Lunchbot

Overview

Making a choice can be hard, let alone when you’re hungry. We’ve solved some of the toughest decisions through voice and chat technologies.

Business case

Information provided instantly

As a decision agent, voice and chat technology allow users to quickly work through layers of questions in a natural format (human conversation) in order to get to an answer. While we solved a simple problem (ordering lunch), these technologies could be applied to solve real-world problems. For example, it could be leveraged in hospitals where users could leverage chat or voice UI to find their way around the space, or by staff to locate a nurse or doctor. In the end, this application goes far beyond getting lunch, and is effortlessly presenting information that the user wants and needs in a timely fashion.

The experiment

Eliminating indecisions through various technologies

In order to eliminate the indecision about deciding what’s for lunch, we developed an Alexa skill that searches Yelp for nearby restaurants. When prompted, Lunchbot extracts the user’s request and sends it to Yelp’s search API. Designed to simulate conversation with human users, Lunchbot sorts through menu items and then proposes a few options on where the user can grab a bite to eat. Using the user’s order history to personalize their experience, it then delivers that experience to various forms of communication platforms including Slack, Alexa, Twilio (SMS), a custom web-based chatbot and more.