Dive Brief:
- Papa Johns is cooking up a variety of AI projects targeting operations and customer experience as part of an expanded multiyear partnership with Google Cloud announced Thursday.
- The pizza chain created an innovation team, called PJX, focused on utilizing the cloud provider’s AI, ML and data analytics capabilities. The goal is to optimize restaurant operations and reduce customer service costs while improving customer satisfaction.
- Papa Johns will transition to a Google Cloud-based point-of-sale system to enable AI-powered dispatching, delivery route optimization and process automation. The pizza delivery company also plans to build an AI chatbot to handle common customer inquiries and incorporate AI voice ordering in its app.
Dive Insight:
Quick service restaurants continue to lean on technology in response to uncertainty, from the cooling labor market to customer spending pullbacks.
Yum Brands developed a suite of proprietary SaaS tools as it looked to provide franchisees with more turnkey solutions, remove duplicative efforts and support strategic priorities. Last month, the Taco Bell and Pizza Hut parent company partnered with Nvidia to accelerate its use of AI.
Marco’s Pizza also laid out plans to capitalize on prior momentum with tech upgrades this year in pursuit of customer and employee experience enhancements.
Papa Johns' commitment to AI comes after a leadership overhaul last year.
The company appointed a new CEO and president in August, bringing former Wendy’s CEO and president Todd Penegor to the helm in the middle of the company’s Back to Better 2.0 plan. Then the chain hired Kevin Vasconi, Wendy’s former CIO, as its chief digital and technology officer in September. A new chief marketing officer joined in November and other executive roles were revamped or expanded.
Investing in the tech stack is one of Papa Johns’ key focus areas going forward, executives outlined in an investor presentation last month. The company sees tech investments as a way to increase operational efficiency and franchisee profitability.
Penegor said the company is deciding how to start its “journey of investing and really modernizing our tech stack,” during the company’s Q3 2024 earnings call in November. “We've got a lot of other opportunities on the tech side, too, that we've got to address,” he added.
