Just Eat customers using the aggregator app’s recently launched AI-powered, in-app voice assistant to order find food faster and are more influenced by recommendations, early data shows.
The food delivery app launched the voice assistant in January. It is able to generate a basket of ingredients from a user’s meal prompt at their local supermarket for rapid delivery and recommend restaurants and dishes based on conversations with users.
Just Eat said those using the tool were able to find what they’re looking for 40% faster than those using the text-only AI assistant, and that those customers were 30% more likely to choose a recommended restaurant or dish than customers browsing through the app’s traditional search.
Following its launch in the UK and Germany earlier this year, Just Eat has now rolled out the voice assistant to Poland, Spain, Austria, Italy, Belgium and Switzerland.
“The biggest challenge in food delivery today isn’t finding restaurants. It’s deciding,” said Jörg Gerbig, chief corporate development officer at Just Eat Takeaway. “Every evening, millions of people ask themselves the same question: What do I feel like eating?
“Our AI voice assistant removes the friction from ordering, letting customers describe what they want in their own words, just like talking to a friend,” Gerbig added. “The future of convenience isn’t about giving people more choices. It’s about giving them the right choice.”
The voice assistant can recommend restaurants and dishes based on a user’s “mood, budget, dietary requirements or occasion, making it easier to discover the right meal without endless scrolling” Just Eat said. It can respond to conversational requests like ‘I’m feeding a family of four for under £40’, ‘I fancy something spicy but not pizza again’, and ‘Order my usual Friday night curry’.
Burgers, pizza and chicken were the most common cuisine requests made through AI Voice Assistant, Just Eat said, followed by kebabs and Indian food.
In May, Just Eat began a pilot for ordering via WhatsApp, enabling users to converse with an AI assistant to discover and select their order.
The “entire discovery and selection process happens right in the WhatsApp chat”, Just Eat explained, with the aggregator’s own app used for the final, secure payment step.
The company claimed it to be “Europe’s first food and retail ordering journey on WhatsApp”.
New analysis of millions of customer journeys across Just Eat Takeaway.com’s European platforms shows customers typically browse around three restaurants before placing an order, with almost a quarter of ordering journeys involving four or more restaurants before a final decision is made. However, 43% of users “go straight to a single restaurant, highlighting strong loyalty to favourite takeaways”.
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