Friday, March 29

No more choosing what you want to eat in a restaurant (at least if artificial intelligence has its way)


Artificial intelligence (AI) wants to achieve something that until now seemed reserved only for parents: knowing what you want to eat even before you have decided. It may sound like science fiction, it may even be dystopian, but in San Francisco there is a company that is about to launch a tool for that purpose: that when you enter a place and approach the screen to consult its menu, it is the device itself the fact that I suggest a dish.

One, of course, adjusted to your own characteristics and mood.

That after scanning your appearance concludes that what you want is a good salad with tuna? Well, when you stand in front of the screen, the system will show you a display with alternatives that revolve around that option. What do you think you prefer chicken wings, well-grilled ribs or a pizza? No problem. That will be what you see on the screen.

Everything within the menu, of course, and giving the user decision-making capacity.

It is already known: the client always has the last word.

Salad face or hamburger face

The firm in question is called Raydiant and began specializing in digital signage. After growing in the sector and bringing its technology to a good number of businesses, it now wants to go a step further with the help of AI. Experience is not lacking: he has been working in the field for almost a decade, since 2023. “Customers, companies, wanted to use analytics to create better experiences inside their premises”, comments the head of the company, Bobby Marhamat, to Quartz.

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Now the countdown has begun to launch posts with an AI capable of offering each customer a personalized experience at the end of this year… And of course, increasing the sales of the businesses themselves. How? Basically with cameras and a system capable of recognizing some of the key characteristics of each client and deciding what they want to eat.

What does the tool look at? It is the companies themselves that establish their strategies, but from the outset race and body size would remain outside the range of categories handled by AI. His attention is focused on other aspects, some obvious and others more subtle. In the equation would enter, for example, the age range, the time of day, the state of mind or, already in a rather more irrelevant position, says Raydiant, the genre of the future diner.

To conclude if a client is in his twenties or a retiree, he arrives by looking at certain features, such as wrinkles; but other issues, such as whether he is depressed or happy, may be far less obvious. How does the AI ​​analyze it? Playing with a palette of factors including, for example, the weather: “What was identified is that if it’s raining and someone doesn’t like the rain, they walk around unhappy, the mood on their face is picked up as discontent”.

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The idea is to put that combine that factor cocktail and reach a key conclusion for the business: when that client in question looks at the screen, what would he like to see?

Earlier this year Raydiant acquired Sightcorp, creator of analysis software. “To survive and thrive in the future of physical stores, brands must deliver a seamless, convenient, digital and personalized customer experience; however, many are held back by the complexities and high price of these objectives”, Marhamat explained at the time.

“The customer experience in physical stores is incredibly powerful. You have a thousand opportunities to make a thousand impressions in minutes. When it’s perfect, it’s magical. The right frame of mind, coupled with the right information, at the right time, is a bulletproof way to drive engagement, revenue, and loyalty.

We are generating thousands of tons of chicken bones a year.  A company wants us to eat them

Raydiant’s solution offers a new tool, but it is not the first to go further. In 2019, McDonald’s already acquired Dynamic Yield, a firm specializing in technology with which it intended to personalize the self-service experience. Not long after, at the end of 2021, CNBC published that the fast food chain was planning to sell the startup to Mastecard.

The Raydiant tool also poses some interesting questions about the privacy of the data, its possible sale to other companies or the ability of AI itself to guide consumption towards less healthy options. The firm ensures that the technology is designed to respect privacy and the information that is processed is anonymous; As far as it is concerned, Quartz points out, it guarantees that it does not store individualized data or later sell it to third-party companies.

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The technology would target locals with fast service.

Cover Image | Tetiana Shevereva (Unsplash)



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