Just Eat, the world’s leading marketplace for online food delivery, today gave a sneak peek into the future, bringing together exciting technologies in the fields of Virtual and Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, self-driving delivery robots and other innovations aimed at transforming how people discover, order and enjoy food.
At an event in the Village Underground in Shoreditch, London titled “The Future Now – Redefining Food Discovery”, Just Eat showcased the future of online food technology. Just Eat’s dedicated product development team provided guests with a hands-on experience of the innovations that will help improve food experiences for both customers and restaurants in the decades to come.
David Buttress, Chief Executive of Just Eat, said: “Technology is at the heart of everything we do at Just Eat. We are always seeking ways to help our restaurant partners grow and ensure new and existing customers have a reliable, convenient and, increasingly, fun experience when they order from us. Technology innovation helps us bring the greatest breadth of choice to consumers while giving our fantastic restaurant partners the tools and resources to further their own ambitions.”
Fernando Fanton, Chief Product and Technology Officer of Just Eat, added: “Working with leading partners, we are exploring the latest fields in technology to shape the future of how we interact with food. By harnessing these advanced technologies, Just Eat is driving innovation in our sector and working towards our ambition to create the world’s greatest food community.”
Working with leading technology companies across social media, gaming, artificial intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and robotics, Just Eat has become seamlessly integrated into the technology that shapes our daily lives.
The experiences and innovations on show at the event included:
- Virtual Reality: An industry first, Just Eat is harnessing the fully immersive capabilities of VR to bring restaurant partners a unique understanding of their business, providing a bird’s eye view of orders that can highlight patterns, hot spots and opportunities for growth.
- HoloLens: Another first in food technology, Just Eat allows us to imagine a world where traditional menus become a thing of the past.Enhancing the physical environment through AR, the experience brings food to life, enabling customers to see a restaurant menu as a buffet for them to pick and choose from.
- The home of the future: Already integrated as a launch skill for Amazon Echo, Just Eat today revealed the app it has been working on for Apple TV (coming January 2017) and exclusively unveiled its brand new app for Xbox One – which will launch in time for Christmas. These technologies will form an important part of the living rooms of the future as Just Eat continues to build the ordering experience into customers’ everyday routines.
- The Customer Care Chatbot: Built using the Microsoft Bot Framework, this brand new development from Just Eat sees AI integrated into the ordering experience to ensure that customers receive the best, round the clock support and service.
- The Facebook Messenger Chatbot: Engages with customers to coach and inspire their food choices. Reflecting the personality of the Just Eat brand, customers are able to chat with the bot. Whether they fancy ordering their usual favourite or trying something new, the bot will offer customers a selection of different restaurants depending where their mood takes them.
- Starship Technologies delivery robots: In September, Just Eat began testing self-driving delivery robots on the streets of London, designed to increase delivery capacity for restaurant partners. Pilots are now taking place on the streets of Greenwich in London, ahead of the first live customer delivery.
Just Eat recently announced the launch of its Food Tech Accelerator programme, supported by YFood, Dreamstake and other partners to help the next generation of food technology start-ups.