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Wingstop Alexa Courtesy of Wingstop
Wingstop has pioneered voice ordering, but it's just the beginning of this capability.

Future of Food: Consumers yell their orders

Consumers can talk into devices or chat with bots to place orders

In the near future, hungry consumers might be able to yell at any of their belongings and food will eventually appear.

Until then, there’s Alexa.

Alexa is the digital assistant in Amazon’s Echo, similar to Google Assistant in Google Home devices. These digital assistants are being embedded into consumer’s lives, with more applications on the way.

Amazon partners say they will offer Alexa in alarm clocks, Ford Fusion and F-150 and Volkswagen cars, light switches, refrigerators, Roombas, televisions, washers and dryers.

For more than a year, Domino’s Pizza has offered ordering capabilities through Alexa, launching it before the Super Bowl in 2016. The chain expanded that to Google Home in December. Pizza Hut also adopted hands-free voice ordering through Alexa in December, and Wingstop did the same in January.

Restaurant brands have also adopted ordering through social platforms like Facebook Messenger and Twitter.

And social gift giving got a boost this spring when Starbucks debuted a program that lets customers send gift cards through the Apple operating system’s iMessage texting platform, paid for with Apple Pay.

Tech-savvy restaurant companies are making sure their food is convenient for the customer, not just at their fingertips but also within shouting distance.

Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected]

Follow him on Twitter: @RonRuggless

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