Panera Tests New AI Technology for Bakery-Cafe Drive-Thru Lanes
Panera guests in Webster and Greece, NY, will be among the first to experience AI Ordering in Drive-Thru.
Panera Bread, a popular chain of bakery cafes, has begun testing AI technology in drive-thru lanes to improve the guest experience. With support from OpenCity, select Panera locations in the greater Rochester, NY area have implemented OpenCity’s proprietary voice AI ordering technology, called “Tori”, for drive-thru orders. The goal is to maximize efficiency and increase the speed of orders. Guests at Panera Bread cafes in Greece, NY and Webster, NY, are the first to experience this drive-thru innovation.
Tori is installed at these select locations and will take orders as usual at the drive-thru speaker, with Panera associates on standby to assist if needed to troubleshoot any issues. Drive-thru guests can pull up to their Panera drive-thru, place their order as usual with assistance from Tori and pay the Panera associate for their favourite menu items at the drive-thru window. This technology at the drive-thru will help cut wait times, improve order accuracy and allow associates to focus on freshly preparing guests’ orders.
Panera Bread is committed to providing high-quality food in a warm and welcoming environment. They believe in food as it should be and have built their menu around soups, salads and sandwiches free of artificial preservatives, sweeteners, flavours, and colours. They also focus on improving quality and convenience, with investments in technology and operations such as mobile ordering and Rapid Pick-Up® for to-go orders and delivery, all designed to make things easier for their guests. As of July 26, 2022, there were 2,116 bakery-cafes, companies and franchises in 48 states and Ontario, Canada, operating under the Panera Bread® or Saint Louis Bread Co.® names.
About OpenCity
They were built by restaurant people, for restaurant people. OpenCity has changed the way guests and restaurants communicate. Our proprietary voice AI assistant “Tori,” is making the drive-thru experience more enjoyable by automatically and intelligently taking orders with 99.9% accuracy, enabling restaurants to focus more on their operations while creating new revenue streams for their business.
The article is “Panera Tests New AI Technology for Bakery-Cafe Drive-Thru Lanes.”