‍👉 Background: Yum! Brands was founded back in 1997 after PepsiCo decided to divest from KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Since then, it has grown into one of the largest fast-food companies in the world, with over 61,000 stores operating in over 155 countries.

‍👉 What happened: Now, Yum! Brands is teaming up with Nvidia to roll out its fancy AI in drive-thrus. The focus will be on order taking, but rather than a high-pitched 16 year old takin your order, it will be trying to upsize you into a Zinger meal. They’ll also be using AI to count the number of cars in the drive-thru that will help employees manage the queue more efficiently.

‍👉 What else: Right now, they’ve just started piloting this new tech in some US restaurants, but if successful, it won't be long before AI ordering takes over Australian drive-thrus too.

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‍What's the key learning?

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‍💡AI and tech are the hottest new recipes on the hospitality menu. We know that the restaurant industry has super tight profit margins so it's always on the lookout for ways to optimise their services and cut costs where they can.

💡The net profit margin for a casual dining restaurant sits around 5-7%, while fast food chains do a bit better, around 6-10% profit margin. But while AI may automate repetitive tasks, there is still a question mark about the execution of fast food restaurants and AI.

💡In 2021 McDonalds teamed up with IBM to try the same thing, but they called it off last year after a customer was given an ice cream cone topped with bacon… and it went viral. So it will be interesting to see if KFC can achieve what Maccas couldn’t.