Culinary & FoodserviceSaturday, November 14, 2026
Burger King has deployed an OpenAI-powered AI chatbot named Patty to 500 units to coach drive-thru employees in real time and monitor service interactions.
Wendy's voice ordering system, built on Google Cloud, has reached approximately 50,000 orders per day across 24 U.S. states with a reported 95% success rate.
Walmart Health is combining retail clinics, pharmacy, and telehealth with a data-driven initiative to use geographic proximity and purchasing data to encourage preventive care and in-store blood pressure screenings.
Centralized robotic systems now handle a significant portion of daily prescription volume in major pharmacy chains, reducing manual dispensing costs and allowing staff to focus on patient interactions.
Major retailers are implementing hybrid automation systems that combine rule-based RPA with agentic AI to manage high-volume invoice processing and supplier adjustments.
The 2026 ECR Retail Loss report indicates that self-checkout accounts for approximately 28.5% of total retail loss, up from under 10% in 2018, while handling about 54% of transactions where offered.
