The next time you call a restaurant to order takeout or roll through a drive-thru, you may be greeted by a virtual assistant powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
Austin startup ConverseNow has developed an AI-powered virtual assistant that is already answering phone calls and taking drive-thru orders at more than 1,200 restaurants across 40 states. Domino’s Pizza, Fazoli’s and Blake’s Lotaburger are just a few of the chains using ConverseNow’s technology.
The company announced Tuesday that it has raised $10 million from Enlightened Hospitality Investments, the growth equity fund co-founded by Danny Meyer, the founder of Shake Shack and Union Square Hospitality Group.
The fresh funding, which comes just over a year after the company’s $15 million Series A, brings ConverseNow’s total funding raised to date to $28.8 million.
ConverseNow said its technology helps fast-food restaurants respond to a nationwide worker shortage. A recent survey by the National Restaurant Association found that 84 percent of fast-food restaurant operators said they would hire additional employees in the next six months if qualified applicants were available.
As a result of ConverseNow’s AI technology, those understaffed teams will have more time to focus on food preparation and in-person customer service, according to Ben Brown, the company’s vice president of marketing.
Brown said the virtual assistant is able to answer calls, take orders and process payments without any human intervention on almost all orders — more than 90 percent of the time in some cases.
ConverseNow’s AI technology is “truly conversational” and can handle “limitless conversations at once with remarkable accuracy,” Brown said.
Because of the nature of AI, ConverseNow’s technology is continuously improving as millions of conversations are processed and funneled into the company’s central database every month.
“Because we have so many conversations coming in each month, our system is improving at an accelerated rate,” Brown said.
Customers who want to speak to a live person can always bypass the AI voice assistant by asking for an agent or representative.
ConverseNow co-founder and CEO Vinay Shukla said in a statement that the funding will be used to scale its AI as it onboards new customers.
“Demand is very strong, and one of our biggest challenges has been ramping up our AI to keep up with this demand. So an additional round was necessary to accommodate this customer growth without needing to raise a full Series B,” Shukla said.
Brown said the “overwhelming majority” of major fast-food brands are looking at AI voice technology, and many are already in various stages of testing or onboarding the technology.
“We are working with some of the biggest names in restaurants,” he said. “A lot of them are the dominant forces in their respective menu concepts, and we’re working with virtually every menu concept out there.”
