Tech guy Rich to Morrow every Tuesday.
He's heard on rich on Tech Saturday from eleven am to two pm. Every day he's on KTLA as their tech reporter Instagram, at rich on Tech website, rich on Tech dot tv. Rich dur Veener Schnitzel is it's a fast food joint. That is, and Neil can pipe in on this one has a reputation.
Of being the lowest of the low end.
Of national chains with let's just say, not the highest quality stuff. I like it when I go in and have I don't know, seven chili hot dogs for a dollar, and it's questionable as to their quality, although I love it. Okay, enough of that, let's talk about what's going on. Oh no, now, you're pretty fit, I know that, and you exercise and you look good. Your trim going to deer v Stinsel. You put on twenty pounds in one afternoon.
All right.
What's happening at Derviner Snitzil though, is they're using AI and that I haven't seen at fast food establishments.
Yeah, so they're using AI in the drive through. They partnered with a company called Presto, which you know already when you go to a fast food place. I don't know if you've noticed this, but it starts with one voice and then it goes to another. It'll be like, hey, welcome to the fast food place. May we suggest a doubly beef burrito? And you're like, no, I don't want that, and the person like, okay, well what would you like now?
And you're just like, wait, what changed?
So they're using like a recording at the beginning and then the real person after that.
Now they're switching completely.
To AI at a lot of these places, or they're trying it because that voice not only can understand what you're saying in natural language, this has come a long way, it can also upsell you. So wiener Stenzel says, already in a test with an all beef hot dog up cell, they saw a five increase in total sales. So the system can recommend things based on what you are purchasing, and also the time of day and what's trending on the menu.
You know, I've always wondered these fast food establishments where you drive through and I always ask where's the clown and they don't know what the hell I'm talking about? Or I wanted deposit some money and they have no idea what I'm talking about.
But it's always it sounds like, what do I want to double burglar?
You know, why do they have.
Such crap speakers that you can't understand a word they're saying.
I don't know, I really don't, I truly do not understand.
My kids and I will joke.
We went to this one fast food place and I kid you not bill every single thing we said, the person said the opposite, completely random thing.
I'd like a.
Double cheeseburger and they said a chocolate milkshake. And we're like, we're looking around like thinking we were on a reality show. It was so bad, and I think it might have been the person last day. They were just having a joke. But look these are They're all over the place, and I think this is why people end up liking in and out because the person comes up to your car and they actually speak to you as a human.
Right.
I was at an in and out Burger yesterday and that's exactly what happened. The guys outside and they're on their little tablet. It's like almost like a cigarette girl. Remember it was in the nightclubs where they.
All trap around and it's.
Really kind of wild. By the way, am I allowed to say cigarette girls? Is I considered sexist? I guess so, And it was You're right if they.
Give out free smokes.
Yes you could.
At some places you would get free cigarettes. I mean, I know this is such a horrible conversation in the year twenty twenty five, but yes, you used to go to a bar and like literally people give you free cigarettes just to get you started on them.
Yeah, great stuff.
So is number one you're saying it's working five percent increase in sales in terms of upsell, and they're very good because a good server in a restaurant can upsell a customer like crazy. I know, when there's someone good, Hey, you want to try our desserts or you know, our signature French fries.
You don't want to miss those As a.
Side, how about something for the table that you can all share and that a lot of times you go yeah, especially if they're described as this scrumptious signature disc that they've got in some kind of crazy ass award, which of course is not true.
But I'm a yemist, and but add data to the mix bill, and I think that's what the key here is for these big companies is like, yes, if you had a well trained server over the years, of course they can upsell you. But now layer on that additional data that the company knows if someone orders a large fries and two hot dogs, that nine times out of ten they also want a diet coke or whatever that the company or the data tells them that this is
what happens on a daily basis. And so for that system to say, oh, would you also like to add that dessert that they know when people order this combination of food, they typically order that as well. So that I think is the holy grail of why these systems and by the way, of course, the human touch, which the element of reduced labor cost is always appealing to
these companies, especially with fast food. If you've noticed if you go into fast food places now, even when you walk in, nine times out of ten you are ordering at a screen. Even if you walk into the store, right, they have replaced a lot of the humans behind the desk. Right by the way, Wiener Schnitzel is not the only company trying this. McDonald's, Taco Bell, Wendy's. They're all giving this a.
Try, and the voice themselves, I'm assuming they have figured out the best voice to in fact convince people to upgrade, as opposed to I've been places, and you have been places that the person taking the order sounds like in a rocky sheep herder that just came to the United States.
Okay, by the way.
I get a level further, Bill, real quick.
They also know that when you drive up, if they use facial recognition, they may use a different voice depending on what you look like.
You male, female kind of thing. Yeah, and can you imagine if there was a lot going on here.
If you've been if you've been there before, Hi, Rich, welcome back.
