american pepperoni pizza with chilli pepper and parmesan cheese
Papa Johns and Google Cloud Reimagine the Future of Food Ordering to Better Serve Customers
Papa Johns is betting big on AI-powered convenience.
At NRF 2026 in New York, the pizza chain announced a major transformation of its digital ordering experience—aimed at delivering faster ordering, improved accuracy, and real-time personalization for its 150 million-plus customers worldwide. The update is powered by Google Cloud’s newly expanded AI solution, the
Food Ordering agent, part of
Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience. The key takeaway: Papa Johns is the first restaurant brand to bring these new omnichannel ordering capabilities to market—moving beyond basic chatbots and into what Google Cloud calls the era of
agentic commerce, where AI doesn’t just answer questions, it actively completes tasks and improves outcomes.
From chatbot to “agentic” ordering
Food Ordering agent is designed to unify voice and text ordering across the places customers already interact with the brand—without forcing them to repeat themselves or start over when they switch channels. Instead of treating app ordering, phone ordering, kiosks, and in-car systems as separate experiences, the platform supports high-quality voice AI agents across:
- Mobile apps
- Websites
- Telephones
- Kiosks
- In-car systems
This is a notable shift from earlier AI deployments that focused heavily on drive-thru automation. Here, the goal is a
single, consistent ordering experience where customers can order how they want, where they want, with less friction.
What Papa Johns is building with Google Cloud
Papa Johns says the new system is designed to make ordering “faster, smarter, and more seamless than ever before.” The company’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer,
Kevin Vasconi, framed it as more than a product refresh.
“Papa Johns is a digitally-driven business and, as such, one of our strategic priorities is investing in our technology to deliver a more seamless experience across our assets and owned channels, better connect with our customers, and support greater efficiency across our operations by leveraging data and AI,” Vasconi said. “We’re using Google Cloud’s Food Ordering agent to reimagine what’s possible for our customers. This isn’t just an app update; it’s a fundamental shift in how our customers interact with our brand digitally, making it faster, smarter, and more seamless than ever before.”
The new capabilities focus on three areas that tend to create the most friction in food ordering: deals, complex orders, and repeat purchases.
Intelligent Deal Wizard: fewer abandoned carts, more confidence
One of the most common reasons customers abandon carts is uncertainty—
Did I pick the best deal? Is there a better promo code? Papa Johns’
Intelligent Deal Wizard is positioned as a personal concierge that automatically applies the best value combinations. The benefit is twofold:
- Customers spend less time hunting for discounts
- Papa Johns reduces cart abandonment and builds loyalty through instant value
In short: the system is designed to help customers feel like they’re getting the best price without extra steps.
Advanced Voice & Group Ordering: making complex orders easier
Group orders are where ordering systems often break down: multiple people, multiple changes, special instructions, and constant edits. Papa Johns’
Advanced Voice & Group Ordering is built to capture that revenue without requiring human intervention. By handling natural language nuances and real-time modifications, the system aims to improve order accuracy even when the request is complicated—exactly the kind of scenario where mistakes can lead to refunds, remakes, and lost customers.
No-tap reordering for Papa Rewards customers
Pizza ordering is often habitual. Many customers reorder the same items, especially loyal customers. With the new experience, the agent can identify returning
Papa Rewards members and proactively ask if they want to reorder their most recent purchase. That no-tap flow matters because it shortens the distance between intent and checkout—turning a routine craving into a completed order in seconds.
Why it matters: omnichannel is now the expectation
Google Cloud’s
Carrie Tharp, vice president of global solutions and industries, described the shift as a move beyond the chatbot era.
“The retail industry is entering the era of agentic commerce, where AI is an engine for business value,” Tharp said. “By being the first to deploy our omnichannel Food Ordering agent, Papa Johns is moving beyond the chatbot era to create a fluid, intelligent experience that meets hungry customers wherever they are, whether they are in their car, on an app, or at a kiosk.”
That’s the core point: customers don’t think in channels. They think in outcomes.
- Ordering hands-free while driving
- Reordering in one step from the couch
- Using a kiosk quickly while picking up
If the experience is inconsistent, slow, or confusing, customers bounce. If it’s fast and accurate, they come back.
What’s next
Papa Johns will showcase the technology at the
Google Cloud booth 5507 at NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show in NYC, offering live demos to attendees. The company expects to roll out these capabilities to customers nationwide by the end of
2026.
About Papa Johns
Papa John’s International, Inc. (Nasdaq: PZZA) opened in 1984 with one goal: BETTER INGREDIENTS. BETTER PIZZA. Papa Johns says it uses high-quality ingredients, including fresh, never frozen original dough made with six ingredients, real mozzarella cheese, and vine-ripened tomato sauce. The company operates more than 6,000 restaurants across approximately 50 countries and territories.
About Google Cloud
Google Cloud provides AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools, offering an integrated AI stack built on planet-scale infrastructure and custom-built chips. Organizations in more than 200 countries and territories use Google Cloud as a technology partner.
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Paul Dawson, Professor of Food Science, Clemson University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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