Foodservice supplier The Menu Partners is using AI to process orders from restaurants and send them “instantly” to its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to prepare for dispatch.
The company is an early adopter of the AI-powered ‘Autopilot’ tool from software supplier Choco, which it has dubbed “the first AI agent in food distribution”.
When an order comes in – via WhatsApp, voicemail, SMS, email, app or webshop – Autopilot evaluates it using AI models.
“If the order matches past behaviour, contains no anomalies, and meets confidence thresholds, it is instantly processed and sent to the ERP – zero manual input, no intervention needed,” said Choco UK general manager Alex Kiely.
If something “looks off”, such as an unusual spike in the quantity ordered, Autopilot flags it for human review. The company says the tool has 99.5% accuracy before human review, a rate that is “continuously improving”.
The Menu Partners is currently processing half of all orders using Autopilot.
“As a young, fast-growing business whose mission is to reimagine the future of foodservice to the hospitality industry, The Menu Partners has been built on a culture of innovation,” said Kate Redding, senior executive officer at The Menu Partners.
“Investing in technology like Choco’s has been key to scaling efficiently, especially in the midst of one of the toughest hiring markets in decades.
“It’s helped us eliminate the manual work of logging orders by digitising everything instantly. Now, with Autopilot, we’re taking it even further – removing the need for any manual reviews. It allows our team to focus on more strategic parts of the business needs while ensuring that we’re maintaining the accuracy and efficiency our customers expect.”
Choco was launched two years ago and now processes over £1bn worth of orders annually. In the UK, it’s been adopted by east London-based wholesaler Crowbond, Northern Irish wholesaler Lynas Foodservice, seafood distributor Reach Food Group, and London drinks wholesaler Mr Lemonade, among others.
Despite the potential for the technology to be applied to other industries, Kiely told The Grocer the company was “fully focused” on food distribution.
“Our technology wasn’t inspired by other industries, it was built specifically for food distribution, addressing its unique challenges,” he said. “The principles behind Autopilot – digitising unstructured data, automating workflows, and making real-time decisions – could be applicable to other industries dealing with high-volume transactions.”
But it was food distribution, he added, “where the need for automation is critical, and where we see the biggest opportunity to drive impact”.
“As AI continues to reshape food distribution, we remain committed to expanding adoption across the UK and helping distributors future-proof their businesses.”
Kiely added: “AI is becoming a necessity, not a luxury.”
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