Five Guys announced on January 28, 2026, that it has renewed and expanded its partnership with SoundHound AI for AI-powered voice ordering technology. Five Guys has already processed over one million customer interactions using SoundHound's voice AI technology across hundreds of locations. Under the renewed agreement, Five Guys will provide franchisees with additional implementation options.
The U.S. quick-service restaurant sector has a staffing crisis that extends beyond wages and working conditions. In 2025, the U.S. restaurant and foodservice industry generated approximately $1.5 trillion in sales, yet the industry struggles to attract and retain workers for order-taking roles. Positions that mainly involve repetitive tasks, customer friction, and chronic understaffing during peak hours.
Every missed phone order, misheard drive-thru transaction, and abandoned order during busy service windows represents lost revenue and eroded customer loyalty. SoundHound's proprietary Speech-to-Meaning architecture combines Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) in a single processing step.
