Facing labor shortage, pizza franchise turns to AI phone bot

Pizza lovers who called Jet's Pizza between December 2021 and March 2022 might have encountered an AI phone bot that takes pizza orders. During those four months, Jet's Pizza, which has about 400 stores located primarily in Michigan, piloted OrderAI Talk in 70 of its stores. Customers who chose the bot rather than a traditional phone system received a discount on their order. At the end of the four months, Jet's Pizza expanded the AI phone bot to all its stores. The franchise's pilot of OrderAI Talk was part of its relationship with HungerRush, a cloud software provider for restaurants, said Aaron Nilsson, CIO and CDO of Jet's Pizza, based in Sterling, Mich.