Menu Data is Like a Box of Chocolates: What Happens When You Give Engineers the Keys and a Coke Zero, Part 2

At Deepgram for Restaurants, engineers have developed an innovative solution to address the complexities of drive-thru menu data integration for voice AI systems. The unstructured and chaotic nature of menu data, often arriving in formats like JSON or XML with duplicates and inconsistent structures, presents significant challenges for AI to accurately process customer orders. This issue is compounded by the need for AI systems to understand both common and unique menu items, such as limited-time offerings. To tackle this, engineers created a menu integration pipeline that ingests raw POS data, translates it into natural language using a large language model (LLM), and restructures it for AI compatibility. This approach not only streamlines the onboarding process for restaurants by transforming days of manual data cleaning into a one-day task but also allows Deepgram to scale its voice AI operations across various restaurant brands. The project exemplifies the company's engineering culture, which empowers engineers to proactively solve critical problems and innovate within the business.