Flying Pie Pizzaria pilots AI-based phone ordering

A regional Idaho pizza chain is testing the effectiveness of artificial intelligence (AI) in answering and placing phone orders.

Boise-based Flying Pie Pizzaria, which operates seven locations in Idaho, is piloting the Kea voice AI ordering system at all of its stores. The initial implementation aims to improve Flying Pie’s customer experience by ensuring every phone order is properly processed during peak rush hours.

Currently, Flying Pie gets 50% plus of its to-go orders through the phone. Due to the nationwide labor shortage, the retailer has been having difficulties having a dedicated cashier to handle phone orders is hard to come by, especially for locally-owned businesses. 

Flying Pie also recently transitioned to Olo, an open SaaS digital ordering and operations platform for restaurants, and is seamlessly integrating Kea into Olo to manage phone orders. Within the first four weeks of the pilot, kea learned all of Flying Pie’s more than 15,000 menu items, which includes all original items and potential customizations.

Now, when a call comes in, the Kea solution automatically triages the call, transcribes the order, confirms it with the customer, handles payment, and sends the order through Olo. Kea always includes human in the process to ensure against accuracy issues or technology adoption barriers on the customer's end. If the call drops, or if a customer prefer to speak to a person, a live Kea operator will join the call and finish the order.

“We want to capture every phone order at peak times, and right now we can’t. But with a cashier in the cloud that knows our entire menu front to back, and that can place an order in just a few seconds, we can both increase the number of calls answered and the speed at which orders are placed,” said Florian Penalva, owner of Flying Pie Pizzeria. “We have all reason to believe this is going to work.” 

“There’s a clear need for technology that digitizes the phone channel and I’m glad restaurants are getting it and fast,” said Adam Ahmad, CEO and founder of kea.

Newk’s Eatery automates voice ordering with AI

Fast-casual chain Newk’s Eatery is also deploying the Kea voice AI ordering system to automate its phone order channel and digitize its off-premise business, which has accounted for one-third of all its orders since the COVID-19 pandemic. The retailer currently operates the Kea AI solution in all of its corporate locations and is expanding the platform into the franchise network in 2023.

At one of the initial pilot locations, the kea solution managed 3,048 orders placed over the course of two weeks, saving employees 182 hours’ worth of manually handling phone calls and providing them with more time to focus on in-person customer service.