"Wendy’s to Test AI Chatbot at Ohio Drive-Thru"

Wendy's is teaming up with Google to add artificial intelligence to its menu.  Wendy's plans to launch an AI chatbot to automate its restaurants' drive-thrus.  Dubbed FreshAI, the AI tech will hold limited conversations with customers, handling their food orders and answering frequently asked questions.  The bot will integrate with the store's hardware and cash register systems for processing orders.  The burger chain, founded in Columbus in 1969, is using Google to power FreshAI with its existing cloud-based generative AI and large language models.  The language models include the restaurant's menu as data and will allow the drive-thru chatbot to understand complex, customized, or indirect orders, as well as discern between a customer's voice and background noise.  Wendy's will test FreshAI at one of its corporate-owned Columbus storefronts in June, though it did not specify which one.  It also did not mention if the chatbot would ultimately result in fewer workers at restaurant locations.  Google had first partnered with Wendy's in 2021 when the two companies announced they would work together to improve customer experiences with analytics and machine learning.

The Hill reports: "Wendy’s to Test AI Chatbot at Ohio Drive-Thru"