SoundHound Introduces Voice AI Ordering
SoundHound, a provider of voice artificial intelligence, has rolled out a service that will allow restaurants to automate the phone ordering process.
SoundHound also integrated its conversational AI phone ordering automation with Square's point-of-sale (POS) systems.
When a customer calls into a restaurant to place an order, the SoundHound for Restaurants voice assistant immediately answers the call, takes the caller's order, accepts modifications, and sends a confirmation to complete the payment. Callers can ask for what they want through a natural language interface powered by SoundHound's advanced conversational AI technology.
SoundHound for Restaurants is being launched in response to recent trends of increasing consumer demand for take-out orders and the impact of labor shortages. SoundHound's voice assistant answers every call, even during peak hours, eliminating the busy signal, taking multiple orders simultaneously, and seamlessly processing the order and payment through Square's POS system.
To get started, restaurant owners simply connect their Square POS to SoundHound for Restaurants, sync to the menu they want the voice assistant to use, and input the phone number for the system to answer. After that, SoundHound's voice assistant acts just like a front-of-house staff member, answering the phone and taking orders.
"At Square, we are seeing sellers leverage the latest technology to meet customer demand regardless of size or complexity," said Bryan Solar, the company's head of restaurants, in a statement. "Our partnership with SoundHound allows us to offer innovative and cost-effective solutions to restaurants working with small profit margins and facing multiple challenges, including the high cost of rapid labor turnover and shortages. This integration provides our sellers with the tools they need to offer a consistently high level of customer service."
"We spoke with many restaurant operators to develop SoundHound for Restaurants and received overwhelming feedback about the need for automated solutions that help restaurants process more orders and meet growing consumer demands more efficiently," said James Hom, SoundHound's co-founder and vice president of products, in a statement. "Our partnership with Square has given us the opportunity to bring the power of conversational AI technology to businesses that would otherwise not be able to access the convenience and efficiencies of a voice-enabled solution."
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