Dairy Queen partners with Presto on voice AI technology roll-out following promising initial results

American Dairy Queen Corporation has partnered with Presto on voice AI, with an initial focus on the drive-thru. The company has tested the technology in its corporate stores and is now expanding the pilot to select franchisees around the US.

“We’re committed to delivering an exceptional experience to our fans and our staff, and we believe Presto can help us delight them even more. Presto has been an excellent partner and our initial results using their AI look quite promising,” says Kevin Baartman, EVP of IT at Dairy Queen.

“With Presto’s AI, we can enable our staff to focus on high value tasks that ultimately benefit our fans, with a friendly experience, and high order accuracy. We look forward to working with select franchisee partners as we expand our engagement.”

“Dairy Queen is an iconic American company with visionary leadership and a seminal role in the fabric of towns across the US and Canada. We’ve been thrilled to partner closely with their team to optimise the last mile of AI deployment, including complex menu integrations, friendly voices, and a smooth human-AI waltz that just works,” says Krishna Gupta, CEO at Presto. “We have an ambitious joint AI vision, and I’m excited to continue expanding our reach for all the DQ fans out there - happy tastes good!”

2026 RTIH Innovation Awards

AI will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.

The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.

Check out our 2025 winners here.

Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”

“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”

He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”

Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.