Presto's Voice AI Now Handles 85% of Drive-Thru Orders at 267 Checkers & Rally's Restaurants

For a quick-service restaurant manager, the drive-thru lane is a high-stakes bottleneck. It is a source of revenue, a point of customer frustration, and a constant staffing puzzle. Presto Phoenix, Inc. is betting that the most humane solution for the overworked employee and the impatient customer is a consistent, unflappable AI voice. The company's Presto Voice agent, which now fields the majority of orders at hundreds of locations like Checkers & Rally's, represents a long pivot from its origins in tablet-based dining. It is a bet on automation as a form of care, aiming to reduce burnout and error in an industry defined by both.

From Tablets to Drive-Thrus

Presto's journey began in 2008 as E la Carte, founded by MIT dropout and Lyft co-founder Rajat Suri. Its initial product, Presto Touch, was a customized tablet for casual dining tables, allowing guests to order, pay, and play games. It saw significant early traction, with Applebee's planning to install 100,000 units in 2014 and Brinker International naming Presto its exclusive pay-at-table partner in 2020 [Forbes, Dec 2013] [Bloomberg, Jan 2020]. That legacy hardware business, however, was spun off in 2024. The remaining company, now led by CEO Xavier Casanova, has focused entirely on its Voice AI for drive-thrus, a move that acknowledges where the acute labor pain,and the larger market,now resides [Wikipedia].

The Core Bet on Labor Productivity

The wedge is straightforward: chronic labor shortages and high turnover in the restaurant industry. Presto's pitch is that its AI agent can shoulder the repetitive, high-volume task of order-taking, freeing human staff for food preparation and customer service. The company claims its system reduces labor burden, minimizes order errors, and can execute standardized upsell scripts to increase average check size [Presto]. For franchise operators, the promise is a more predictable and efficient operation. The key metric Presto cites is its Net Intervention Rate (NIR), the percentage of orders the AI handles without needing a human to step in. The company states its average NIR is 85% across enabled restaurants, with some locations reaching 95% or higher [Presto].

Traction and a Turbulent Financial Path

Deployment scale is Presto's primary argument for market leadership. The company has rolled out its voice-ordering bots to 267 Checkers & Rally's restaurants and signed an exclusive deal with StarCorp, a 58-unit Carl's Jr. franchisee [Business Insider, Mar 2022] [QSR Magazine]. In total, Presto reports it has shipped over 250,000 systems across its history, a figure that includes its earlier tablet hardware [Businesswire, Nov 2022]. This traction exists alongside a complex financial history. The company went public in late 2021 via a SPAC merger with Ventoux CCM Acquisition Corp., achieving a pro forma equity valuation of approximately $1.04 billion [Nasdaq, Nov 2021]. That path later reversed; Presto was delisted from Nasdaq in 2024 for failing to meet market value requirements and has faced reported liquidity crises [Investing.com, Jun 2024]. Despite this, it secured a $10 million equity round in January 2026 led by Metropolitan Partners Group to accelerate Voice AI deployments [Restaurant Dive, Jan 2026].

The Competitive and Operational Landscape

Presto operates in a crowded field of voice AI competitors targeting restaurants, including SoundHound, ConverseNow, and Valyant AI. Its differentiation rests on claimed production-scale deployments and deep integration with point-of-sale systems. The operational model, however, has faced scrutiny. A 2023 report alleged that Presto's "AI" drive-thru was at the time largely powered by human workers in the Philippines, raising questions about the true level of automation and the path to profitability [The Verge, Dec 2023]. For a company now focused purely on software, the challenge is to continually improve its AI models to reduce reliance on human-in-the-loop support and to prove the unit economics work for its franchisee customers at scale.

The risks facing Presto are substantial, but they orbit a core value proposition that resonates with a clear industry need.

• Financial sustainability. The company's post-SAC history includes delisting and reported liquidity pressures. The recent $10 million raise provides runway but must prove sufficient to reach sustainable scale [Investing.com, Aug 2024] [Restaurant Dive, Jan 2026].
• Technological maturity. Early reports of significant human intervention behind the AI interface suggest the technology may not yet be fully autonomous. Driving the NIR closer to 100% through model improvement is a critical technical hurdle [The Verge, Dec 2023].
• Market competition. Well-funded rivals are pursuing the same large chain customers. Presto's first-mover deployments at brands like Checkers provide a beachhead, but must be defended and expanded.

The Next Twelve Months

The coming year is a test of focus and execution. With the tablet business separated and new capital in hand, the mandate for CEO Xavier Casanova and President Dan Mosher is to convert pilot success into broader enterprise contracts. Key milestones will be announcing new national chain partners, demonstrating improved financial metrics, and showcasing technological advances that further reduce operational costs. The company's ability to move beyond its financial restructuring narrative and be defined solely by its drive-thru automation results will determine its next chapter.

For the restaurant worker juggling multiple tasks and the customer waiting in line, the standard of care today is often a stressed employee relying on memory and manual entry, leading to errors and delays. Presto's intervention reimagines that interaction not by replacing the human, but by reassigning the most cognitively repetitive task. The disease state is operational strain in high-volume quick-service restaurants; the patient population is every franchise owner, manager, and crew member navigating a perpetual labor shortage. If the AI voice can become a reliable, silent partner on the headset, the value proposition shifts from cost-cutting to team empowerment. That is the quieter, more humane automation Presto is now trying to scale.

Sources

1. [Forbes, Dec 2013] Applebee's to Install 100,000 Tablets | https://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2013/12/18/applebees-to-install-100000-tablets-from-intel-backed-e-la-carte/
2. [Bloomberg, Jan 2020] Brinker International Selects Presto As Pay-At-Table Technology Partner | https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2020-01-13/brinker-international-selects-presto-as-pay-at-table-technology-partner
3. [Presto] Company Website | https://presto.com
4. [Business Insider, Mar 2022] Presto rolls out voice-ordering bots at 267 Checkers & Rally's | https://www.businessinsider.com/presto-voice-ai-drive-thru-checkers-rallys-restaurants-2022-3
5. [QSR Magazine] Presto signs deal with StarCorp | https://www.qsrmagazine.com/news/presto-signs-deal-starcorp
6. [Businesswire, Nov 2022] Presto ships over 250,000 systems | https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221102006072/en/
7. [Nasdaq, Nov 2021] Presto SPAC Merger Announcement | https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/presto-a-leading-provider-of-restaurant-labor-productivity-technologies-to-be
8. [Investing.com, Jun 2024] Presto delisted from Nasdaq | https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/presto-automation-stock-crashes-40-after-nasdaq-delisting-3463479
9. [Restaurant Dive, Jan 2026] Presto raises $10 million in funding | https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/presto-raises-10-million-funding/809128/
10. [The Verge, Dec 2023] Report on Presto's human-supported AI | https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/8/23991958/presto-ai-fast-food-drive-thru-human-workers-philippines
11. [Wikipedia] Presto company history and leadership | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presto_(restaurant_technology_platform)
12. [Investing.com, Aug 2024] Report on Presto liquidity crisis | https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/presto-automation-faces-liquidity-crisis-potential-total-loss-for-investors-3463478