EAST MOLINE, Ill. — Drive past Checkers at lunch time and there tends to be a line of cars waiting for their quick fix of burgers and fries.
Inside the East Moline location kitchen, General Manager Laura Luken and her staff are busy grilling burgers, wrapping fish sandwiches and manning the deep fryer. Luken calls out the order and it's just seconds before the guest is at the drive-thru window waiting.
"We're short handed today so that's why it's a little crazier than usual," Luken said while bagging up yet another Big Buford burger order.
But these days, the staff have one less job to do thanks to the help of artificial intelligence.
"It's one less person we have to have," Luken said. "Like if we're short handed like we are today, she'll take the order and we can make the food."
In September 2022, the Quad Cities Checkers franchise rolled out the use of AI at its drive-thrus. It was part of an initiative that began at nearly 300 locations to address the labor shortage in the restaurant industry.
"We basically decided to try it just because we stopped getting applicants right around June of 2021," said Quad Cities Checkers franchise owner Brian Kiel. "Ok, this would help us get through all this. And it really has."
"We love her, that's all I gotta say," Luken said.
When you pull up to the double drive-thru lanes, instead of a person asking for your order, you'll hear the computer voice.
"We say she, but you know, she's a computer," Kiel said.
She'll first welcome you to Checkers and ask if you want to order a deal. When News 8 visited, she asked, "Do you want to try the double mushroom swiss 2 for $6?"
Then, it's just like any other drive-thru order. You'll say what food you want and she'll ask follow up questions, such as do you want to add bacon? Or do you want to make it a combo? If you leave out information, such as what drink size you want, she'll ask that too.
Checkers partnered with Presto, a restaurant technology group, to build the program. However, the technology isn't perfect.
"Anytime there's a mistake that's made, we report it and they reprogram the intelligence to not do it again," Kiel said. "It's a learning curve that you have to adjust to keep sending them things that they could fix for us."
When a mistake is made, Checkers employees take a picture of it and send it to Presto.
"It's no different than if a human being was sitting there taking the order, we make mistakes too," Kiel said. "Sometimes it's the guest's fault and sometimes it's the computers fault. If she doesn't hear it properly, if the words not spoken, it sometimes can be rang up differently, which we pay attention to. We go over there and we try to confirm the order at the window as well."
He can tell that the computer is learning and improving though. When it first rolled out in September, they were reporting mistakes daily, but now, it's only a couple times a week.
"Some [customers] don't like it at all but they can always ask for one of us," Luken said. "We have headsets on so we can hear them request us and we just hop on and take over."
"Not me," customer Pam Diederich said. "I like it. It probably helps them out too."
Another drive-thru customer, Justin Vanderheyden, said it took him time to get used to, but he finds it easy.
"I just was worried the computer was going to get something wrong, or I guess I just like talking to a person a little bit more than talking to a computer," he said.
However, Vanderheyden isn't sold on the use of AI.
"It's just something people are going to have to get used to," he said. "It's something that's happening whether we like it or not. But I guess there's things AI can pick up on that we don't necessarily need."
Checkers estimates that its drive-thru lanes generate anywhere from 60% to 70% of sales.
Now, with the help of AI, the four Quad Cities Checkers are staying open for more hours. Kiel said he was closing the stores at 9 p.m. before because he didn't have the staff. Now, the fast food chain is open until 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. The Davenport Locust Street location, however, is open until 3 a.m. every night.
"Our customer counts are up, our sales are up, so that tells me that the guests, even the ones that kind of get frustrated at times, they'll still return," Kiel said. "It really helps us focus on the guests at the window as well."
Checkers was the first national restaurant to use AI-powered voice assistance in the drive-thru lanes, but now it's expanding to other chains. In May, Presto announced it was partnering with the parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's to increase the number of its locations using the technology.