Quick-service restaurants are no strangers to automation experiments, from kiosks to mobile apps, but few solutions have proven capable of operating reliably at scale. Hi Auto’s AI Order Taker, now handling over 100 million drive-thru orders per year, may be changing that perception. The company reports 93% order completion and 96% accuracy across nearly 1,000 locations, demonstrating that voice AI can deliver consistent results in high-pressure, high-volume environments.
Moving Beyond Pilot Programs
Drive-thrus are fast-moving, noisy, and complex. Human order takers often juggle multiple tasks, leading to errors, missed upsells, and employee stress. Hi Auto’s AI, purpose-built for this environment, handles these challenges consistently while scaling across the U.S., U.K., Australia, and New Zealand.
“It’s exciting to ramp up the number of restaurants using our AI Order Taker, but that metric represents true success when these transactions provide real value for our QSR customers and their guests,” says Roy Baharav, co-founder and CEO of Hi Auto. “What we view as the real achievement here is how Voice AI is improving efficiencies and employee satisfaction while boosting revenue and delivering outstanding guest experiences at almost a thousand drive-thru locations.”
Measurable Benefits for Operators
Operators using Hi Auto highlight the tangible impact on both revenue and operations. Key benefits include:
- Upselling consistency: “You might get an upsell 20% of the time with humans in the drive-thru. With Hi Auto, our voice AI order-taking partner, we’re getting it 100% of the time,” says Ryan Weaver, CEO of Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken.
- Stress reduction for staff: “From day one, the biggest thing I noticed with having Bolinda was that the crew members felt a sense of relief. The person that used to do cash, take orders, make drinks… they’re just so relaxed now compared to before,” notes Neil Pathak, Bojangles franchise owner.
- Reliable guest interactions: “You always get a nice friendly voice with Hi Auto, versus if you have a [human] order taker, they could be grumpy or in a bad mood, and then that gets conveyed to your guests. Hi Auto eliminates that,” explains Jason Amell, executive with Michigan’s largest Checkers & Rally’s franchisee business.
- Operational flexibility: Employees can focus on food prep and window service rather than juggling orders, as Linda Ronda, Checkers store GM, points out: “But now we can do other things and be able to still pay 100% attention to the guests at the window.”
Standardization at Scale
QSR leaders emphasize that AI provides a level of consistency that human staff can rarely achieve. “You can set [Bojangles’ custom-branded Voice AI] BoLinda to suggest to sell by day part, by promotion, etc.,” says Bojangles CEO Jose Armario. “She’s very consistent and very reliable.”
Rally’s franchise owner Mike Rosania adds, “One of my favorite things about Hi Auto is it actually upsells better than my employees can. And I really thought my employees were top-notch upsellers. Hi Auto just knocks it out the park every day, every shift, day in and day out.”
AI That Scales Globally
Founded in 2019, Hi Auto combines centralized control over voice, scripts, and upsells with the flexibility for franchisees to adjust menus, limited-time offers, and regional promotions. The system can save three to eight labor hours per store per day, helping teams reallocate effort to higher-value tasks.
With over 100 million orders processed annually, Hi Auto demonstrates that voice AI has moved beyond pilot programs. It’s now an operational backbone capable of delivering faster service, consistent upselling, and reduced stress for staff, a combination that could redefine how high-volume drive-thrus operate around the world.
