What is Voice AI for Restaurants in 2025?

Aug 7, 2025

What Is Voice AI?

Voice AI (Voice Artificial Intelligence) is a category of technology that allows software to understand natural language and respond in real time. It allows machines to simulate conversations, similar to how humans would.

In restaurants, voice AI is increasingly being used to handle tasks like taking phone order, answering customer calls and managing drive-thru conversations. These use to be tasks that once required dedicated front-of-house staff for.

Today, systems like Maple's voice AI allows restaurants to automate order-taking conversations from start to finish, often with better speed and accuracy than human workers under pressure.

What Does Voice AI Actually Do?

To a customer, voice AI sounds like a human on the other end of the phone. But under the hood, it’s a combination of several technologies working together, often in less than a second.

Here’s a breakdown of how a voice AI system processes a conversation:

1. Speech Recognition (ASR):

The system listens to what the customer says and transcribes their words into text. This step is powered by automatic speech recognition trained on restaurant-specific vocabulary, such as menu items, modifiers, and regional accents.

2. Natural Language Understanding (NLU):

Once the text is generated, the system determines what the customer is trying to say; also known as their "intent". For example, it knows that “Can I get a combo with fries and a Coke?” is an order request, not a question about hours.

3. Dialogue Management:

Based on the intent, the system decides what to say next. This may involve confirming an item, upselling a side, or asking a clarifying question like “Did you want that with chicken or beef?”

4. Voice Synthesis (TTS):

Finally, the AI converts its response from text back into speech using a natural-sounding voice that feels warm, clear, and brand-appropriate.

This full loop happens in real time, often within 300–800 milliseconds per turn. The customer experiences a smooth, two-way conversation instead of a clunky voice menu or robotic script.

How Voice AI Is Different from Phone IVRs

If you’ve used a traditional phone menu that says “Press 1 for this, Press 2 for that,” then you’ve interacted with an IVR (interactive voice response).

Voice AI is fundamentally different. Rather than navigating a rigid menu, customers can speak naturally, and the system understands them.

IVR example:

“Press 2 to place an order.”

Voice AI example:

“Hi, welcome to Maple’s Pizza. What can I get started for you?”

The distinction is massive. IVRs are limited and frustrating. Voice AI understands context, handles back-and-forth dialogue, and can adjust based on what the customer says, even if they change their mind mid-order or ask an unexpected question.

Why Restaurants Are Using Voice AI

Labor shortages, rising wages, and customer expectations are forcing restaurants to rethink how they operate especially at the front of house. In addition to this, we are seeing the highest amount of turnover rates in Gen Z employment as many see front-of-house jobs as temporary.

As a result, many restaurants struggle with understaffing during busy periods like holidays or rush hours. Phones ring off the hook while walk-in guests wait, and staff scramble to manage calls. In some cases, more than 30% of calls are missed, leading to lost revenue and frustrated customers.Voice AI solves these problems by automating one of the most labor-intensive FOH tasks: taking orders over the phone.

Key benefits for restaurants:

Every call is answered instantly, no matter how busy the store is.
Staff stay focused on in-person guests, not juggling a headset.
Order accuracy improves, especially during peak periods.
Consistent upselling happens on every call without training needed.

Voice AI systems like Maple’s act as a virtual employee, working 24/7, never taking a break, and never missing a call.

Common Use Cases in Restaurants

1. Phone Order Automation

This is the most common and highest ROI application. A customer calls the restaurant, and the AI greets them, takes their full order conversationally, confirms modifiers, and sends the order to the POS or kitchen display system. This removes the need for any staff member to answer the phone during service.

2. Automated Call Answering and FAQ Handling

Some restaurants use voice AI to answer routine questions like hours, address, menu availability, or reservation status. This prevents staff from being constantly interrupted and ensures that basic info is always provided accurately.

3. Overflow and After-Hours Coverage

Voice AI can serve as a fallback when staff are busy or outside normal hours. A customer who calls at 10:30 PM can still place an order or get important info, even if no one is available to pick up.

4. Drive-Thru Voice Assistant

For QSRs, voice AI can be used at the drive-thru speaker. The system takes orders from arriving vehicles, confirms upsells, and speeds up throughput by handling multiple lanes or peak rushes without adding headcount.

How Accurate Is Voice AI?

Modern voice AI systems are highly accurate and improving fast.

At Maple, our average order accuracy across 100+ restaurants is above 95%. That means nearly every caller gets the correct order entered, confirmed, and processed without human oversight.

Why is it so accurate?

Speech models are trained on restaurant-specific data, not just generic voice commands.
The system knows your exact menu, modifiers, and pricing.
It confirms back the order to the caller just like a good cashier would.
POS integration reduces handoff errors between systems or staff.

In fact, during peak shifts, many operators find that AI performs more consistently than newer staff members who might get overwhelmed or forget upsell prompts.

How Maple Uses Voice AI

Maple builds voice AI specifically for restaurants. Our platform is optimized for high-volume, high-pressure use cases like phone ordering — especially during lunch and dinner rushes.

Here’s what our system does:

Greets the caller and takes full food orders
Confirms items, sizes, modifiers, and special requests
Processes the order and sends it directly to the POS or KDS
Upsells consistently based on your menu
Handles multiple calls at once, no busy signals, no holds

We currently signed with over 1000 restaurants, and support most major POS systems, including Toast and Square.

Typical results with Maple:

Metric	Result
Call answer rate	100% (no missed calls)
Order accuracy	>95%
FOH labor savings (phone orders)	15–25% reduction
Wait time on calls	42% faster on average

What to Look for in a Voice AI System

If you're evaluating vendors, here are the most important criteria to consider:

Criteria	Description
POS Integration	Direct integration with your POS ensures the order flows straight to the kitchen without rekeying or errors.
Menu Customization	The system should fully support your menu, including combos, modifiers, allergens, and pricing changes.
Intent Recognition	Strong natural language understanding allows the AI to handle varied phrasing, slang, and accent differences.
Multi-Turn Dialogue Support	Customers rarely give perfect answers — the system needs to ask clarifying questions, handle changes, and confirm.
Uptime and Speed	Response time should feel natural (usually <1 second per turn), and the system should be available 24/7.
Escalation Handling	If something goes wrong, the AI should escalate to a manager or redirect the call smoothly.
Data & Reporting	You should be able to track performance, call volume, order completion rates, and customer behavior.

Voice AI Is Here — and It’s Working

For many restaurants, voice AI has gone from a “nice to have” to a critical part of their operation. It’s not about replacing staff, it’s about making sure your team isn’t stretched thin doing repetitive tasks that AI can do better, faster, and more consistently.

When voice AI takes care of the phones: