Please Whisper While You Cross Subway’s Pre-Made Sandwich AI Fridge

Powered with AI and natural language processing, the AI fridge can act like a real-life vendor

A fridge in many households is synonymous with 'The Doorknob', the gateway to the metaphorical rabbit hole with endlessly tucked-in boxes and bottles for you to feel like Alice lost in a wonderland every time you open the door. You wish there was a Siri or Alexa version for the fridge. Now, maybe your wish can be realised, at least when you want to have a sandwich at Subway. As reported by Gizmodo, Subway installed a smart sandwich fridge in September at the University of California San Diego, packed with grab-and-go items like premade sandwiches, soda, chips, and other snacks. But, wait. The vending machine look-alike is not just a mere fridge. Reason: Subway's pre-made sandwich AI fridge can listen to what you say and respond to your queries. Powered with artificial intelligence and natural language processing, the AI fridge can actually act like a real-life vendor. Subway menu is known for custom-made snacks with a mix and match of ingredients that go into it offering a full-meal experience, with a grab-and-go option. Now that its vending machine is remodeled as an AI fridge, you can get to know your food before you buy it.

The Subway's experimentation actually kicked off last year when it installed one such device in Singapore. Though the Singaporean machines were equipped with grab & go feature, they lacked the AI features the newly released machine has. Steven Rafferty, Senior VP of Subway, in an interview with QSR Magazine said it was franchisees who motivated him to think about creative solutions to maximise sales even during non-working hours. He said, "We had some success with limited trials of this in international markets, in some Asian markets specifically. But closer to home, as I said, travel plaza partners have really latched on to this and it's really meeting the needs of our customers who are our franchisees who in turn want to meet the needs of our consumers."

Apart from artificial intelligence and language recognition software, it is equipped with weight-sensitive shelves to suggest weight-accurate pricing. The UV-C light sanitizes the fridge every time it is used by someone. The completely cashless system and the contactless system can help boost the customer's confidence in food's quality, says its press release statement. "Subway Grab & Go has quickly gained traction as consumers are drawn to sandwiches made fresh daily from a brand they know and love, versus competitor items that rely on a 14-day plus shelf life," said Karla Martinez, director of innovation for non-traditional development, talking to Gizmodo.

After hitting a snag in sales during the pandemic, this is one of the major steps Subway has taken to improve its sales, particularly for business at non-traditional places like airports, colleges, hospitals, etc. The improvised vending machines, Subway says will help the company in catering to their on-the-go guests irrespective of time and location. "As Subway focuses on strategic and profitable growth, there is a significant opportunity to expand our footprint in non-traditional locations and for franchisees to generate incremental revenues for their businesses." The only point of contention remains if the Subway AI fridge will be cold storage for user data too. While customers will be able to ask what's in the fridge, it is not yet clear what the company would be doing with the voice recordings or when/if the fridge's microphones would go on or off. Oooh, delicious data!!