Not even our pizza is safe from the artificial intelligence of the future. In Asia, Pizza Hut has partnered with Mastercard to replace their employees with robotic waiters.
2 The robot named Pepper was launched about a year ago to the public, selling out in about a minute. The adorable machine can communicate and empathize with voice and touch, and now it can take your order with a digital tablet on its chest. 3 GIFSince Pizza Hut is working with Mastercard on this venture, customers must have a MasterPass account on their phones to interact with the little guy. Then they can pair their account by tapping the Pepper icon on their phones or scanning a QR code on the robot’s tablet. From there the robot will help the customers order and pay for food. 4 Pizza Hut executives hope Pepper makes things easier and more efficient when it comes to customizing an order. “We are excited to welcome Pepper to the Pizza Hut family,” said Vipul Chawla, managing director of Pizza Hut Restaurants Asia. “Core to our digital transformation journey is the ability to make it easier for customers to engage, connect and transact with Pizza Hut. With an order-and-payment-enabled Pepper, customers can now come to expect personalized ordering at our stores, reduce wait time for carryout, and have a fun, frictionless user experience.” 5 Not only do other companies like Wendy’s, McDonalds and Panera already have digital kiosks for ordering, another pizza giant Domino’s has utilized robots to actually deliver pizza to homes in New Zealand.
“We are excited to welcome Pepper to the Pizza Hut family,” said Vipul Chawla, managing director of Pizza Hut Restaurants Asia. “Core to our digital transformation journey is the ability to make it easier for customers to engage, connect and transact with Pizza Hut. With an order-and-payment-enabled Pepper, customers can now come to expect personalized ordering at our stores, reduce wait time for carryout, and have a fun, frictionless user experience.”
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Robots haven’t been employed in US restaurants yet, but if this proves effective it might not be long before the practice becomes mainstream. So, if you like fast food, you better learn to like robots as well. Soon they could go hand-in-hand.
TheChive.com