Yum! Brands pilots AI assistant for managers in China
The Chinese subsidiary of a quick-service restaurant giant is testing a hands-free AI-enabled assistant for restaurant managers.
Yum China Holdings Inc., a division of Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, is launching the pilot "Q-Smart", a new artificial intelligence solution designed to help frontline managers execute day-to-day tasks such as labor scheduling, inventory management, and food quality and safety inspection.
Q-Smart enables managers to interact with the system hands-free using wearable devices such as wireless earphones and smart watches. Using natural language, Q-Smart can interact directly with restaurant managers.
For example, Q-Smart continuously monitors a restaurant's inventory and compares it with upcoming sales forecasting, reminding managers to make timely ordering and replenishment decisions that can help the store to optimize inventory use.
The solution can understand and respond to managers' voice commands, as well as provide real-time support and solutions for managers to handle urgent operational issues.
Having passed the initial development and testing phase, Q-Smart is now being piloted at select KFC stores in China. Following this pilot phase, further user feedback will be incorporated, paving the way for a larger-scale rollout in the future.
"Q-Smart is not just an AI tool — it is a potential game-changer for how restaurants can be managed,” said Leila Zhang, CTO, Yum China. “We believe that Q-Smart will not only help Yum China improve its operational efficiency, but can also serve as an example for the digital transformation and smart development of the catering industry."
Yum! Brands pursues global AI enablement
Yum! Brands has been partnering with Nvidia to accelerate the development of innovative AI technologies to manage a variety of tasks at its restaurants around the globe.
Under the agreement, which makes Yum Nvidia’s first AI restaurant partner, the companies plan to develop technology which will support and scale Yum’s existing proprietary cloud-based Byte By Yum! platform.
[READ MORE: Yum! Brands continues to enhance customers’ digital experiences]
Yum has already begun piloting multiple AI solutions in select Taco Bell and Pizza Hut locations in the U.S. using Nvidia technology. Following a successful pilot, a broader rollout of this technology targeting 500 restaurants across Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC and Habit Burger is planned for the second quarter of 2025.
The AI solutions will focus on enhancing operational performance in three key areas across Yum! Brands:
- Voice automated order-taking AI agents: Solutions based on Nvidia Riva speech and translation microservices and NIM API microservices will equip drive-thru and call center operations with
conversational AI that adapts to human speech patterns, understands complex menus and customer preferences and enables a more natural, seamless ordering experience. - Computer vision-enhanced operations: Yum! Brands will deploy Nvidia-based computer vision technology to optimize drive-thru efficiency and back-of-house labor management through real-time analytics and alerts.
- Accelerated restaurant intelligence: The company will utilize AI-driven analytics and agents to assess restaurant performance and generate personalized action plans for restaurant managers based on best practices from top-performing locations.
Yum China in 10-year tech effort
Meanwhile, Yum China has been involved in an end-to-end digitalization initiative over the past decade. KFC China first enabled customers to pay digitally in 2015, followed by the launch of a KFC app in early 2016. As of March 2025, Yum China's digital loyalty program membership (for KFC and Pizza Hut) exceeded 540 million members.
Yum China began integrating AI-assisted store management and scheduling tools as early as 2019. In 2021, Yum China rolled out its AI-powered "Super Brain" tool, leveraging operational data from its store network to aid store managers' decision-making.
In 2022, the company introduced handheld “pocket managers” enabling managers to track operational metrics in real-time. Yum China began exploring applications for in its systems in 2023; and by 2024, the company began integrating generative AI into areas including logistics and supply chain, customer service, and various back-office functions.
Yum China operates more than 16,000 restaurants under six brands across over 2,300 cities in China, including KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, the Lavazza coffee concept, and Chinese cuisine brands Little Sheep and Huang Ji Huang.
