Wendy's will start using Chatbots to take orders and underground robots to deliver to customers

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence has put lots of jobs at risk and now fast food giant Wendy's has announced it will use chatbots to take customer orders and use robots to deliver them.

It is working with hyperlogistics company Pipedream to test an underground autonomous robot system and the company has boasted users won't know they are interacting with AI. 

The pilot will deliver digital food orders from the kitchen to designated parking spots within seconds and is part of plans for faster and more convenient pick-up experiences.

Wendy's plans to launch the new system in an existing restaurant later this year and it will use Google Cloud's AI technology to speak with customers and take their orders.

Autonomous robots will carry the food through the underground delivery system to the car-side pickup portals where people have ordered from so there will be no human interaction. 

Wendy's has announced it will use chatbots to take customer orders and use robots to deliver them

The pilot will deliver digital food orders from the kitchen to designated parking spots within seconds and is part of plans for faster pick-up experiences 

Texas-based Pipedream was founded in 2021 and it uses a fully electric underground system to help companies meet their delivery needs. 

It also uses this system to serve customers and eliminate congestion while improving safety and easing the burden on employees. 

The company will connect the Wendy's kitchen to the portal outside of the restaurant where the robots will travel through to deliver the orders. 

Customers will not have to leave their cars because each designated spot will have a pick up portal. 

The chatbot will able to engage in conversation with customers, answer commonly asked questions and understand how to take modified or special orders. 

When delivery drivers and others picking up their orders arrive, they can pull up into the parking spaces next to the new system and speak to an employee via a speaker to verify their identity.

The food will then be delivered to the portal and they can grab it through the car window.

The system is designed to support employees by 'streamlining digital order pick-up points.'

Earlier this month Wendy’s CEO Todd Penegor told Yahoo Finance Live: 'You won’t even know that it’s AI taking your order, but you’ll be talking to the voice of Wendy’s.'

'We know that serving orders quickly and accurately leads to increased customer satisfaction,' said Deepak Ajmani, the company's chief operations officer.

'Pipedream's Instant Pickup system has the potential to unlock greater mobile order speed of service and accuracy, enabling us to consistently deliver hot and fresh Wendy's products to our fans.' 

Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, praised the partnership and said it 'will set a new standard for great drive-thru experiences for the quick-service industry'. 

Wendy's is still deciding where the first location will be and is looking at chains along the East Coast where there are the highest amount of digital orders.

Installation of the new technology will not take any longer than two weeks, according to a spokesman.   

The system is designed to support employees by 'streamlining digital order pick-up points'

Wendy's is still deciding where the first location will be and is looking at chains along the East Coast where there are the highest amount of digital orders

The use of AI has already benefitted customer service employees, outside the fast food industry, according to a study released last month.

The technology is said to have boosted productivity and had a positive impact on the way customers treat workers. 

The National Bureau of Economic Research looked at 'the impact of generative AI when deployed at scale in the workplace.'

More than 5,000 customer support agents at a Fortune 500 software firm were examined and the productivity of employees rose by 13.8% when using AI.

Workers were able to respond to customers faster, more successfully resolve problems and answer more queries with the technology.

The Wendy's pilot comes after Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. introduced their own AI drive-thru system called 'Tori'.

It was implemented to speed up the ordering process for customers and could end up boosting the companies. 

While Panera and Popeyes announced last year they were partnering with OpenCity, who were behind the Tori system, to test AI-powered technology for drive-thru orders. 

And McDonald's unveiled a fully-automated restaurant in Texas last year where robots take orders and deliver them.