Feed Me, You Bot!
How We Hunt & Gather With AI
Cavemen used to hunt for dinner. Now we just swipe.
This month, I’ve written about what we eat, where we eat, and how technology has changed our dining and drinking habits.
Now let’s get specific about how radically our food and beverage habits have changed as a result of tech.
The Hunt
Our ancestors tracked footprints and scanned the horizon. We scroll a menu (QR-coded) and know on some level that our eating habits are being tracked. Voice bots now take orders at drive-thru speakers across the country. Chatbots handle phone orders.
And yeah, we’re all about DoorDash and Instacart because waiting for more than 30 minutes for a taco or pizza is just way too long. Imagine if we had to kill a buffalo to eat!
Roughly 26% of restaurant operators are now using AI in some form, according to the National Restaurant Association.
Yum! Brands has processed more than 2 million drive-thru orders through Voice AI across 300-plus Taco Bell locations.
The Chase
Wendy’s FreshAI locations cut average order time by 22 seconds. That’s not a lot of time, but we’ve become much more impatient as a society. The company reports a 15% upsell rate too, which means that bots are better than humans at getting you to say yes to something you didn’t plan on ordering. Cool but a little frightening.
The Kill
Once your order’s placed, the rest can be frictionless because your payment options and food preferences are saved. The upside is rewards. But you need to sacrifice privacy for points and free food.
Hunt on Purpose
You don’t have to opt out of tech. But outwit the beast. Here are some prompts for the smart “food hunter.”
“I order delivery about [X] times a week. What’s the real cost difference between delivery fees, subscription services, and just picking up, based on my habits?”
“Here’s a restaurant menu [paste text]. Tell me which items are probably the highest markup or upsell targets, and what to order instead if I want the best value.”
Hungry for more AI insights? I can help you balance your human appetites with your AI curiosity. Please get in touch!
P.S. More foodie tidbits in July:
This post was researched and drafted with Beulah, my AI collaborator. Direction, edits, and final judgment: Nancy AF, the robot overlady.
Stay spicy, Nancy AF.