Alibaba unveils “smart-ordering” system
Customers at cafés and restaurants may soon place their orders in a machine via voice.
With the aim of enhancing the customer experience, Alibaba launched its “smart ordering” system – featuring software where order placements are addressed to a machine via voice recognition technology.
The new innovation from Alibaba Machine Intelligence Technologies boasts that the machine’s AI is able make as many order changes or corrections to update the order in real time.
Under its hardware is its breakthrough tech in spoken-language understanding, involving speech processing and natural-language processing. The research team behind the machine developed a mechanism to consider voice, visual features and other factors such as speaking pace, pauses, pronunciation and facial expressions. The team also placed a built-in reinforcement-learning model that allows revisions and intent detection.
“With the smart ordering machine as a perfect example, we believe the solution would greatly enhance the customer experience and make running a business more efficient,” said Yan Zhijie, head of Alibaba Machine Intelligence Technologies, who also noted that the technology can be applied beyond food and beverage ordering.
(Photo credit: Courtesy of Alizila)
