Palona AI has unveiled an AI sales assistant designed specifically for the pizza, fast casual and QSR (quick service restaurant) sectors.
Called Restaurant AI, its introduction follows a pilot with the pizza chain, Pizza My Heart. Palona is now collaborating with 20 restaurants and brands across the country, including Twenty Five Teishoku House, Kobunga, MOTO Pizza, CaliBBQ and Pleasure Pizza Santa Cruz.
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The company has also announced the appointment of two industry veterans to spearhead Restaurant AI’s growth: Martin Briant, former North America president for Me&U, and Chris Stanton, former strategic sales executive for Qualtrics and Tableau Software.
Both bring a wealth of experience in technology and the restaurant industry.
Restaurant AI integrates Palona’s conversational intelligence, complex customisation handling, and a multimodal memory system to address a key challenge in foodservice: consistently correct order-taking via voice or text.
The system has new features tailored to the demands of the restaurant industry, including unified voice and text ordering, multi-lingual support and voice cloning with accents and personality options to match each brand’s identity.
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By GlobalDataThe AI accurately handles complex orders and customer requests. It is able to upsell, escalate issues to human representatives and secure payment processing.
It also supports loyalty programmes and coupons, enhancing customer satisfaction and sales.
Palona CEO and co-founder Maria Zhang stated: “With Restaurant AI, we’re bringing Palona’s powerful and delightful agent experience to the most complex menu categories in food service.”
“Our pilot with Pizza My Heart showed us just how impactful an intelligent agent could be when it understands every nuance of a menu, remembers past orders and engages customers like a real team member. Now, with more nationwide restaurant brands on board, we’re scaling that service to a much broader audience.”
Restaurant AI manages the intricacies of fast casual and QSR orders, which often involve customisations and regional variations.
The technology is compatible with major POS systems and designed for easy piloting, requiring just a few simple steps to set up.
