Wendy's carries out some creative promotions to compete with larger competitors like McDonald's. Now, Bloomberg reports that the fast-food chain is tapping into artificial intelligence from Palantir Technologies to keep an eye out for shortages of menu items before they happen, including this summer's wildly popular $1 Frosty special. Wendy's has tested out AI before, including at one of its drive-thrus in Ohio, but now it's putting the technology to work in making sure customer demand is met by keeping key ingredients coming in on time. Palantir software will use current and past sales figures, shipping costs, and other data to figure out which products need to be purchased sooner rather than later, and can even target specific warehouses to order from in the timeliest way.
"Three or four years from now, if you're not doing this, you'll be at a distinct disadvantage," Pete Suerken, who leads the independent Wendy's supply chain co-op that makes purchases for the fast-food giant, tells Bloomberg. "This is something that, as an industry, will change the way we work." Citing Suerken, Bloomberg notes that "because the information is beamed across the supply chain, suppliers can ramp or slow down production based on sales trends," allowing Wendy's workers to focus more on other tasks instead of crunching numbers. "Nobody wants to be a spreadsheet jockey," Suerken says.
Over the summer, the co-op used Palantir AI to monitor its $1 Frosty deal, so that when demand surged, it could alert dairy suppliers. This allowed Wendy's to avoid stocking up on ingredients when it wasn't necessary. "Leveraging our Frosty has been a game changer," Wendy's CEO Kirk Tanner said in an Oct. 31 earnings call, per Quartz, which notes that the chain didn't immediately respond when asked if using AI would eventually lead to job cuts. (More Wendy's stories.)
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