Dive Brief:
- Casey’s General Stores has expanded the use of AI-powered ordering agents to about 90% of its locations, the convenience retailer announced on Thursday.
- Casey’s and conversational AI firm SoundHound AI have worked together for the past few years. According to Thursday’s announcement, the tech company’s ordering agents have already handled more than 21 million guest interactions and are in operation at 2,600 of the retailer’s 2,900 sites.
- Casey’s is one of several major convenience retailers using AI to simplify the employee and customer experience.
Dive Insight:
SoundHound’s voice ordering agents process phone food orders at Casey’s convenience stores, especially during peak meal times. The platform aims to cut down on missed orders and long hold times, helping Casey’s improve customer service and operational efficiency and letting team members focus on preparing food and serving guests inside its stores.
The platform is trained on Casey’s menu and designed to understand natural human speech, allowing guests to place orders as they would with a team member. The AI agents can also answer menu-related questions, discuss specials and promotions and assist with various store inquiries.
“Expanding our partnership with SoundHound AI allows us to scale a proven solution that improves the guest ordering experience and helps our team members operate more efficiently across thousands of locations,” Sanjeev Satturu, senior vice president and chief information officer at Casey’s, said in the announcement.
Besides for food orders, Casey’s also uses AI to streamline and scale contract management matters, including vendor agreements and legal and procurement contracts.
