Answering the Call: Voice AI Phone Ordering Optimizes QSR Operations

The desire to simply tell our devices what to do is actually decades old. The first known work in that area was conducted in 1952, when a trio of Bell Labs researchers built a system named “Audrey” that could recognize single-digit numbers. A decade later, IBM’s “Shoebox,” which could understand 16 words, debuted at the World’s Fair.

The technology improved over the next several decades, while interactive voice response (IVR) emerged in the late 20th century. IVR-enabled businesses to build phone tree menus that routed customers’ calls to the right places, and it is still often used today, sometimes in conjunction with automatic speech recognition (ASR).

Voice recognition combined with artificial intelligence began to gain traction with the release of Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa in 2011 and 2014, respectively, enabling consumers to tap into the power of Voice AI for personal use.

That familiarity helped fuel the development of Voice AI for customer service purposes, with venture capital investment in Voice AI start-ups leaping from $315 million in 2022 to $2.1 billion just two years later, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Krishna K. Gupta, co-founder and Chairman of Presto, said recently: “Every American industry will witness end-to-end, connected automation, and restaurants are no different. We want to build AI to SAY, SEE, and DO in a unified and magical manner to enable restaurant groups and their employees to take maximal advantage of the AI revolution. Voice AI is the first, critical key to unlocking this vision.”

Filling a Critical Gap in Understaffed Restaurants

In the QSR (Quick Serve Restaurant) industry, Voice AI has become increasingly important because of chronic staffing problems, among other sources of stress. Labor shortages have resulted in “48% of operators reducing their hours of operation and 32% of them closing on days they normally would have been open,” according to QSR Magazine.

That same article also notes: “From 2019 to 2022, the average restaurant with annual sales of $900,000, according to National Restaurant Association data, watched its labor costs jump 18.3 percent from $297,000 to $351,351. Food costs rose 21.8 percent from $297,00 to $361,746.” Those numbers are putting a lot of pressure on QSRs to do more, often with a lower level of staffing than they would like.

Hungry consumers are paying attention to those struggles. Square’s “Future of Restaurants 2025” report points out that 74% of diners “want to see automation in at least one area when a restaurant isn’t fully staffed to fill critical gaps.” In other words, let computers take over when there aren’t enough humans to do the job.

The “let computers do it” trend has led to many QSRs adopting Voice AI in their drive-thrus, and now that trend has extended to phone ordering. It’s easy to see how rolling out a Voice AI phone ordering solution can also help alleviate staffing shortages.

Before Getting Started

If you’re considering adding AI-native phone ordering at your locations, here are some factors to consider before doing so:

• Integration Capabilities: As we explained in a recent blog post, QSR tech stacks have become increasingly complex, with up to 40 different systems involved in the process. It’s essential to ensure the solution you choose can seamlessly integrate with your point-of-sale (POS) system, kitchen display system (KDS), and any other technologies crucial to your phone orders.
  
• Customization and Flexibility: Just like Voice AI in the drive-thru needs to accommodate menu changes, promotions, and other specific business needs, AI-native phone ordering must be able to handle the same amount of flexibility. It’s not a good customer experience if phone ordering isn’t exactly the same as placing an order in the drive-thru or at the counter.
  
• Support and Maintenance: Your solution provider should offer consistent customer support and regularly roll out software updates to continuously improve system performance. Don’t go with a provider who will practically give away the software just to get it installed and then go missing when you need help.
  
• Data Security: As with every other aspect of your QSR business, it’s important to protect your customers’ data and make sure you’re complying with all local, state, and federal regulations.
  

Choosing Your Voice AI Phone Ordering Partner 

QSR owners should look for a technology partner with enterprise-grade, automated solutions that have already been proven across well-known brands. They should avoid partners that only offer AI phone ordering solutions, so the same voice represents their brand on the phone, in the drive-thru, and anywhere else they might want to implement the technology.

Presto’s extensive restaurant technology experience sets the foundation to provide an excellent solution with its recently released AI-native phone ordering software:

• First-ring pick-up, ensuring that impatient customers won’t hang up and call another restaurant.
  
• The ability to handle menu navigation, item selection, and customization. All orders are injected into the POS in a single, complete transaction.
  
• Secure payment collection, in compliance with PCI and PII standards.
  
• Call-forwarding to restaurant staff when needed, much like the ability for staff to intervene with Presto’s drive-thru Voice AI if there’s a problem.
  
• The ability to respond to basic questions, such as days and hours of operation, and the restaurant’s location.
• A consistent voice representing the brand in the drive-thru and on the phone.

“Adding AI-native phone ordering is exciting as it will allow us to offer a broader spectrum of Voice AI solutions to our customers,” said Gee Lefevre, CEO of Presto. “Given our deep enterprise restaurant experience, our customers are asking us to be their one-stop shop for Voice AI. Phone ordering adds tangible value to them.”