Wendy's Uses "Wendy's FreshAI" AI Chatbot For Drive-Thru Orders

Wendy's will use AI chatbots to serve drive-thru orders. (photo: twitter @PAPaPatriot14)

JAKARTA - Wendy's, a fast food restaurant, will use an artificial intelligence chatbot (AI) called "Wendy's FreshhaI" to receive orders from customers who use drive-thru services.

The collaboration between the fast food restaurant and Google Cloud aims to create a chatbot that can provide a revolutionary order experience in the fast food industry.

According to Google Cloud's announcement on May 9, more than three-quarters of Wendy's subscribers prefer to order via drive-thru.

@Wendys joining the ever growing list of companies systemically eradicating jobs. Guess high school kids can just suck it for part time jobs to give them a start in the world. Enjoy your AI and bankruptcy. I'm not talking to a computer. #DeathofFastFood pic.twitter.com/BbggeblhOz

— -PAPatriot🐾--- (@PAPatriot14) May 10, 2023

@Wendys joining the ever growing list of companies systemically eradicated jobs. Guess high school kids can just suck it for part time jobs to give them a start in the world. Enjoy your AI and bankruptcy. I'm not talking to a computer. #DeathofFastFood pic.twitter.com/BbggeblhOz

AI chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT darei use natural language processing to understand what people say, then use machine learning algorithms to generate responses.

CEO and President Wendy's, Todd Penegor, said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal that the chatbot will be highly interactive and customers will not be aware that they are talking to bots, not employees.

However, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian admits that using chatbots to serve customers via drive-thru has its own challenges. One of them is the variety of orders from customers, where they may use different menu names or have special requests. In addition, chatbots must also be able to filter background noise.

Before being expanded to many restaurants, Wendy's FreshAI will go through a trial phase at one of Wendy's restaurants in Columbus, Ohio in June. Customers still have the option to talk to human employees.

However, not everyone is impressed by this announcement, some argue that this is the company's latest way of "stating out work systematically" and highlighting underprivileged teens and people will be the most affected by the change.

While AI has great potential to increase efficiency, productivity, and reduce costs in various industries, its rapid growth has also raised concerns about a massive drop in employment as tasks previously carried out by humans turn to AI.