Yeah, oh yeah, I know kid.
How did that seventeen pounder double triple cheeseburger?
How did your doctor like that one?
Yeah?
For sure?
All right, Rich, You went to Cedars and you saw a micro surgery robot. Now a few years ago, I went to Cedars and I was introduced to the Da Vinci robot.
Sort of, it wasn't really a robot.
Mean you doctor still did what he did, and I actually got to play with it. And so tell me about your technology or the technology that you saw.
Yeah, so great. Yes, the da Vinci has been around for a long time. I think it's been like fifteen maybe fifteen years, twenty years. Maybe it's been done many many surgeries. It's been incredible for doctors. This is sort of the advancement to that. It's a different company, but still Italian roots. I don't know why all these robotic surgery systems come from Italy, but this is called Somani.
And what this is, the main difference is is while Da Vinci, the surgeon's hands are inside the machine sort of moving things around with the robot assistance, this the doctor sits kind of off in a chair away from the surgery and is just manipulating controllers that then control these robotic devices. So it's almost like a it's like a different approach versus being right on the robot versus
kind of being off to the side. And so the big deal about this thing, it's pretty impressive, is that it can.
Perform micro surgeries.
We're talking surgeries on blood vessels thinner than a human hair. It can do that with extreme accuracy because it magnifies the surgical area and eliminates the hand tremors that are present in any hand, right, whether you're surgeon or not.
So yeah, I love what.
I'm about to do to you, because I never ever get the opportunity.
To correct you.
And then yeah, the Da Vinci robot does exactly that. The surgeon is sitting in a device and he has these hand controls and it goes into its arthroscopic surgery and he goes into the body or the device.
It magnifies and it stops.
The tremors because and it's I mean, it's really specific and does a hell of a job. So the only thing that I didn't see is the micro surgery part about the Da Vinci did not go that far where it was blood vessel level. But it's Yeah, the doctor who showed me he had a regular arthoscopic surgery where you have what looks like a foosball poll where you're
you know, you're playing with it. And he had a dead chicken where I supposed to live chicken, and he had just chicken you by at the grocery store.
And I was trying to sew up a cut.
They made with the legitimate or the traditional foosball type.
Of surgery, the arthroscopic surgery couldn't do it, couldn't do it. They threw me in a Da Vinci Easiest Pie.
So that technology is getting better and by the way, the doctor can be anywhere in the world. It just so happened that the doctor was in the same room, but it was all done. I think that one was hardwired, but it can be done on the internet.
So it's pretty pretty amazing technology.
So I just thought I correct, and.
This stuff is is incredible for the future. So they are very very ambitious about what they think can be done in the future. And they were talking like procedures that have never been imagined before, like an eye transplant would be possible because of these new micro surgeries with this, with this new robot. And by the way, at Cedars, the reason I was there, they performed the first ever FDA approved robotic headed next microsurgery in the US, so
that was a pretty big deal. And they're doing this, you know, for head and neck cancer. I mean it's really incredible. That is incredible, and and the fatigue side of it, I know the doctors were kind of not you know, they mostly were promoting the patient kind of advantages, but for the doctor, the fact that you are sitting in a chair comfortably, and sometimes these surgeries can.
Go twelve hours.
Yeah, that's another benefit to this is that you're just manipulating these tiny hand controllers versus being looking inside a machine.
Yeah, I mean the specificity and the control.
I wish it had been around when I underwent my circumcision, and it would have been far, far better.
Okay, Hey, go.
Ahead, I'm not going to make the micro surgery joke to there.
Oh that's actually very funny.
That is actually very well right into that bill.
Yes, I certainly do.
Hey, there are Apple stores out there all over the place. There's a new store in Santa Monica, but it's a Google store. I didn't even know Google hand stores.
Well, they don't have many.
This is their sixth retail location, obviously, the first in southern California. Their first was up I believe it was their first up in Mountain View. And they've got him in Mountain View, New York, Boston, Chicago, and the next one's going to be in Austin. So slow but steady. I mean, Apple has over five hundred stores. Obviously Google taking a much slower approach, but.
The idea is kind of the same.
You can go in there, get help, buy stuff like the pixel smartphones, all their wearables, and of course get screen repairs and all that kind of stuff on site. But I will tell you, Bill, what I think is interesting about this store. Not only is it is it really beautiful in Santa Monica at the Third Street Promenade, which they're trying to revitalize. I was there over the weekend and they had I can't believe this, Barnes and Noble went back in. Remember they used to have that
giant Barnes and Noble there. Well, they came out and now they put a new one in.
Yeah, I hated it when a shutting down. It's a great place to hang out. That's one of my favorite places. Rich As always thank you on a Tuesday. I we'll catch you this weekend Saturday, eleven am to two pm.
Have a good one, all right, Bill,