Finding the takeaway menu a chore? Just Eat is rolling out an AI voice assistant that lets customers talk through what they want to eat and then gives recommendations.
The food delivery group is launching its voice assistant, which it describes as a personal “delivery concierge”, in its UK app on Tuesday.
The voice assistant, which is integrated within Just Eat’s existing chat function, has been designed to understand what customers are trying to ask, no matter how informally they phrase it, the company said.
Just Eat users can ask the voice assistant for advice when ordering takeaways, groceries and even beauty products
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The voice assistant will be able to communicate in a number of languages and users can personalise the chatbot’s accent.
Just Eat users can use the assistant to help them with orders for takeaways and groceries as well as pharmacy, beauty and electrical products sold by its 100,000 partners. The company, which operates in 16 countries, has partnerships with Superdrug, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose and CeX.
The Amsterdam-based company has spent weeks testing the voice assistant with customers and said it had seen a significantly higher conversion rate for users who use the function. Research by Ofcom last year revealed that 38 per cent of households with smart speakers used them to seek answers to questions.
Mert Öztekin, chief technology officer at Just Eat, said the launch of the voice assistant marked a “major step forward, making our service more intuitive and accessible”.
Food delivery platforms are racing to integrate AI tools to streamline ordering processes and boost customer engagement. A number of groups have expanded their delivery methods, including using drones and robots. Companies have been adopting automation for last-mile deliveries to reduce labour costs and speed up service times amid strong demand.
A report in October commissioned by Starship Technologies, the world’s largest autonomous robot fleet operator with more than 2,000 robots in operation, said that expanding robotic deliveries could yield a £125 million increase in grocery spending and generate a productivity gain equivalent to 300,000 working hours saved.
