The company that owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC has announced it is teaming up with tech giant, Nvidia, to invest in AI.
Yum Brands is planning on rolling out “AI order-taking, Nvidia-powered computer vision and AI-generated restaurant performance assessments”, according to CNBC News. Customers will start seeing changes soon as the company rolls out AI tech across its more than 500 restaurants. It has already started piloting the tech in some locations, say news reports.
The team up is the first for Nvidia in the restaurant business. The news channel adds that the F&B company will own the IP from the partnership, which means that it can customise the technology for its business.
As the National Restaurant Association in the US writes, AI is already having an impact on the restaurant sector. From ordering to predictive analytics “to forecast customer demand, optimize inventory management, and improve menu planning”, it is set to streamline some tasks dramatically.
According to Restaurant Business magazine, some of the world’s largest restaurant chains have been deploying AI technology for years. Chipotle is a pioneer, and has even created its own venture capital fund for investing in new technology.
The company has used AI in everything from monitoring inventory to website interactions for customers. The magazine adds that it has also started testing an AI-powered robots called Chippy to make its tortilla chips.
IHOP has a team-up with Google for AI while Starbucks has its own AI initiative called Deep Brew. As AI becomes integrated into every business sector, the tech pioneers will be pushing for collaborations. It will be down to each restaurant chain to seek partnerships that allow them to iterate fast but also to create solutions that best fit their business model.
