Technology
White Castle's drive-thru AI: NOT 'Mr. Roboto'
Can artificial intelligence really help a QSR extend a sense of hospitality in the drive-thru? White Castle leadership certainly thinks so, as evidenced by its latest techy tests at several Midwest locations of the privately held burger chain.
September 24, 2020 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group
Although it houses itself in a gleaming white version of a medieval castle, White Castle keeps pushing the technology envelope.
Two months after saying it would test a fast food-cooking robot-on-a-rail called Flippy, the chain is getting ready to test technology to put drive-thru customers in the AI-interaction zone. The project involves a partnership with Mastercard and SoundHound's voice assistant that will take customers' orders and process their payments via a drive-up interface.
"We'll test it in a handful of Castles and then from there, we'll take the learning and fine tune things, and our hope is that this would be in lots of places soon, but we're going to take it one step at a time," White Castle Vice President Jamie Richardson said during an interview with QSRWeb.
Read on to learn how and why the brand in deploying the technology.
Q: Can you give me a description of what this drive-thru technology actually is and why White Castle sought to try it out?
A: It is our MasterCard AI drive-thru and what it will do is it will anticipate what customers will order, which is -- if you think about it -- what we (White Castle) have been doing for 99 years. It's really about having a heart for hospitality.
Q: How does it anticipate the customer's order specifically?
A: It will do that in one or two ways. If we don't know who the person is as they approach to order, it will just kind of look at what time of day it is and what typically -- for the (local) weather and all kinds of different variables – might be something top-of-mind that someone might want to order.
The really incredible and empowering partnership is going to be when (a customer) opts-in their license plate number with us. Then, we'll be able to entertain -- based on their prior orders -- what they might want to order that day.
"In the very beginning, in 1921, we certainly didn't have the register systems, we have today. As those came along, they made it a little bit easier. And then, in the beginning, we didn't have the drive-thrus, but adding that seemed like it was a good idea. So we see this as just being tuned in to what's next to help us take better care of our customers' needs and do it in a way that allows them to have the hospitable experience they're looking for."
-White Castle Vice President Jamie Richardson
Q: So it is an opt-in situation because there's been some discussion online and elsewhere that, at times, such drive-thru license plate detection, might verge on a little creepy for some people. But this is voluntary?
A:Absolutely voluntary, and then, even in those instances where someone comes up to the drive-thru menu board and they prefer to talk to one of the team members, they can easily opt to talk to a team member rather than to have the interaction with artificial intelligence. So, you know, for us, it's really about a learning experience for the customer's needs and desires.
But the thing that we're most excited about is that, over the years all of us in the restaurant world have always tried to understand how we can know what someone wants to experience "today." This gives us that opportunity to listen better.
Q: What customer communication platform is all of this made possible through at White Castle?
A: It's through the app. We have our Craver Nation loyalty program, so Craver Nation members -- if they choose to -- just input their number and then when they come to visit us, we'll be able to reference their prior visits and use that as a guide in terms of asking them what they might be most interested in today.
Q: Would this be a tool to promote LTOs and other specials?
A: I think so. I think for us, it's about how we give more tools to the people who are working in the restaurant because there are so many different moving parts in all this. It's always art and science.
We've got the art part down pretty well, in terms of having incredible (employees) who come to White Castle and want to stay — they have that heart for hospitality. These tools we provide help empower them to make their abilities even better. This gives us the chance to better anticipate what customers need and give it to them in a more friendly way.
Q: But, there is a lot of fear around these types of technology and their potential to put people out of work? How would you respond to those questions?
A:Yeah, I mean, gosh, we've been around for 99 years, and every time we've been able to invest in a new tool, it's made it easier for team members to meet our customers needs.
In the very beginning, in 1921, we certainly didn't have the register systems, we have today. As those came along, they made it a little bit easier. And then, in the beginning, we didn't have the drive-thrus, but adding that seemed like it was a good idea.
So we see this as just being tuned in to what's next to help us take better care of our customers' needs and do it in a way that allows them to have the hospitable experience they're looking for.
Q: Does this AI interface have a voice of any kind?
A: Yeah, the interface will have a voice and it will be a welcoming voice and friendly and just as if you're talking to one of our team members. In fact, part of the partnership is with a group called SoundHound and they've just done really great work in terms of the voice and listening technology.
We think we can use this all to make much better overall experience for our customers at the drive-thru and we're eager to learn what they think about it.
Q: Is there a steep learning curve for store personnel?
A: There's going to be learning with anything new. Just like with the reference to when we added new registers. … I mean, anything we do, we want our teams to feel very familiar and comfortable with because we know that if they're aware of how it all works, and if they have a view of how this is going to help the team, that means it's going to work a lot better. …
But we'll test it in a handful of Castles and then from there, we'll take the learning and fine tune things and our hope is that this would be in lots of places soon, but we're going to take it one step at a time.
Q: One last, relatively offbeat question, how does the brand actually select the voice for its drive-thru AI? Do you have a number of potential choices? And if so, what kind of speaking voice does "the Castle" have?
A: There are options, and I would say it this way, that we want to make sure that the voice of White Castle is a friendly voice that you'd want to have a good conversation with. That's what we're aiming for, you know — not Mr. Roboto in like that Styx song.
Q: Might be dating yourself there a bit?
A: I know.
About S.A. Whitehead
Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.
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