Panera Bread Hires AI Employee To Take Over Drive-Thrus

Panera Bread is taking to the age of robotics to man its drive-thru intercoms.

‘Tori’, the newest member of Panera, has a job description that entails welcoming guests, taking their orders, and directing them to the checkout area. The artificial intelligence was developed by hospitality technology company OpenCity.

However, Panera’s human staffers won’t have to worry about Tori winning employee of the month as they will still be tasked with directly dealing with collecting their money and handing them their orders. AI may be advanced, but it’s not at a point where it can safely pass a chicken sandwich out the window, apparently. 

Panera has stated that bringing Tori onto the team is in a bid to improve accuracy and cut down on wait times. As of right now, she will only be test-driven in Greece and Webster, New York.

However, this isn’t the first time Panera is testing out AI workers. According to CNBC, the chain previously installed a coffee temperature monitoring system to monitor the volume and temperature of coffee being made in-house.

The question now is, if this all kicks off, will we be one step closer to Skynet-like robots taking over our fast-food restaurants?

[via Futurism and Panera Bread, Business Wire, Photo 248874241 © Khairil Junos | Dreamstime.com]