Domino’s rolls out voice ordering

JUST in case you thought ordering pizza was too hard, Domino’s has unveiled a new hi-tech system that requires no effort whatsoever.

Domino's is launching a voice-activated virtual assistant.

NOW you can order pizza by talking to your phone — just like the good old days.

Domino’s is going back to the future with a Siri-style, voice-activated ordering system in what the pizza giant says is its “biggest platform shift since 2009”.

Rolling out nationally from Monday, the Dru Assist virtual assistant — also available as a text-based chat bot — was developed by speech recognition firm Nuance, creator of the Dragon NaturallySpeaking software.

Domino’s chief executive Don Meij said Dru Assist was still an “adolescent”, but would become more efficient and accurate once tens of thousands of customers began interacting with it.

“The more you use it the faster it will get,” he told news.com.au. “You can pretty well give a full paragraph and he’ll get most of it. You could say, ‘Pick-up from Coogee store Sydney, two supremes, one meatlovers,’ and then sit back.

“And if you type that in the text box, there’s no faster way now to make a complex order apart from zero-click [which remembers your favourite order]. [But the speed] is so variable because some people will just place a short order and some will do a longer, more complicated order.”

Mr Meij denied Dru Assist was a “return to telephone ordering”.

“The thing about telephone ordering, is that often you know you’re coming ‘live’ into a pizza shop, [and] there’s all the tension that goes with that — it’s not in your own time,” he said.

“The benefit of digital ordering, what we’ve seen actually is people spend more time on digital ordering. What people value about this is it’s your own pace and speed, in your own privacy in your own way and time.

“Calling a pizza shop and remembering our whole menu isn’t the best experience you can get from Domino’s.”

In addition to placing orders, Dru Assist can answer questions about menus, ingredients, store locations and opening hours — as well as engaging customers in social banter. And while not yet available in Australia, Domino’s is working on integration with voice-activated smart home devices like Amazon Echo.

Robert Schwarz, managing director of Nuance Australia and New Zealand, said Domino’s was already a recognised industry leader in digital innovation.

“Through our partnership, we collaborated with Domino’s to deliver a tailored, first-to-market solution that supports the brand and is on the cutting edge of innovation,” Mr Schwarz said.

Customers will soon be able to drop a pin in a map to order pizza.

In addition to the artificial intelligence foray — Domino’s says it is moving from a “mobile first” to an “AI first” philosophy — the chain will also launch map-based GPS ordering in coming weeks, meaning pizzas can be delivered to outdoor locations such as a park or a beach.

That feature, dubbed Domino’s Anywhere, is already available in the Netherlands, where it was first developed.

A separate Facebook chat bot, Domino’s Offers Bot, which customers will be able to use to find vouchers and coupons for stores nearby, will also launch in the next few days.

Another offshoot of Domino’s Dru platform, Dru Manager, will help franchisees by automating certain functions such as rostering and stock ordering.

Domino’s, which now takes 70 per cent of its orders online, says Dru Assist is a first for the Australian fast-food industry. And the firm insists, just like robot and drone deliveries, that it’s not a gimmick.

Mr Meij promised that drone and robot deliveries would begin rolling out to actual customers in this year. Domino’s made the world’s first-ever hot pizza delivery by drone last November in New Zealand in partnership with drone firm Flirtey, but Mr Meij said more work needed to be done to increase weight capacity and speed.

As most orders include drinks, the current capacity of 2.5kg is too low. Domino’s is working to increase the capacity to 3.5kg. “The math in drones with that is significant,” he said. “You trade off distance and weight. But both of those things are being solved.”

Mr Meij said drones would be “one of the most significant” delivery methods in coming years, but “we’re still mapping it out”. “We do forecast it will be a double-digit proportion of our orders,” he said.

“This year you will hear announcements in other parts of the world with activity in this space, and the expansion of contracts and how many deliveries we’re doing as we break through and conquer some of these things.”

Earlier this month, Domino’s reported an 8 per cent increase in half-year profit to $50 million, after record network sales breached the $1 billion mark during the six months to December 31. The company also upgraded its full-year guidance, expecting net profit and underlying earnings to increase by 32.5 per cent in 2016/17.

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