AI Forge, Domino’s hackathon unearths AI solutions for food delivery

The AI Forge Hackathon has ended with impressive results and promising prospects. The event brought together 52 participants grouped into nine teams to tackle challenges presented by Domino’s Pizza.

Domino’s provided the teams with real-world data and challenges, ranging from a week’s worth of order data to 1,000 images of pizzas. The participants had access to numerous datasets that they could use to create an artificial intelligence (AI) model that solved a particular problem that Domino’s experienced.

The top 3 finalists

There was only one hackathon winner, but the top three finalists expressed interest in further developing their solutions and plan to present their ideas to Domino’s franchisee board at the end of January.

The third-place team created a chatbot for ordering and handling customer complaints to enhance the overall customer service experience.

Second place went to a project using computer vision and digital scales to improve pizza quality, ensuring each pizza matched its order specifications.

“The team used computer vision to look at pizzas as they were being made before they went into the oven to make sure that the pizza was an accurate representation of what was actually ordered,” said Andrew Weston, the Partnership Director at AI Forge who organized the hackathon.

“So let’s say somebody orders double pepperoni; the AI model will guarantee that the pizza actually has double pepperoni on it. This saves Domino’s both time and money because it catches errors (an incorrect order) before the wrong order goes into their oven,” he explained.

The second-placed team combined the computer vision model with digital scales so that at the end of the service line, the pizza is weighed to ensure that it has the correct amount of ingredients and toppings—not too many or too few.

The hackathon’s winning team proposed a system to optimize the use of delivery drivers across multiple Domino’s kitchens owned by franchisees.

“At the moment, each individual kitchen manager manages the delivery drivers on an individual kitchen basis. However, there are franchisees who sometimes own multiple locations in relatively close proximity,” said Weston.

The winning team created a solution that allows venues to manage the logistics of having a staff of drivers that support all of the kitchens that are close in proximity, which would enable franchise owners to lower costs by using drivers across multiple kitchens.

Future plans and opportunities for collaboration

The success of the AI Forge x Domino’s Pizza Hackathon has sparked interest from corporates in various sectors; the event has showcased a model for companies to engage in AI innovation, addressing their operational challenges through external talent that comes with fresh perspectives. Weston noted that this hackathon has laid the groundwork for future events and says plans are already underway to organize more hackathons.

As AI Forge gears up for more events, it extends an open invitation to corporations and individuals.

Corporations interested in partnering or co-hosting with AI Forge can explore the avenues for collaboration through the AI Forge Partnership page, and individuals interested in AI who are looking to become more involved in the industry can stay informed about upcoming events via the AI Forge events page, AI Forge LinkedIn, and AI Forge Twitter.

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