Voice AI solutions for phone ordering aren’t exactly a new thing. Kea has been offering them since 2017. But back then it would take three to six months to get a voice-ordering interface up and running. Today it takes an hour.
Adam Ahmad, founder and CEO of Kea
“It’s taken years of development effort to get to this point,” said Adam Ahmad, founder and CEO of Kea, in an interview. “You have all these POS systems you need to integrate with, whether it’s Toast, Aloha, Square. A lot of rigorous testing was required.”
But from toil comes convenience. And not just for larger brands, who have historically been the ones with the resources to experiment with technology, but smaller brands, who have smaller budgets but big needs.
Ahmad says Kea’s new offering is affordable and intuitive, something even a non-tech-savvy overworked operator can install and understand.
“We can now serve as a virtual helping hand to moms-and-pops,” he said. “Even if you have one store or two stores or five stores, you can have a Voice AI system. That’s never been done before. That’s something we’re super proud about.”
OK, but how does the digital employee come across on the phone? Like a slow-talking weird robot or a warm friend?
Ahmad insists it’s the latter. Although he concedes it took some work.
“We tested around 500 different voices before settling on two options, a female voice and a male voice. It comes down to the brand preference,” he said.
And it’s not just the voice. The phone call includes atmospherics. In the background you hear kitchen noises: a plate sound here, some muffled talking there. The pleasant cacophony of a busy restaurant.
Another benefit is the consistency of the experience. Unlike a harried staffer who may be in the let’s-get-this-over-with stretch of a busy shift, the digital worker never loses enthusiasm.
“The female voice is Jessica and you can hear how friendly and peppy she is,” he said. “That is how she is every phone call.”
And going forward a brand might even be able to be creative with the voice, like deploying Santa Claus to answer calls during the holidays. “We’ll be announcing some fun things later in the year,” Ahmad said.
For now the service is suitable strictly for phone-in orders. But Kea is looking at solutions for drive-thru and inside the restaurant.
“We’re looking at everywhere where voice is being used to place an order,” he said. “Today when you walk up to a restaurant, someone takes your order. But tomorrow that person may be more needed in the kitchen. Same thing with drive-thru. Somebody’s wearing that headset today but as the churn rate increases in the industry — right now a restaurant needs to replace half its staff every 90 days — we see ourselves helping brands in more ways.”
Brands sign up for a flat rate and monthly subscription. Ahmad is optimistic that the offering can scale and scale quickly. The potential is certainly there. The company estimates that the global Voice AI market size will grow from $2.4 billion in 2024 to $47.5 billion by 2034. Kea reports that it has doubled the number of restaurants it serves each year, including Blaze Pizza and Hopdoddy. It aims to grow bigger by going smaller.
“The brands that have generally benefited from large-scale systems like Voice AI have always been the enterprise brands,” he said. “Now there is a solution for the independents.”
