AI language provider ConverseNow acquires fellow provider Valyant AI

Rahul Aggarwal and Vinay Shukla co-founded ConverseNow in 2018. | Photo courtesy of ConverseNow

Two of the largest providers of AI voice ordering for restaurants are joining forces.

ConverseNow uses AI to automate restaurant phone orders and acquires Valyant AI, an AI-powered drive-thru ordering provider, to advance its fledgling drive-thru business.

The combined company will have more than 2,000 restaurants, including Domino’s, Wingstop and Blake’s Lotaburger on the ConverseNow site and Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s for Valyant. Valyant is also an approved supplier to Checkers and Rally’s franchisees, although it does not operate in any of those restaurants.

The deal will result in an all-around better AI product with speech recognition, Vinay Shukla, co-founder and CEO of ConverseNow, said in an interview.

Both companies were founded in 2018 and offer similar technology: AI voice bots that can operate phones or fast-food restaurant drive-ins. But each has some unique advantages that the other lacks.

ValyantAI brings an innovative hardware to the table that will allow ConverseNow to quickly expand into more drive-thrus. The device will be used to clean and process audio.

ConverseNow has developed its own drive-thru system, but supply chain issues on the hardware side have slowed it down, Shukla said. The acquisition of ValyantAI will help accelerate that.

ValyantAI’s Holly voice bot also has a powerful upselling feature that will be integrated into future versions of the merged company’s software.

ConverseNow’s strength is that it can scale voice AI across multiple restaurants and brands, Shukla said, thanks to a menu management tool that allows the system to quickly adapt to menu changes such as limited-time offers or inventory levels.

“If you don’t have solid menu management, you can’t scale restaurants because menus change frequently,” Shukla said.

For restaurants using either ConverseNow or Valyant, the service will remain the same for now. But in the third quarter, the company will begin rolling out a new system to customers that includes features from both companies. Restaurants will see better upselling opportunities, better data on things like service time and accuracy, improved close rates and the ability to deploy AI more quickly, Shukla said.

They also get access to a brand new product: an AI assistant for restaurant employees that allows staff to ask work-related questions and get an answer immediately. ValyantAI developed the system and has tested it with a few brands. ConverseNow will be able to help scale it.

By combining resources, the combined company can also make AI more affordable and accessible to more than just the largest restaurant chains.

“If we bring everything together, we can really shake up the market,” Shukla said.

Voice-controlled AI is starting to gain traction in restaurants looking to cut labor costs and increase revenue. But progress, especially in the drive-thru, is slow. McDonald’s announced last month that it was ending a three-year test of the technology. A major fast-food chain has yet to fully embrace it — but that day may be coming soon.

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