News Briefs

Jersey Mike’s Subs and SoundHound AI Inc. are working together to give customers the ability to place phone orders for pick-up via a voice AI ordering system. Optimized for natural human speech, Jersey Mike’s customers won’t have to modify their language or interact awkwardly with the software;  they can just speak naturally as they would to another person.

Initially live at 50 locations, SoundHound’s voice technology has been trained on the entirety of Jersey Mike’s menu and uses advanced AI to recognize items instantly as customers are talking, allowing the system to take food and drink orders effortlessly and with greater accuracy. 

“Jersey Mike’s customers know that we strive to provide quality in everything we do. The way we choose technology is no different,” said Scott Scherer, Chief Information Officer, Jersey Mike’s Franchise Systems, Inc. “AI is becoming an important part of supporting restaurant staff and providing impeccable customer service, so we’ve partnered with SoundHound because they have the experience and expertise to make sure that our customers get their favorite sub exactly how they like it on time, every time.”

An Intelligent Option

Coinciding with advancements in AI, more restaurant operators are adding the intelligent solution. Brands such as Checkers & Rally's, Panera, CKE Restaurants and Good Times are using – or piloting the use of AI – to help automate the ordering process so that staff can focus on other tasks such as customer service and food production.  

As well as taking orders, SoundHound’s technology answers a broad range of menu questions (e.g., about specials and promotions), and even provides information about opening times, parking, allergens, and many more FAQs.  The AI answers 100% of calls and can even take multiple orders at once.  Significantly, this frees up Jersey Mike’s employees to focus on making delicious food and giving great service to in-store customers 

“More than ever, restaurant customers are ordering for pick-up and delivery, and to keep them coming back businesses need to provide a slick, hassle free experience,” said Keyvan Mohajer, CEO and Co-Founder of SoundHound AI. “Technology is now a critical part of that, and Jersey Mike’s is at the forefront of brands embracing AI to deliver first class customer service – from when they place the order, to handing over the sub. We’re excited to be working with them.” Check out a demo of the technology here.  

Domino's Pizza Inc. introduces its new and improved loyalty program. 

Domino's Rewards offers loyalty members even more opportunities to earn and redeem points across its corporate and franchise store locations. Domino's enhanced rewards program allows customers to:

• Earn points for less
  • Loyalty members will now earn 10 points on every order of $5 or more
• Redeem points for even more menu items – and earn free Domino's after just two orders
  • Members can redeem a variety of points for more menu items:
    • 20 points: A free dipping cup, a 16-piece order of Parmesan Bread Bites or a 20 oz. drink
    • 40 points: An order of Bread Twists or Stuffed Cheesy Bread
    • 60 points: A medium, two-topping pizza; pasta; Oven-Baked Sandwich; or a 3-piece order of Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes
• Earn more rewards
  • Loyalty perks are now even better, as members will have exclusive access to member-only deals, special discounts and opportunities to earn bonus points!

"We are thrilled to give the brand's loyal customers additional ways to earn free Domino's items more often," said Mark Messing, Domino's vice president of digital experience and loyalty. "At a time when most brands are scaling back their loyalty programs and making it more difficult to earn and redeem points, Domino's is doing the opposite. We want to make it easier to reward our customers and give them more options so they can get rewarded faster."

Marketing a LTO 

From now until Oct. 22, 2023, rewards members can take advantage of a limited time offer to redeem 20 points for a free order of Domino's new Pepperoni Stuffed Cheesy Bread, which is normally a 40-point redemption, in celebration of the product's recent launch. 

InnSpire, the leading provider of innovative hospitality technology solutions that help drive seamless, world-class guest experiences for some of the world’s most iconic hotels and brands, has announced a strategic partnership with RealTime Reservation (RTR), a centralized inventory control and management platform that assists hotels in maximizing ancillary revenue from services and amenities.

The new partnership integrates RealTime Reservation’s robust inventory mapping and booking capabilities into InnSpire’s award-winning mobile app solution to create a single sign-on (SSO) experience for guests. The unified interface gives guests the ability to see everything a property has to offer and book a host of property services, amenities, and experiences from their mobile phones or in-room tablets without the need to log in to multiple applications. This includes dining and restaurant reservations, as well as beach chairs, pool cabanas, spa/golf reservations and other onsite experiences.

“Our partnership with RealTime Reservation consolidates disparate guest reservation systems at a property into a single platform that is meant to give travelers seamless and personalized command over their stay at the property from their device of choice,” said Martin Chevalley, CEO of InnSpire. “The combined solution also enables greater operational efficiency and enhances ancillary revenue for the property by maximizing guest convenience and satisfaction.”

InnSpire’s full-featured, mobile phone-based digital guest journey application combines a host of powerful features that allow hotel guests to check-in and out remotely, securely access their accommodations using a mobile key, view menus and order in-room dining or drinks and snacks by the pool, send requests to the guest services team in real time, book restaurant and spa reservations, check their folio and access an extensive range of property information, all from their own smart phones.

“Our integration with InnSpire creates a single guest profile that makes it simple to navigate the property’s offerings and manage all aspects of their stay, down to the details that matter most to them, like a cabana nearest the ocean or pool, for example,” said Shawn Tarter, Founder and President of RealTime Reservation. “The result is one easy-to-use branded platform, so the experience is intuitive and seamless for the guest. It also allows the property to better manage their inventory, operations, and staff resources for service fulfillment.”

HID, the worldwide leader in trusted identity solutions, and Olea Kiosks, a visionary provider of self-service kiosk solutions, today announced a new collaborative engagement that revolutionizes the user experience when it comes to access control and user authentication across a range of applications. 

