Taco Bell Is Teaming Up With a Major AI Firm to Speed Up Service — And Increase Accuracy Select Taco Bell and Pizza Hut locations are testing AI technology that streamlines drive-thru orders, optimizes restaurant operations, and enhances customer experiences.
By Carl Stoffers Edited by Jessica Thomas
Key Takeaways
- Taco Bell is testing AI-powered voice ordering to improve drive-thru and call center efficiency using Nvidia’s AI models.
- AI-driven analytics will optimize restaurant operations, helping managers streamline labor and drive-thru performance.
- The rollout will expand to 500 locations across Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger in 2025.
In a move that marks one of the most significant AI collaborations in the quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry, Yum! Brands — the parent company of Habit Burger, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and other QSR brands — is integrating products from Nvidia to streamline operations, improve customer experiences and drive efficiency.
"At Yum!, we have a bold vision to deliver leading-edge, AI-powered technology capabilities to our customers and team members globally," Joe Park, chief digital and technology officer at Yum! Brands, said in a statement. "This partnership with Nvidia will enable us to harness our rich consumer and operational data sets to build smarter AI engines."
AI-Powered drive-thrus
With more than 61,000 restaurants under its umbrella — including Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger — the Yum! Brands partnership with Nvidia focuses on drive-thru automation, order processing and real-time analytics. The company has already begun testing Nvidia-powered AI in select Taco Bell and Pizza Hut locations across the U.S. According to a statement, the technology rollout includes:
AI-powered voice ordering: The company is deploying Nvidia's tech to improve voice order-taking at drive-thrus and call centers. The system adapts to human speech patterns, understands complex menus and "enables a more natural, seamless ordering experience."
Computer vision for restaurant management: AI-driven computer vision technology will help optimize drive-thru efficiency and back-of-house operations and improve labor management through real-time analytics.
AI-driven restaurant performance insights: Yum! Brands will use AI analytics to generate performance reports, offering managers personalized action plans based on best practices from top-performing locations.
Scaling AI
Following the initial pilot phase, Yum! Brands plan to expand the AI-powered solutions to 500 Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Habit Burger locations in the second quarter of 2025. The integration will enhance Byte by Yum!, the company's proprietary AI-driven restaurant technology platform, allowing franchisees to optimize operations more efficiently.
"Nvidia's software makes it affordable for even the largest restaurant company to improve operations and customer experiences, proving AI can pay off at every location," Andrew Sun, Nvidia's global director of retail, said in a statement. "Working with Yum! Brands' best-in-class digital and technology team and proprietary Byte by Yum! platform to integrate Nvidia AI software breaks barriers to AI innovation in the restaurant industry."
