The days of ordering a pizza by calling an actual human being on the phone and rattling off a list of toppings have gone the way of the dodo, only to live fondly in the minds of those Gen Xers who remember doing it that way.
While Doordash, Uber Eats, and other delivery apps have made the process of getting a pizza from a restaurant to your doorstep about as painless as humanly possible, there is still room to further improve how we consume a good old pepperoni pie.
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Take Domino’s, for instance, which has fully gamified the experience with its in-app tracker that notifies you of what’s happening every step of the way.
Related: Papa Johns suffers unexpected loss as customers switch gears
Now one of the biggest players in the pizza delivery industry is making major changes to how it handles your pizza orders. While we’re not at “imagine it and it appears at your doorstep” yet, some of these innovations are pretty cool indeed.
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Order a pizza with your voice
Ordering a pizza with your voice seems like exactly what we used to do back in the ’80s using a landline. But Papa John’s (PZZA)  has announced a new take on it as one of several new AI-driven innovations it will bring to its customers in partnership with Google AI.
Along with ordering with your voice in the app instead of making all your selections by hand, Papa John’s will also offer push notifications and emails based on customer preferences, real-time personalization that will show unique versions of the website and app for each user, and an AI-powered chatbot that can handle customer inquiries and escalate complex problems quickly.
Related: Popular pizza chain battles key customer problem
“At Papa Johns, our aspiration is to be the best pizza makers in the business,” said Todd Penegor, president and CEO, Papa Johns. “We’re not just reacting to orders – we’re anticipating our customers’ needs and proactively providing tailored recommendations and offers.”
Papa John’s has hurdles to cross
Papa John’s is facing the need for change after a rocky fourth quarter in 2024, where the chain’s comparable sales dropped 4% year over year.Â
Worse, the company’s operating income took a 30% nosedive compared to the previous year.
The pizza retailer is the third most popular in the US, trailing behind Domino’s and Pizza Hut.
Penegore addressed the issue in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call in 2024, and foreshadowed the highly personalized AI-driven innovations the company just announced.
“In 2025, we believe the greatest impact from our investments will come from driving increased frequency and shrinking the number of days it takes for future visits to occur by delivering personalized brand experiences that matter to our customers,” he said.
Related: After bankruptcy, another popular pizza chain closes restaurants