WHAT: Industries from healthcare, hospitality and retail to banking, government, transportation and beyond are primed to empower people with unsurpassed levels of security and user convenience when it comes to countless check-in and access scenarios. The HID U.ARE.U™ Camera Identification System – featuring remarkable facial recognition technology (FRT) – can now be incorporated into the Olea HYPERMODULAR™ Kiosk to address the rising demand for flexible, customizable ID authentication and verification across various vertical settings.

WHY: Facial recognition technology continues to gain traction based on its unique combination of high security and user convenience. Paired with the extremely flexible Olea kiosk, HID’s AI-powered U.ARE.U Camera Identification System is an ideal solution for applications needing to handle high throughput. HID FRT is:

• Fast and Accurate: On-the-spot verification authenticates and validates an individual’s identity in seconds, reducing wait time in line.
• Easy to Use: One look is all that’s required to securely capture a facial image for frictionless identity verification.
• Secure: Biometric traits provide irrefutable proof of identity and presence to prevent fraud.
• Convenient: One’s face is now their ID card, pin and password, so there’s nothing to carry, forget, lose or have stolen.
• No Human Intervention: This seamless technology requires no dedicated staff to check IDs.
• Contactless and Hygienic: Facial recognition offers a touchless way to authenticate individuals' identities, minimizing exposure to health risks by reducing shared touchpoints. 

Olea selected the HID U.ARE.U Camera Identification System for its many notable features, including:

• Top NIST ranking for matching performance & accuracy
• Ethically trained with AI to reduce matching bias
• Exceptional ‘In-the-Wild’ recognition (precise capture and authentication regardless of variances in lighting, backgrounds, pose, expression, etc.)
• Extraordinary presentation attack detection (PAD) against spoofs
• Stellar security & privacy with on-device (Edge) biometric processing
• Easy to configure (leading to faster deployment and faster ROI)

Olea developed the HYPERMODULAR kiosk in response to market demands for flexible, customizable kiosks for the security and access control space. In addition to housing HID’s leading facial recognition camera, Olea’s kiosk design can also accommodate fingerprint scanners, barcode scanners, ticket and ID document readers, RFID readers, card printers, and other HID offerings within its HYPERMODULAR footprint.

HOW: Bringing together HID facial recognition with Olea kiosks supports myriad use cases for reliable self-service check-in and authentication. Just a sampling of applications include:

• Retail & Hospitality: Hotel self-check-in, self-checkout/face pay, ticketing at theme parks and VIP customer identification
• Banking: ATM verification and VIP customer identification
• Healthcare: Patient check-in and registration, manage personal data, scan and record insurance/ID cards, telemedicine services and payment collection
• Airport and Border Crossing: Passenger self-check-in, bag tag printing and bag drop, VIP lounge access and security and immigration checkpoints

WHEN: The HID-Olea Kiosks are available now. To learn more about HID’s facial recognition technology and Olea Kiosks, visit our solution pages:

• HID AI-powered facial recognition
• HID U.ARE.U Camera Identification System
• Olea HYPERMODULAR Kiosk

The winner of the 2023 Kitchen Innovations Award at the National Restaurant Association Show, Aniai, has successfully secured a $12 million pre-Series A funding round. 

Founded in 2020, Aniai is developing a robotic solution for cooking hamburgers. Its flagship product, ‘Alpha Grill,’ leverages robotics for efficient hamburger cooking, boasting a double-sided grill that can cook up to eight patties simultaneously or 200 patties per hour. 

“This capital infusion will help our mission to improve kitchen productivity through robotics and automation while helping us ramp-up production to meet current and future demand. Additionally, Aniai plans to augment its robotic solutions by adding advanced, cloud-based, AI software to further enhance the capabilities and performance of the Alpha Grill early this year, which will benefit new and existing Aniai customers,” said Gunpil Hwang, CEO and co-Founder of Aniai. 

When Alpha Grill is deployed in a kitchen, restaurant brands can streamline operations by eliminating repetitive tasks associated with hamburger patty cooking tasks such as pressing and flipping. 

The upcoming software release for Alpha Grill will include a feature that will employ AI to discern the color of the hamburger patties and assess their quality through real-time vision sensors during the cooking process. For instance, if a hamburger patty does not meet brand’s cooking specifications and requirements, the Alpha Grill promptly notifies the cooking staff, ensuring rigorous and enhanced quality control. The latest cloud-based, AI feature from Aniai will make its debut at the National Restaurant Association Show, an industry leading foodservice trade show, in May.

 The round includes investments from new investors, such as SV Investment and UK-based Ignite Innovation, as well as from an existing investor, Capstone Partners. This most recent investment brings Aniai’s total funding to date to $15 million.

Investing in Manufacturing

Aniai will fast-track the launch of its first dedicated manufacturing facility called Factory One in South Korea to help ensure stable production and supply chain management for Alpha Grill, aligning with its ongoing North American and global expansion efforts. Aniai’s Factory One has the capacity to produce over 1,000 Alpha Grill units per year. 

Aniai, headquartered in New York City, has been piloting Alpha Grill with several leading North American hamburger brands since Q3 2023, targeting multiple implementations and initial rollouts within the next twelve months. The company has already successfully deployed Alpha Grill to seven South Korean hamburger franchises, including DOWN TOWNER, BAS Burger, CJ Freshway, and Mom's Touch. Furthermore, Aniai has recently announced new partnership with Lotteria, Teisty Burger, and Fault Burger, securing 500 Alpha Grill pre-orders for delivery beginning early in Q1 of 2024.

In 2023, Aniai secured a $3 million seed round investment led by Capstone Partners and Lotte Ventures.