Competitive Analysis: Why the Right AI Order Taker Will Define the Future of Restaurant Tech
As the restaurant industry grapples with rising labor costs, staffing shortages, and shrinking margins, AI Order Takers are emerging as a critical technology differentiator. But not all solutions are created equal.
What is an AI Order Taker?
An AI Order Taker is an intelligent system designed to handle customer orders via phone, text, chat, or voice, mimicking human conversation with high accuracy. It allows restaurants to automate incoming orders, reduce dependency on staff, and capture revenue that’s often lost to missed calls or busy lines.
Why AI Order Takers Matter Now
Recent studies show that 30-40% of restaurant calls go unanswered, leading to significant revenue loss. Meanwhile, delivery apps continue taking 15-30% commission per order, cutting deep into margins.
An AI Order Taker helps solve both problems by:
Capturing every inbound order (even during peak hours)
Reducing reliance on third-party apps
Decreasing labor costs
Improving customer experience with faster, accurate ordering
Competitor Landscape: Who’s Building AI Order Takers?
The space is growing, with multiple players approaching the problem from different angles:
Loman.ai is a niche AI voice ordering platform designed specifically for pizzerias. Their system focuses on capturing repetitive, high-volume pizza orders, handling customized toppings and combos efficiently. Its strength lies in understanding pizza-specific flows, making it easy for pizza chains to automate phone orders. However, its narrow focus limits its scalability beyond pizzerias. Loman.ai lacks support for SMS, chat, or dine-in scenarios, and does not offer smart upselling or customer retargeting features—critical for diverse restaurant models.
Voiceplug.ai
Voiceplug.ai is a voice-first platform built primarily for drive-thru operations. It leverages conversational AI to manage complex, noisy environments where fast, accurate order capture is crucial. Its strength is in optimizing drive-thru speed and efficiency, which is valuable for QSR brands. However, it lacks support for other channels like SMS, text, or dine-in experiences, making it unsuitable for restaurants relying heavily on phone orders, delivery, or web ordering. Voiceplug is great for drive-thru-specific use cases but limited for full-service AI Order Taker needs.
SoundHound.ai
SoundHound.ai offers advanced voice AI capabilities across multiple industries, including automotive, retail, and restaurants. Their platform excels in natural language processing (NLP) and real-time conversational AI, making it a powerful voice tool. However, SoundHound is more of a generalist AI solution rather than restaurant-specific. It doesn’t provide the deep integrations, upselling, or customer retargeting features that restaurants need to maximize revenue per order. Additionally, its focus is heavily weighted toward voice, with limited support for text or multi-channel engagement.
Certus-ai.com
Certus.ai provides a dual-channel AI solution supporting both voice and text ordering for restaurants. It aims to automate repetitive tasks like taking orders, freeing up staff to focus on service. Certus shines in offering flexibility between phone and text but still lacks features like smart upselling, data-driven retargeting, or a robust dine-in solution. Its AI conversations are primarily task-driven, without deep personalization or loyalty integrations that could drive more revenue from existing customers.
Slang.ai
Slang.ai is a voice-only conversational AI platform designed to automate phone ordering for independent restaurants. Its conversational flows are user-friendly and effective for capturing basic orders. However, its single-channel design (voice-only) limits its versatility. Slang.ai does not support SMS, chat, or web ordering, and lacks any built-in upselling or marketing automation capabilities. As consumer behavior shifts toward multi-channel engagement, this narrow scope could be a bottleneck.
Txtordr.com
Txtordr.com offers a simple SMS-based ordering platform aimed at small and independent restaurants. The system is easy to implement and allows customers to text orders directly, making it accessible for less tech-savvy users. While Txtordr is a low-barrier solution, it lacks voice capabilities, smart upselling, or analytics features. Its focus is limited to simple text interactions, missing opportunities for cross-selling, retargeting, or serving more complex order flows.
Tarro.com
Tarro.com blends AI with human agents, targeting pizzerias, sushi, and Chinese restaurants where complex or culturally specific menu items may require human fallback. Tarro’s hybrid model ensures accuracy but increases operational costs as human agents are still involved. While useful for niche restaurants needing extra menu nuance, it lacks scalability, full AI autonomy, and multi-channel capabilities like dine-in or retargeting. Tarro is better suited for specialized use cases, not general restaurant automation.
Kea.ai
Kea.ai positions itself as an AI-powered voice order taker that specifically focuses on automating phone orders for restaurants. Kea’s system is trained on restaurant menus, helping it handle typical phone order scenarios efficiently. However, Kea is voice-only and misses out on additional channels like SMS or chat. It also lacks built-in marketing tools such as upselling or retargeting features that could increase the average order value or boost repeat business.
HeyPluto.com
HeyPluto offers an AI agent designed for reservations and ordering, with multi-functionality that extends beyond just order-taking. It supports messaging platforms, helping restaurants handle reservations, simple queries, and order placement. While versatile, its ordering functionality is not as deep as competitors focused solely on AI Order Taking. Upselling, complex menu handling, and customer retargeting are not core strengths, making it better suited for small operations that value convenience over robust ordering capabilities.
Haptik.ai
Haptik is a conversational AI platform that serves multiple industries, including retail, finance, and food service. For restaurants, it offers chatbot-driven ordering experiences on apps and websites. While its chatbot engine is powerful, Haptik is a generalist rather than a restaurant-specific solution. It lacks restaurant-first features like upsell logic, menu complexity handling, and dine-in QR code ordering, which reduces its effectiveness as a true AI Order Taker purpose-built for restaurants.
BiteBuddy.ai
BiteBuddy.ai stands out as a comprehensive AI Order Taker platform purpose-built for restaurants of all types—from independent mom-and-pop shops to large QSR chains. Unlike voice-only or text-only competitors, BiteBuddy.ai offers seamless voice, SMS, chat, and dine-in QR ordering in one system. It doesn’t stop at order capture; the platform also drives revenue through AI-driven upselling, personalized SMS retargeting, and repeat order frictionless flows. Its ability to handle multi-channel orders, retarget past customers, and automate upsells makes it a true end-to-end AI Order Taker. Additionally, BiteBuddy.ai reduces reliance on third-party apps, helping restaurants reclaim their margins while delivering a superior customer experience.
The Future is Voice + Text + AI-Powered Customer Journeys
The next-generation AI Order Taker won’t just capture orders — it will engage, upsell, and re-engage customers across multiple channels. Solutions that limit themselves to voice-only or text-only will struggle to compete in a world where customers expect instant, flexible, and personalized service.
Choosing the right AI Order Taker is no longer optional for restaurants—it’s a competitive necessity. BiteBuddy.ai leads the pack with its comprehensive approach, ensuring that restaurants don’t just survive but thrive in an increasingly automated industry.
The question isn’t if you need an AI Order Taker — it’s which one will give you the most competitive edge.