Hungry for Learning: Wendy’s Will Croushorn

2025-12-16 · Source: Me, Myself, and AI · Field: Retail & Consumer Goods — Retail Technology & Operations, Customer Experience & Engagement, Retail Analytics & Intelligence · Depth: Intermediate, extended

Summary

Wendy's product manager Will Croushorn discusses FreshAi, the company's voice-based AI ordering system, which is transforming the drive-through experience. FreshAi handles over 150,000 orders daily across hundreds of U.S. stores, managing the complexity of 200 billion ways to order a Dave's Double burger. The system supports ordering in English and Spanish, with plans for more languages, and displays a real-time transcript on digital menu boards to build trust and aid customers with hearing challenges. FreshAi achieves approximately 95% order accuracy and focuses on enhancing accessibility, as demonstrated by its ability to process atypical speech patterns like stutters, a feature developed with a speech therapist. The initiative emphasizes using AI to serve customers in previously impossible ways, freeing human staff to focus on uniquely human interactions.

Key takeaway

For executives considering AI deployment in customer-facing operations, FreshAi demonstrates that AI can deliver measurable impact at enterprise scale by improving accessibility and consistency. You should focus on how AI can enable entirely new customer experiences, rather than merely automating existing processes. Prioritize building trust through transparent interactions, like on-screen transcripts, and actively solicit diverse feedback to continuously refine the system and address edge cases, ensuring broad customer inclusion.

Key insights

AI can transform complex customer interactions by enhancing accessibility and consistency at enterprise scale.

Principles

• Prioritize customer empathy in AI design.
• Data structure is critical for complex AI systems.
• Innovation often comes from diverse fields.

Method

Wendy's developed FreshAi by asking "Can you take an order?" then expanded to "How can AI do something different?" They continuously refine the system using customer feedback from direct observation and social media, and by tracking novel metrics like "number of sorrys."

In practice

• Track non-obvious metrics like "sorry" counts.
• Observe customer interactions directly and via social media.
• Seek inspiration from unrelated industries like Disney.

Topics

• FreshAi
• Voice AI
• Drive-through Automation
• Speech Recognition
• AI Accessibility

Best for: Executive, AI Product Manager, AI Engineer, Business Analyst

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by Me, Myself, and AI.