Kelowna tech firm offers free AI ordering system to restaurants

Touch Tourism announced today that they are volunteering their time and new technology to help local restaurants and cafes set up an online take-out ordering system to help during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The hospitality industry, an industry our business strongly relies on, is on its knees. It seriously needs our help now more than ever," says Robert Field, CEO of Touch Tourism.

"I’m going all in to donate my time, knowledge and technology to help as many local restaurant and cafe owners survive this as I can."

The Kelowna tech start-up developed a new online-based ordering system called, Chatbot. It's an artificially intelligent and around the clock Take-Out Order Assistant, that will handle all incoming customer order on the restaurant’s or cafe’s Facebook Messenger account.

“Current solutions for restaurant and cafe business owners, such as Skip the Dishes and Doordash, we feel are overcharging for their services," says Field. 

"When minimizing expenses has never been more paramount for businesses, we wanted to offer a much more cost-effective alternative, that has the restaurant or cafe owners’ best interest at heart."

Customers converse with the Chatbot inside the familiarity of their Facebook Messenger, which allows short-staffed businesses a chance to concentrate on creating food and beverages for their customers rather than taking orders over the phone. 

They can ask for specific items while browsing through images of food and beverage items they can add to their order. 

Once ready to complete the order, the Take-Out Chatbot has the customer confirm their selected items before arranging them to pay securely online finishing the transaction.

“Taking orders really is only the tip of the iceberg as to what Chatbots can achieve. The more they communicate with customers the smarter they become and eventually get to know what your customers want and when to offer it to them. It’s [a] really exciting technology," explains Field.