It was the lunch rush at a Bojangles in North Carolina when the difference became clear. Crew members once scrambled between the speaker and the window, taking orders, handling payments, and making drinks, all under the pressure of a line that never seemed to stop. But on this day, a new team member was on duty: BoLinda, Bojangles’ custom-branded AI Order Taker from Hi Auto. The transformation was immediate. “From day one, the biggest thing I noticed with having Bolinda was that the crew members felt a sense of relief,” says franchise owner Neil Pathak. “The person that used to do cash, take orders, make drinks… they’re just so relaxed now compared to before.”
A Voice AI Built for the Real World
Hi Auto’s platform is purpose-built for the drive-thru, a notoriously challenging environment for AI. Engines roar, conversations overlap, and orders must be taken quickly and accurately. Yet across nearly 1,000 restaurants in the U.S., U.K., New Zealand, and Australia, the system consistently hits 93% order completion and 96% accuracy. “It’s exciting to ramp up the number of restaurants using our AI Order Taker, but that metric represents true success when these transactions provide real value for our QSR customers and their guests,” says Roy Baharav, Co-Founder and CEO of Hi Auto. “What we view as the real achievement here is how Voice AI is improving efficiencies and employee satisfaction while boosting revenue and delivering outstanding guest experiences at almost a thousand drive-thru locations.”
Centralized control allows operators to manage upselling scripts, promotions, and menus across multiple locations while still accommodating regional and limited-time offerings. Labor optimization tools save three to eight hours per store per day, giving staff the bandwidth to focus on other operational priorities.
Turning Chaos into Consistency
At Checkers & Rally’s, the difference is tangible. “Before Hi Auto, we used to have stress trying to run to the front and answer the speaker for the guests and ring up orders and stuff,” says general manager Linda Ronda. Jason Amell, executive for Michigan’s largest Checkers & Rally’s franchisee group, adds, “You always get a nice friendly voice with Hi Auto, versus if you have a [human] order taker, they could be grumpy or in a bad mood, and then that gets conveyed to your guests. Hi Auto eliminates that.”
Bojangles CEO Jose Armario emphasizes the stress reduction at his locations. “You could see immediately the day we put Bolinda in our restaurants: we would see those stress levels come down and we would see the guest experience get better.” He also points to BoLinda’s reliability: “You can set [Bojangles’ custom-branded Voice AI] BoLinda to suggest to sell by day part, by promotion, etc. She’s very consistent and very reliable.”
Upselling with Precision
Upselling, once a variable human skill, has also become predictable with Hi Auto. Ryan Weaver, CEO of Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken, notes, “You might get an upsell 20% of the time with humans in the drive-thru. With Hi Auto, our voice AI order-taking partner, we’re getting it 100% of the time.”
Rally’s franchise owner Mike Rosania adds, “One of my favorite things about Hi Auto is it actually upsells better than my employees can. And I really thought my employees were top-notch upsellers. Hi Auto just knocks it out the park every day, every shift, day in and day out.” General manager Alisha Burton sums it up: “With Hi Auto, they’re 100% consistent. You will never miss a beat on the upselling, being the friendliest, and giving the customer the best service over the speaker.”
100 Million Orders and Counting
Founded in 2019, Hi Auto has gone from an ambitious startup to a global provider of drive-thru voice AI. Surpassing 100 million orders annually is more than a milestone; it is evidence that AI can operate reliably at scale, improving efficiency, staff satisfaction, and guest experience simultaneously. The drive-thru, one of the most demanding retail environments, now has a partner capable of keeping pace, one friendly, consistent voice at a time.