Drive-Thru AI Has Matured to a Scalable Technology
Many QSR executives and franchise owners have been understandably reluctant to commit to a drive-thru AI Order solution. AI technology is still relatively new, after all. Questions such as “Can this solution scale?” and “Is AI technology mature enough that we can trust it with our guest experience?”
Here’s the good news: Recent developments in the industry demonstrate clearly that the answer to both of these questions is yes. And if your restaurants would benefit from the automation at scale that a Voice AI solution can deliver, we believe this news could be relevant to you.
What 100 Million Yearly Orders Means for the Industry
Hi Auto and our QSR customers recently celebrated a new milestone: surpassing 100 million drive-thru orders per year, for the QSR owners and operators employing our Voice AI across nearly 1,000 stores worldwide.
The significance of this operation’s scale has industry-wide implications, we believe, because it demonstrates restaurants can now deploy AI Order Taking technology across their network while maintaining extremely high accuracy and completion rates at every location. Hi Auto’s Voice AI consistently handles our customers’ 100 million yearly orders with 93% completion and 96% accuracy.
If you’ve been interested in supporting your restaurants’ drive-thrus with Voice AI but worry that scaling up could undermine consistency, quality, or the guest experience, you now have real-world evidence that you don’t need to sacrifice any of those benefits for an organization-wide Voice AI implementation.
So, how did we do it? How have Hi Auto and our QSR customers reached a consistent 100 million yearly orders without suffering massive quality problems?
The Key Ingredient is Focus. Hi Auto is Purpose-Built for Drive-Thrus.
Unlike other Voice AI technologies, Hi Auto’s solution is specifically and exclusively trained for the drive-thru use case. That’s our company’s entire focus: to help QSR owners and operators improve efficiencies, increase check size, save money, grow their businesses, and consistently give their guests a world-class drive-thru experience.
So, are we delivering on those promises? Our new 100-million-yearly-order achievement wouldn’t have happened if our QSR customers were facing accuracy challenges similar to those experienced by the franchise owners in the McDonald’s test. What truly matters in an operation of such scale is whether the Voice AI Order Taker is contributing to these restaurants’ efficiencies, sales, and guest experience.
And to answer those questions, here’s what our customers have said about their experience with Hi Auto.
High Accuracy
“Hi Auto has been about 95% to 97% accurate with all of our orders, which is a great improvement for us.” — Mike Rosania, Rally’s franchise owner
“I’ve been extremely impressed with Hi Auto, how accurate it is in picking up even dialects and slang.” — Jason Amell, executive for Michigan’s largest Checkers & Rally’s franchise firm
“In my opinion, [Hi Auto] is a best-in-class product which just handles that order-taking process for the drive-thru consistently with very high accuracy metrics.” — Ryan Weaver, CEO of Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken
Sales Increases
“We’ve seen a healthy increase in average check as well, because [BoLinda, Bojangles’ custom-branded Voice AI] is one of the best salespeople on the team with order taking or suggestive selling.” — Jose Armario, CEO of Bojangles
“With Hi Auto, they are 100% consistent. You will never miss a beat on the upselling.” — Alisha Burton, GM of Rally’s location
Labor Savings
“The technology pays for itself with the labor hours we are able to take out of our budget every week… and that’s before we even add in the sales lifts. — Ryan Weaver, CEO of Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken
“We’ve taken employees that were doing three tasks before, order taking, fulfilling, and cashiering, and taken 33% of the work of the tasks away, but probably 50% of the work.” — Richard Del Valle, CIO and COS at Bojangles.
Improving the Guest Experience
Of course, even if you can solve the accuracy and completion-rate challenges, you still need to know that your drive-thru AI Order Taker will deliver a positive guest experience that’s consistent with your brand. And here, again, Hi Auto’s solution has proven itself at scale.
Here’s how Jose Armario, CEO of Bojangles, describes the drive-thru experience he’s been able to create for guests after customizing Hi Auto’s Voice AI as BoLinda: “The beauty of this technology is that we haven’t missed a beat when it comes down to the ability for this technology to interact as friendly, as efficiently, as a human.”
Smooth Scaling
All of which brings us back to the scalability question. Hi Auto’s Voice AI solution gives our QSR customers so much confidence that the brand owners and executives have in every case rolled it out to more of their drive-thrus. That’s how we’ve reached 100 million yearly orders.
As Jose Armario himself said, “By the end of the year (2025), over 50% of all 850+ Bojangles locations will have our BoLinda AI system at the drive-thru, thanks to Hi Auto.”
No Y-Lanes: Partner with an AI Order Taker That Stays in its Lane
If you’ve begun researching Voice AI options for your restaurants, you’ve probably found many vendors in this space. And some of them have indeed developed smart AI technologies.
But there’s a reason Hi Auto is deployed at more locations around the world than any of our competitors. It’s the same reason we maintain the industry’s highest completion and accuracy rates. It’s also the same reason we’re the only AI Order Taker to reach 100 million orders per year. The answer is simple: We never leave the drive-thru and know it by heart, from speed, to guest service to labor. We focus on delivering our customers the highest quality product across every aspect of our service.
When you narrow your vendor search based on proven quality at scale, and you speak with actual customers, we’re confident you’ll find that Hi Auto is the best voice AI partner.
Or we could just skip that part and meet now.
Book a Consult
Let’s talk about your stores, operations, and the specific parameters and business objectives we can help you improve with Hi Auto, just like we’re doing for corporate QSRs and franchisees around the world.
