Dave's Hot Chicken says the future of delivery will be automated

The chain is testing the technology in select locations, including a drone delivery test set to launch in California soon. In the future, it plans to fulfill all orders placed through its mobile app or website with a drone or a wheeled robot.

This experience is better for the customer, in part because it’s faster, especially with drones, CTO Leon Davoyan said during an interview at the FSTEC conference in September.

“Long gone are gonna be the days of you getting soggy food or french fries that are not hot and not as crispy,” he said. “It's gonna be a game changer.”

Drone delivery will have to clear several hurdles before it can become mainstream. There are FAA regulations and payload limitations. And there will be tech needed to connect the dots between restaurants, drone providers, and customers. But Davoyan believes these issues can be solved as early as next year.

Dave’s wants to be ready when that happens, so that it doesn’t have to learn drone delivery on the fly (no pun intended).

Davoyan also talked about Dave’s AI philosophy, why it doesn’t view the technology as a labor saver, and how it evaluates AI products.