A local Popeyes restaurant is leading the way with technology that is already being heralded as a game-changer.

"Tori" is the newest employee at the Carencro Popeyes location off of Evangeline Thruway. If you visit her store, you'll be able to talk to "Tori," but chances are slim to none that you'll actually meet her.

That's because "Tori" isn't an actual employee at Popeyes in Carencro. As a matter of fact, "Tori" isn't even a real human being.

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But you wouldn't know that if you were only driving through to place your favorite Popeyes order.

"Tori" is the proprietary voice AI ordering platform for OpenCity, a company that proudly claims to be "built by restaurant people, for restaurant people."

OpenCity's focus has been changing the way guests and restaurants communicate and their voice AI assistant "Tori" has definitely delivered in a big way.

"Tori," is making the drive-thru experience more enjoyable by automatically and intelligently taking orders with 99.9% accuracy, enabling restaurants to focus more on their operations, while creating new revenue streams for their business.

High Noon Restaurant Group is the franchisee of the Carencro Popeyes location and since deploying "Tori" back in April, they have been more than satisfied with the "enhanced and consistent drive-thru experience" that OpenCity's voice AI platform has provided. High Noon Restaurant Group CEO David Damato called "Tori" a game-changer.

Tori has exceeded our (high) expectations, and it's one of the most innovative technologies I've ever seen! It's a true game-changer and has been a real success for us.

Popeyes guests can experience the magic of "Tori" at the Carencro store (3920 Evangeline Thruway) Monday through Friday between 10 AM and 8 PM.

And if you think that our unique Cajun accents may present a challenge for the voice AI technology, think again.

The guests are having fun and I was shocked at how quickly Tori learned the Louisiana accent. We enjoy trying to trick Tori, and it keeps getting the order right! Our team members are loving Tori too, as it reduces workplace stress since they can focus on serving the guest faster while Tori is taking the order. We're looking forward to seeing Tori in a lot more of our restaurants over the next few months.

So how does "Tori" work? According to a press release "Tori" "leverages existing restaurant infrastructure to quickly take and submit orders" while enhancing the guest experience and improving the quality of restaurant operations."

If that doesn't convince you, then these numbers should do the talking.

  • 20% faster speed of service
  • 150% more drinks sold
  • 20% increase in customer satisfaction
  • 99.9% Tori order accuracy
  • Increased employee productivity

All of these results are especially positive for OpenCity founder and CEO Nick Belsito who has seen success with simpler ordering scenarios (think burgers, sandwiches, coffee) but knew that chicken would be a bigger challenge due to the "complex" ordering.

'Chicken is different' is often a mantra spoken within the industry due to complex variables that go into building an order. Many advised us to focus on simpler menus, such as burgers or coffee. But we own our natural language understanding (NLU) technology, whereas other competitors license their technology from third parties. Our team thrives on accomplishing the impossible, and we're reimagining live commerce with conversational AI. Popeyes is one of the premier drive-thru brands in the world. It's an incredible feeling that we're able to delight the guests, employees, GMs, and the Franchisee, right out of the gate. Seeing everyone engage with Tori, smiling and enjoying their experience, as Tori accurately takes their orders, further validates the future is now for the drive-thru experience. This is only the beginning, as Tori will be coming soon to a drive-thru near you!

You could see "Tori" popping up at other local Popeyes stores as Damato said that they plan on deploying "Tori" at more locations over the next few months.

In the meantime, pay her a visit in Carencro and let us know how it goes.

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