profitability by understanding and fulfilling unique orders through extensive training and learning from past calls
AI technology, when implemented effectively in the restaurant industry, can help standardize operations and increase profitability by handling unique customer requests that are not on the menu. This is achieved through extensive training and learning from past calls, allowing the AI to understand and process thousands of different ways orders can be placed over the phone. The training phase, which used to take months, is now within the weeks' territory due to efficiency improvements. However, the unstructured nature of voice data makes the learning process complex, as customers can place orders in various ways. For instance, a customer might order a large cheese pizza with mushrooms and olives, and also request a garlic cheesy bread and a 2-liter Coke. The AI must learn to understand and fulfill these requests accurately. Overall, AI technology in the restaurant industry can provide a better guest experience by handling unique requests and standardizing operations, leading to increased profitability.
Leveraging AI for high-quality customer orders: AI processes complex contexts to ensure accurate orders, enhances human-like interaction, prioritizes data privacy, and streamlines the ordering process while maintaining data security and privacy.
Creating high-quality AI for handling customer orders involves understanding complex contexts and learning from them. This is crucial for ensuring accurate order processing and providing a human-like interaction. However, there are limitations, and human intervention may be necessary when speech recognition fails or when dealing with sensitive data. Data privacy is a significant concern in the AI sphere, and companies must prioritize it to build trust with their customers. The use of AI for processing payments adds to the security and convenience of the ordering process, but it's essential to maintain strict security protocols to protect customer data. Ultimately, the goal is to empower restaurants to maintain their relationships with their customers and provide a personalized brand experience. The AI acts as a tool to streamline the ordering process while ensuring data security and privacy.
AI-powered phone orders and payments: Restaurants use AI to securely process phone orders and payments, providing real-time updates and saving customers money on delivery fees.
Restaurants are implementing AI technology to process credit card payments over the phone, making transactions more secure while offering improved customer service. Instead of writing down credit card numbers, customers can verbally provide their information or type it in, and the AI processes the payment for the restaurant without storing the number. Customer reactions are mixed, with some initially skeptical due to past experiences with IVR systems. However, as they interact with the intelligent AI, they become more trusting and the majority of calls are completed successfully. The AI can also provide real-time updates on order status and availability, as well as offer alternatives if an item is out of stock. Additionally, restaurants are now offering the option to order food over the phone and have it delivered, allowing customers to save money by avoiding delivery fees. This new technology not only enhances security but also offers convenience and cost savings for customers.
AI in Restaurant Industry: Handling Complex Orders and Situations: AI technology in restaurants can process last-minute changes, understand multiple voices, and mimic human conversation, potentially saving labor costs and improving efficiency.
AI technology in the restaurant industry is progressing in a way that surprises and impresses, handling complex orders and situations with ease. This includes handling last-minute changes, understanding multiple voices, and even mimicking human conversation. Examples include the ability to process a customer changing their mind multiple times about a sandwich and soup combo, or a husband and wife debating orders from different rooms. While some restaurant owners are excited about the future and the potential cost savings, others are more hesitant and require human intervention for more complex situations. Overall, the use of AI in the restaurant industry is still in its early stages, and it will take time for skepticism to turn into acceptance. However, as labor and food costs continue to rise, early adoption could be a key advantage for businesses looking to stay competitive.
Challenges in the Restaurant Industry: Answering Phones and Adapting to Automation: The restaurant industry faces challenges in answering phones due to understaffing, which can lead to lost revenue. Automation, including fully autonomous restaurants, may be the future to address these challenges and reduce labor costs.
The restaurant industry is facing significant challenges, particularly in answering phones due to understaffing, leading to lost revenue. This issue is more pronounced in restaurants with longer preparation times and in areas with increasing labor and food costs. The future of the industry may involve more automation, with fully autonomous restaurants becoming a possibility within the next decade or so. Currently, some restaurants have already begun implementing automated systems for tasks like cooking and dishwashing. The pandemic has accelerated these trends, but the extent of the impact varies depending on the market. Ultimately, restaurants need to consider how to adapt and generate more revenue in the face of rising costs and dwindling margins.
Creating a voice AI solution for businesses to enhance guest experiences and operational efficiency: Kia's voice AI solution aims to onboard customers faster, maintain consistency, and scale operations for businesses in the restaurant industry, while ensuring technology enhances, rather than replaces, human learning.
Adam and his team at Kia are working to create a voice AI solution for various businesses, starting with restaurants, to improve guest experiences and operational efficiency. They aim to onboard customers faster, maintain consistency, and scale both personnel and operations to meet growing demands. Adam believes that AI can be a net positive for education due to the wealth of information available online and the potential for faster learning. However, he acknowledges that there are valid concerns, and the responsibility lies in ensuring that technology enhances, rather than replaces, human learning. The team at Kia is focused on creating value for businesses by improving guest experiences and operational efficiency, and they are backed by reputable investors to support their growth.
Exploring self-directed learning with AI: AI could revolutionize education by enabling individuals to experiment with various interests and careers, leading to a more diverse and creative workforce. Companies like Kia value skills and experiences over degrees.
The future of education may shift towards self-directed learning using generative AI technologies, allowing individuals to explore various interests and experiment with different careers before fully committing. This approach could lead to a more creative and diverse workforce. Adam from Kia shared that his company does not require a college degree for recruitment, valuing skills and knowledge gained through various experiences instead. In a lighter note, Adam and the host debated whether pineapple belongs on pizza, with both agreeing it does not. Overall, the conversation highlighted the potential of AI in education and the importance of curiosity and exploration in personal and professional growth.