Fast-food restaurants wrestling with finding workers are turning to a helper named Holly, who is being deployed by a Denver technology company. Her specialty is taking drive-thru orders and she sounds just human enough to do it smoothly while signaling that customers are talking to a robot.

Valyant AI’s conversational artificial intelligence platform, “Holly,” is taking orders at some Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. restaurants in Colorado and four other states. Four of the fast-food restaurants in Colorado are using the technology and 19 more are under contract to add Holly, Valyant AI CEO Rob Carpenter said.

The company struck a deal to provide CKE Restaurant Holdings, the parent company of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., with its AI platform. CKE is working with two other companies to automate its drive-thru orders.

The agreement reached last week allows Valyant AI to start selling to CKE’s franchisees, Carpenter said. “So it’s 3,000 potential locations across the U.S. that we have the opportunity to expand our drive-thru AI technology to,” Carpenter said.

Phil Crawford, CKE’s chief technology officer, said in a statement that the company is always looking for ways to improve service with new, emerging technologies. He said the AI technology does that while allowing franchisees to cater to “the specific needs of their local markets, boosting their competitiveness and profitability.”

Holly can even upsell while taking orders. Carpenter said the AI follows scripts similar to those used by employees, such as asking about converting entrees into combination meals or small meals into medium or large ones.

Carpenter, who founded Valyant AI in 2017, understands people’s concerns that artificial intelligence might be used to replace workers.

“We have heard that since the beginning and I think that’s fine. It’s an important conversation that we need to have,” he said.

When Valyant tested its technology at Denver-area fast-food restaurants in 2019, Carpenter said customers would pull up to the window and say “Oh, you have this robot just because you’re trying to get rid of people.”

Restaurant employees often replied there weren’t enough workers. Carpenter said some employees offered the customers job applications.

“This isn’t about replacing people. It’s more that restaurants just fundamentally can’t find people and they’re struggling to keep the restaurants open,” Carpenter said. “Probably at 90% of quick-serve restaurants across the country, the person who takes your order also processes the payment, also puts food in the bag, also fills up soft drinks.”

The AI platform can help free up people for other tasks, he added.

Restaurants that managed to keep their doors open during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic often cut their hours or closed days during the week due to staff shortages. Not having enough people is still a problem.

“Colorado restaurants continue to struggle with labor shortages more than three years after the start of the pandemic,” said Denise Mickelsen, communication director for the Colorado Restaurant Association.

Mickelsen said in an email that data from the National Restaurant Association shows that more than half of Colorado restaurant operators don’t have enough employees and more than three-quarters of those surveyed said they had job openings that were difficult to fill. Job posts listed more than 19,000 restaurant openings over the past year in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood area.

“Operators are increasingly turning to technology to offset labor shortages, including utilizing QR codes for ordering and payment and investing in enhancing off-premises services like delivery and drive-thru. AI will surely be a big part of these solutions in the years to come,” Mickelsen said.

Mas Torito, district manager at Kokoro Restaurant, said in an email that the company has ordered terminals that will allow customers to place their own takeout orders and is looking at using AI to help with drive-thru and online orders. Torito said while about 80% of Kokoro’s staff has been with the company for a while, there has been high turnover of the remaining 20%.

Recent economic data show that overall, there are 2.4 job openings in Colorado for every unemployed person.

“The question is how do these businesses continue to compete if they really do need the workers and there isn’t the available workforce? Some are suggesting this is where AI is going to come into play,” Richard Wobbekind, the University of Colorado-Boulder’s senior economist, said in a recent call with reporters about a new state economic report.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold,also on the call, cautioned that lawmakers need to start considering the implications of AI for workers, families and communities.

Carpenter likes thinking ahead, seeing where the technology is heading and “trying to bring that kind of high-tech sort of vibe to Denver.” He was the CEO of Appit Ventures, which developed the myColorado mobile app, the first-ever state digital ID and wallet. He’s bullish on new technology while acknowledging that innovation can raise questions.

For example, Carpenter said there is AI in which the voice “can sound 100% human.” He said Valyant doesn’t use it. Holly sounds about 80% human and 20% robotic, Carpenter said.

Listening to a recording of Holly taking an order, the voice and delivery were smooth but formal at points, sounding a bit like a virtual customer-service representative. But she didn’t miss a beat when asking about a cinnamon roll to go with a breakfast burrito.

“The reason that we prefer to have a 20% kind of AI undertone is twofold. One, ethically we don’t want to be deceiving consumers,” Carpenter said. “I think there’s still a gray area about how does AI identify itself. We haven’t 100% figured that out both as a company and as a country.”

And if people realize they’re talking to a robot, Carpenter said, they tend to enunciate more carefully and pause to wait for a response. “All of those nuances in conversation help to increase the accuracy of the overall order.”

Valyant’s next project is underway. The company is testing what it calls an AI assistant manager for restaurants. Carpenter said the product is intended to address the industry’s high turnover rate by serving as a resource to answer employees’ questions about work routines and information.

“The AI can carry on a conversation and answer all those questions for the employee,” Carpenter said.

The next generation will be a more proactive product that will assess what’s needed and convey the information to employees.

“So it can say, ‘Hey, revenue is down 5%, don’t forget to recommend the blueberry pie to customers.’ Or, ‘Somebody left the refrigerator door open. Please go close that,’” Carpenter said. “The focus is on how can we make the restaurant run as efficiently as possible.”

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