Restaurant Voice Ordering Automation helps solve labor shortages and increases sales

SoundHound AI, Inc. (“SoundHound”) (Nasdaq: SOUN), a global leader in voice artificial intelligence, today announced a first-of-its-kind service that will allow restaurants to automate the phone ordering process. SoundHound and Square, the globally trusted software, payments and hardware company, are partnering to integrate SoundHound's conversational AI phone ordering automation with Square’s point-of-sale (POS) systems.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220519005355/en/

SoundHound and Square are partnering to integrate SoundHound's conversational AI phone ordering automation with Square’s point-of-sale (POS) systems. (Graphic: Business Wire)

When a customer calls into a restaurant to place an order, the SoundHound for Restaurants™ voice assistant immediately answers the call, takes the caller’s order, accepts modifications, and sends a confirmation to complete the payment. Callers can ask for what they want through a natural language interface powered by SoundHound's advanced conversational AI technology.

Seamless integration and a simple four-step setup make SoundHound for Restaurants ideal for restaurant owners looking for cost-effective ways to handle the recent trends of increasing consumer demand for take-out orders and the impact of labor shortages. SoundHound’s voice assistant answers every call—even during peak hours—eliminating the busy signal, taking multiple orders simultaneously, and seamlessly processing the order and payment through Square’s POS system.

"At Square, we are seeing sellers leverage the latest technology to meet customer demand regardless of size or complexity," said Bryan Solar, Head of Restaurants, Square. "Our partnership with SoundHound allows us to offer innovative and cost-effective solutions to restaurants working with small profit margins and facing multiple challenges—including the high cost of rapid labor turnover and shortages. This integration provides our sellers with the tools they need to offer a consistently high-level of customer service."

To get started, restaurant owners simply connect their Square POS to SoundHound for Restaurants, sync to the menu they want the voice assistant to use, and input the phone number for the system to answer. After that, SoundHound’s voice assistant acts just like a front of house staff member—answering the phone and taking orders.

"We spoke with many restaurant operators to develop SoundHound for Restaurants and received overwhelming feedback about the need for automated solutions that help restaurants process more orders and meet growing consumer demands more efficiently,” said James Hom, SoundHound Co-Founder and VP of Products. “Our partnership with Square has given us the opportunity to bring the power of conversational AI technology to businesses that would otherwise not be able to access the convenience and efficiencies of a voice-enabled solution.”

SoundHound and Square will be exhibiting the new service at the National Restaurant Show to take place May 21-24, 2022, at Chicago’s McCormick Place. As part of the unveiling of the service, SoundHound plans to offer restaurants that sign up by June 30, 2022, free subscription fees through the end of the year. To sign up, please visit: soundhound.com/restaurants

About SoundHound

SoundHound (Nasdaq: SOUN), a leading innovator of conversational intelligence, offers an independent voice AI platform that enables businesses across industries to deliver best-in-class conversational experiences to their customers. Built on proprietary Speech-to-Meaning® and Deep Meaning Understanding® technologies, SoundHound’s advanced voice AI platform provides exceptional speed and accuracy and enables humans to interact with products and services like they interact with each other—by speaking naturally. SoundHound is trusted by companies around the globe, including Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Pandora, Qualcomm, Netflix, Deutsche Telekom, Snap, VIZIO, KIA, and Stellantis. www.soundhound.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220519005355/en/