Dive Brief:
- Presto has partnered with Taco John’s and restaurant POS platform Qu to add Presto Voice in select restaurants as part of a drive-thru pilot, the tech company said in a Monday press release.
- The initial pilot began in a Minnesota location in April and is now being rolled out to a second unit in Wyoming, which is slated to go live before August.
- Taco John’s, which has roughly 400 restaurants, plans to expand the technology to its franchised locations this year following the completion of the pilot phase.
Dive Insight:
As part of its partnership with Taco John’s, Presto integrated its voice AI with Qu’s POS and kitchen production technologies, allowing automated voice orders to be managed end to end with Taco John’s existing tech stack.
“Preliminary test results have been very positive,” said Ryan Baune, vice president for technology at Taco John’s. “We are seeing improvements around speed of service, order accuracy, and an increase in average ticket size primarily driven by upsell attachment.”
The technology is also helping improve the guest experience as staff don’t need to interrupt the guest at the pickup window to take an order for another guest, said Steve Smyth, director of restaurant technology at Taco John’s.
Taco John’s has been growing its tech stack this year, partnering with Flybuy, a location-based ordering system, in May. Flybuy’s geolocation technology predicts how much time a kitchen needs to prepare an order before the customer arrives.
Presto has been focusing solely on its voice artificial intelligence platform since spinning off its tablet business earlier this year. The company is also testing a voice AI that doesn’t need humans to help complete orders. It is piloting Spanish-speaking voice AI at a location in Southern California, as well. The company partners with Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s and Checkers and Rally’s.
