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Worcester Native Launches ‘Tori’, the World’s First Drive-Thru Voice Ordering AI

By Sloane Perron | June 21, 2021
Last Updated: July 8, 2021

Nick Belsito spent his youth working at his father’s restaurant, Belsito’s Deli on Plantation Street in Worcester. Little did Belsito know that making grinders and serving customers in his family’s business would give him an in-depth knowledge of the hospitality industry as he created his own startup, Open City. 

Today — Monday, June 21Open City will make history as it launches “Tori”, the first voice ordering Artificial Intelligence (AI) used in drive-thrus for fast food.

Created in 2016, Open City is Belsito’s second successful start-up; his first company, BeeLine, was a VIP concierge app that allowed users to “skip the line” in exclusive nightclubs and restaurants throughout San Jose, San Francisco, Napa Valley, New York City, and Boston. 

Throughout Belsito’s academic journey at Bentley University and his career at companies like Raytheon, Belsito found a unique niche as he wondered, “How do you intersect technology and hospitality?” 

Belsito has a passion for food and sees eating at restaurants as a way to connect with one another. Whether celebrating an important occasion, continuing a family tradition, or just enjoying flavorful dishes, Belsito described how central restaurants are to human connection. 

“Everyone has their reasons why they go [to restaurants] and I love conversing with people over that,” he said. According to Belsito, his goal is to analyze and enrich the experience of customers while also helping business owners whose hearts and souls go into making the food that they serve.

The launch of Tori as the world’s first voice ordering AI represents a giant breakthrough in restaurant/hospitality technology. 

“We’re already changing the industry, we are helping people reimagine the drive-thru experience,” Belsito  said. 

While the software is complex, the ability for customers to use the service is simple. Customers will pull up to the speaker box and place their drive thru order at which point the AI will process the order. Tori boosts an over 99% accuracy rate which ensures that customers’ orders will be correct each and every time. However, what makes Tori unique is its ability to answer customers’ questions and upsell products from the restaurant. “Tori can handle a complete conversation,” Belsito said. This means that customers will be able to speak in their “natural voices”.

According to Belsito, Tori solves many problems that drive thrus are facing, particularly since the pandemic. Due to COVID-19, 90 percent of restaurants were forced to rely on their drive-thrus as the lockdowns prevented in-person dining. This added pressure to already shortened work staff in the restaurant industry. 

“They were asked to do so much more, with so much less,” Belsito said. This resulted in reduced order accuracy and slower wait times which added to customer frustrations. As a result, Tori would eliminate these issues by taking care of all the order processing leaving staff to just focus on the payment and fulfillment of fast-food orders. 

Testing has shown that Tori improves service times by 25% to 30%. Belsito explained that better order accuracy not only makes for happier customers, but it also reduces the staff stress and results in more revenues for the business owner. 

Tori is making her first public debut at a fast-food chain in SoCal, but eventually Belsito would like to see the AI at fast food chains across the country, and one day internationally. 

By reimaging drive thru technology, Belsito strives to help business owners and customers. Right now, his goal is to, “Bring Tori to a drive thru near you.”  

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