If you’re still wondering whether customers are “ready” to talk to AI in hospitality, the answer is already here.
95.6% of callers complete their order or enquiry with Otto without needing a human.
Less than 5% ask to be put through to staff.
That’s not a future trend.
That’s what’s happening right now in live venues.
Short answer: yes.
Longer answer: customers don’t actually care whether it’s a human or AI — they care about getting what they need, quickly and correctly.
When someone calls a restaurant, they’re usually trying to:
They’re not calling for a long conversation. They want speed, clarity, and confirmation.
If that happens smoothly, the experience is positive — regardless of who (or what) is on the other end.
While the industry debates whether AI is “ready,” something more immediate is happening inside venues every day.
The phone rings…
and someone has to make a choice.
Answer the call — or serve the guest in front of them.
Because in hospitality, you can’t do both well at the same time.
Great venues are built on attention.
Attention to the table.
Attention to the food.
Attention to the experience.
Staff being pulled away mid-service to answer a ringing phone when that can be managed by AI.
Customers don’t want to wait.
They don’t want hold music.
They don’t want to be rushed.
They don’t want to repeat themselves.
They want to get through, place their order quickly, and move on.
If they can’t?
They call the next place.
You can’t deliver both experiences well when the phone is treated as an interruption.
This is where things shift.
Across venues using Otto, 95.6% of callers complete their order or enquiry without needing a human.
Less than 5% ask to be put through to staff.
That’s not because customers suddenly prefer AI.
It’s because:
No waiting.
No friction.
No missed opportunity.
Otto isn’t trying to “replace” hospitality.
It’s doing one thing consistently well:
Answering every call and completing the interaction.
When a customer calls:
All while your team stays focused on service.
That number isn’t about AI.
It’s about what happens when you remove the biggest failure point:
The call going unanswered.
Because once someone actually answers:
The bottleneck was never the conversation.
It was availability.
The difference isn’t that AI is “better” than people.
It’s that:
So instead of:
You get: