DoorDash has pulled the plug on its nearly 2-year-old AI voice ordering business.
The delivery company announced in August 2023 that it was testing AI-powered telephone order-taking to help operators capture calls that were going unanswered. The following March, it hired three leaders from retail tech firm Standard AI to help continue developing the product.
At the time, it said it was talking to a number of medium and large brands about using the technology, including pizza chains.
DoorDash did not give a specific reason for ending AI voice ordering. “We scale or wind down initiatives based on many factors including product-market fit, customer demand, and other factors,” a DoorDash spokesperson said in a statement.
However, the effort was apparently not entirely fruitless. The spokesperson said the company has “developed proprietary technology and learnings” from the pilot that will be deployed elsewhere.
It comes as the company works to expand its business beyond just food delivery. Voice ordering was part of a suite of online tools for restaurants called the Commerce Platform. DoorDash will soon add to that platform with the acquisition of reservations and marketing service SevenRooms.
AI voice ordering has become a growing presence in restaurants as they look to automate tasks and operate more efficiently. But it is a competitive market with a number of vendors jockeying for position.
DoorDash has scrapped ambitious projects before. In 2022, it shut down its Chowbotics division, which sold the salad-making robot Sally, after it failed to meet internal benchmarks. It had acquired Chowbotics the prior year.
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