AI voice firm SoundHound has purchased food-ordering platform Allset, which positions itself as a full ecosystem for ordering meals by vehicles, TVs and good gadgets.
Allset’s workers, together with its founders Stas Mativiyenko and Anna Polischuk, will be part of the corporate, the corporate stated in an announcement. Allset’s restaurant partnerships may also switch to SoundHound and may have entry to the corporate’s AI voice merchandise.
The acquisition comes after different quick meals manufacturers are rethinking methods to use customer-facing AI. McDonald’s introduced it paused a undertaking with IBM that makes use of AI for automated order-taking in drive-thrus after a collection of ordering mishaps documented on social media. The experiment started in 2021.
SoundHound gives voice recognition and generative AI fashions to energy voice assistants for eating places, automotive methods and good dwelling gadgets. The corporate labored with the quick meals chain White Citadel to experiment utilizing AI voices to deal with drive-through orders final 12 months. Its different clients embody automotive firms Stellantis, Hyundai, Kia and Honda. It additionally partnered with AI search platform Perplexity to energy SoundHound’s AI assistant. Allset, based in 2015, provides an alternative choice to supply apps.
Increasing voice ordering
SoundHound stated bringing in Allset provides it extra years of expertise within the meals area and brings in additional expertise that lets customers order meals and different items by pure language.
“Collectively, we plan to supply dynamic and handy methods for individuals to order meals and full a spread of different transactions simply by talking naturally,” stated Keyvan Mohajer, co-founder and CEO of SoundHound, in an announcement.
Eating places and quick meals chains have been experimenting with generative AI to take buyer orders and enhance customer support for the previous few years. Wendy’s works with Google for its FreshAI platform, which makes use of AI voice recognition and pure language to know buyer orders in drive-thrus. Earlier than pausing its AI order-taking undertaking, McDonald’s executives stated ultimately 12 months’s VentureBeat Rework that it’s been utilizing AI for foresight and knowledge analytics.
