ORLANDO, Fla. — Wendy’s and its AI-assisted drive-thru, “FreshAI,” are looking to help Spanish-speaking customers by adding Spanish-speaking capabilities in 28 restaurants in Florida and Ohio.
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Wendy’s main goal for this pilot program is to enhance the crew and customer experience, focusing on quality and meeting its diverse customer base where and how they want to order their food.
“We’ve embraced generative AI at the drive-thru to assist Wendy’s crew members while evolving the technology to meet our customers’ needs,” says Matt Spessard, Chief Information Officer at Wendy’s. “I’m energized by our partnership with Google Cloud to continue pushing this technology forward with new Spanish language capabilities designed to expand access, reshaping the drive-thru experience for our Wendy’s fans today and in the future.”
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Wendy’s FreshAI, uses Google Cloud’s large language model (LLM). Customers can start their order by simply saying “Spanish” or “Español” into the microphone. The system then handles the order exclusively in Spanish, allowing crew members to concentrate on food preparation and customer interaction at the pick-up window.
According to the 2022 Census, 22.2% of Floridians speak Spanish in their household.
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