About Cabling Installation & Maintenance

Our mission: Bringing practical business and technical intelligence to today's structured cabling professionals

For more than 30 years, Cabling Installation & Maintenance has provided useful, practical information to professionals responsible for the specification, design, installation and management of structured cabling systems serving enterprise, data center and other environments. These professionals are challenged to stay informed of constantly evolving standards, system-design and installation approaches, product and system capabilities, technologies, as well as applications that rely on high-performance structured cabling systems. Our editors synthesize these complex issues into multiple information products. This portfolio of information products provides concrete detail that improves the efficiency of day-to-day operations, and equips cabling professionals with the perspective that enables strategic planning for networks’ optimum long-term performance.

Throughout our annual magazine, weekly email newsletters and 24/7/365 website, Cabling Installation & Maintenance digs into the essential topics our audience focuses on.

  • Design, Installation and Testing: We explain the bottom-up design of cabling systems, from case histories of actual projects to solutions for specific problems or aspects of the design process. We also look at specific installations using a case-history approach to highlight challenging problems, solutions and unique features. Additionally, we examine evolving test-and-measurement technologies and techniques designed to address the standards-governed and practical-use performance requirements of cabling systems.
  • Technology: We evaluate product innovations and technology trends as they impact a particular product class through interviews with manufacturers, installers and users, as well as contributed articles from subject-matter experts.
  • Data Center: Cabling Installation & Maintenance takes an in-depth look at design and installation workmanship issues as well as the unique technology being deployed specifically for data centers.
  • Physical Security: Focusing on the areas in which security and IT—and the infrastructure for both—interlock and overlap, we pay specific attention to Internet Protocol’s influence over the development of security applications.
  • Standards: Tracking the activities of North American and international standards-making organizations, we provide updates on specifications that are in-progress, looking forward to how they will affect cabling-system design and installation. We also produce articles explaining the practical aspects of designing and installing cabling systems in accordance with the specifications of established standards.

Cabling Installation & Maintenance is published by Endeavor Business Media, a division of EndeavorB2B.

Contact Cabling Installation & Maintenance

Editorial

Patrick McLaughlin

Serena Aburahma

Advertising and Sponsorship Sales

Peter Fretty - Vice President, Market Leader

Tim Carli - Business Development Manager

Brayden Hudspeth - Sales Development Representative

Subscriptions and Memberships

Subscribe to our newsletters and manage your subscriptions

Feedback/Problems

Send a message to our general in-box

 

Can Presto Automation Bring AI to the Drive-Thru?

McDonald's AI drive thru

Marc Andreessen said, "Software is eating the world," which seems doubly true with the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. AI's latest victim is the fast food drive-thru.

The fast food industry has a labor problem. It has trouble recruiting, retaining and satisfying its workers, not including rising wages and unionization. One way to make workers happier is to allow them to skip working at the drive-thru.

While giants like Wendy's have invested in-house drive-thru AI models, Presto Automation Inc. (NASDAQ: PRST), an emerging AI firm, provides AI off-the-shelf to smaller players like Checkers and Carl's Jr.

The Juggernauts Are Already Doing it

The Wendy's Company (NASDAQ: WEN) has been capturing attention by introducing FreshAI, an AI-powered voice assistant poised to handle drive-thru orders. Leveraging Google's AI technologies, Wendy's aims to "revolutionize" the drive-thru.

How Wendy's FreshAI pilot program in Columbus, Ohio, will perform is yet to be seen. Simultaneously, McDonald's Co. (NYSE: MCD) has deployed AI-driven order-taking solutions at selection locations to mixed feedback. According to a Restaurant Dive study, the IBM-powered tech could perform better, reporting an order accuracy rate just north of 80%, well short of the desired 95% McDonald's targets for broader implementation.

Order accuracy is indeed a crucial factor for fast food restaurants, as industry expert Brian Barthelt recently told Ad Age, "QSR customers are not loyal. Generally speaking, they typically have a decent-sized list of QSR brands that they like, and they spread their spend around. If you give someone a bad experience in the drive-thru, you may lose them for a little while. Two bad experiences, you may lose them for a long while."

The accuracy challenge, when overcome, could lead to massive cost savings, prompting many AI startups to race towards improving it.

Presto Automation: Solving Drive-Thru Automation?

Presto Automation Inc., a relatively obscure $160 million market cap firm, has positioned itself as a potential solution. Presto claims it can deliver a 95% order accuracy rate by providing AI-powered order-taking services, a figure many restaurants aim to achieve before making the full AI transition.

Presto's system has been implemented at several brands, including Checker's, Hardee's, Carl's Jr., Jack in the Box and Del Taco. NBC 6 in Iowa featured a successful system deployment at a Checkers location, with the owner and staff giving positive feedback.

Presto's pilot program with Checkers reported over 98% order completion with minimal employee intervention, prompting Checkers to approve the technology at all corporate-owned stores.

Aside from cost savings — estimated at around $35,000 annually per store — the technology should also increase revenue by about 6% by increasing efficiency. Moreover, automating drive-thru processes can lead to a better work environment amid rising minimum wages and employee dissatisfaction, potentially reducing staff turnover.

Significant Risks Abound

While promising, put Presto's opportunity in perspective. The company cannot self-fund and relies on raising money in the capital markets to survive. Presto's recent 10-Q shows $26 million in cash reserves versus an operating cash burn of $35 million in the most recent earnings report, pointing to a concerning burn rate.

Presto's AI product, Presto Voice, has yet to contribute much revenue. The bulk of the company's earnings still come from Presto Touch, a point-of-sales system for restaurants.

Competition is a concern as well. CKE Restaurants, the owners of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's and client of Presto, recently announced that it's rolling out AI order-taking nationwide. But Presto will be just one of three AI vendors, leaving no guarantee that Presto will win the contract.

Other publicly-traded firms, like SoundHound AI Inc. (NASDAQ: SOUN), are also players in the drive-thru AI field.

After converting small pilot programs into larger contracts, investors will keep a keen eye for Presto Voice revenue in the next earnings report in August.

Stock Quote API & Stock News API supplied by www.cloudquote.io
Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes.
By accessing this page, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms Of Service.