Pizza Hut India Uses Artificial Intelligence to Combat Sales Drops caused by Rising Inflation

Despite an industry-wide sales downturn, Sapphire Foods stated early results from adopting advanced delivery planning software had been encouraging. As Pizza has taken a back seat in India, owing to fast food fans seeking more economical options, one of the category's top companies has introduced creative technologies to entice these customers back. Sapphire Foods, which manages brands such as KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell in India, stated that implementing the Dragontail technology to handle pizza delivery has yielded positive results. 

The store will predict when the delivery partner will come with the use of AI

Dragontail Solutions is an AI-based kitchen management system that assists the shop in more efficiently managing product production and dispatch by delivering information about the delivery partner's location. This allows the store to predict when the delivery partner will come and load the Pizza accordingly, allowing it to serve hot and fresh pizzas to customers. 

Yum, the American parent company of Pizza Hut, purchased Dragontail. According to Sapphire's management, it is used in multiple Pizza Hut locations and has proven profitable. 

Headwinds from Inflation

• The news comes amid a dramatic slowdown in the Pizza and discretionary consumer spending markets in India due to liquidity withdrawals imposed by central banks around the world.
• For example, Pizza Hut's same-store sales growth from Pizza fell by 20% this quarter. It is hoped that this invention will provide the operations a much-needed boost. It's been one or two months since they have rolled it out to all Pizza Hut stores, and they are confident that this will help them going forward.
• The company also stated that they have connected the technology with delivery services such as Zomato, Swiggy, and others, as these platforms account for a large portion of their sales. Despite a temporary drop in the Pizza business, fueled by chronic macroeconomic conditions, the company will remain focused on the category and the brand.