Remember when ordering in food was an option reserved for sick days or impermissible climatic conditions? It’s a time and concept so foreign that now, when most of us think about dining out, ordering in is almost always the better, more convenient, and time-friendly option. Whatever happened to touching grass? To make things even easier, now, diners can skip reading the menus or deciding out of autonomy, as AI takes over the job of choosing the perfect evening meal.
The advent of food delivery apps has brought with it a severe paradox of choice for consumers: an overwhelming feeling where an excess of options leads to paralysis, anxiety, and lower satisfaction. Online food delivery introduces us to a world of options previously beyond our reach, turning the act of deciding what and where to eat into an SAT-prep test. Just Eat, Amsterdam, Netherlands’ multinational food delivery platform, has sought to, and successfully solved this caveat.
They’re rolling out an AI-led voice assistant that lets customers discuss and brainstorm what they’d like to eat, then offers personalised recommendations based on their responses. Calling it a “personal food concierge” for diners, the chatbot is set to reside in Just Eat’s existing chat function, starting in the UK and then spanning across the 16 countries where the app also operates.
How The Chatbot Works
This AI voice assistant has been intrinsically designed to deduce and understand the exact culinary desires of customers seeking its help, no matter how vague their requests may be. According to the creators, diners’ preferences could even be a “rambling stream of consciousness,” and the chatbot will still be able to make accurate suggestions.
“No matter how you ask, you get exactly what you’re craving,” the company said.
They added, “The assistant cuts through the noise to deliver accurate, meaningful answers.” Therefore, potential users can communicate the strangest, funkiest combination of cravings and expect a reasonable, close-to-perfect list of matches for what they could order from around their area.
As stated by the food delivery platform, the chatbot pares down the world of options that are at a customer’s disposal on an average day, in order to take away the dilemma of “choice overload.” It does this by suggesting exactly what kinds of food diners can order from which restaurants, instead of simply suggesting restaurants.
“[This is] designed to make deciding ‘what’s for dinner?’ more intuitive than ever before,” the company said. “With the addition of conversational abilities, it streamlines the checkout process and offers tailored recommendations based on genuine interaction,” they added.
To make things even more convenient, the chatbot can communicate in dozens of languages with a personalisable accent, ensuring that no matter how you ask, you get precisely what you’re craving. It also significantly enhances the ordering experience for users with mobility or visual impairments.
The AI-powered chatbot also introduces fluidity to the act of ordering food online. Unlike apps that rely on tapping and scrolling, this assistant foregrounds a “blended interaction model.” Using this, users can easily switch between touch and voice commands, eliminating the need to constantly focus on the screen.
About Just Eat
Just Eat is among the world’s most widely used on-demand delivery companies, built on the idea of connecting consumers and partners seamlessly through technology. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company operates digital platforms that connect customers with a vast network of food and retail partners, making everyday ordering easier and more accessible.
With 362,000 connected partners on its platforms, Just Eat offers consumers an extensive range of choices that are available at the tap of a button. It currently operates in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Talking on the launch of the AI chatbot, Mert Öztekin, the chief technology officer at Just Eat, said, “This custom-built conversational assistant represents a major step forward, making our service more intuitive and accessible…We are harnessing the power of AI to empower everyday convenience across our entire network.”
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