Joe Park on AI skepticism
From Yum! Brands CTO on AI's Role in Fast Food & Partnership with Nvidia · · Leading Indicator
“There's always a first aversion saying 'Oh this is AI they can't do what I do, I have decades of experience.' Most often they're right, they're probably outpacing AI, but they admit we can't scale humans. So how do we get the knowhow into our AI products to improve operations throughout the whole system?”
On , Joe Park, Former Chief Digital & Technology Officer and President of Byte by Yum at Yum! Brands, spoke about AI skepticism during Yum! Brands CTO on AI's Role in Fast Food & Partnership with Nvidia on Leading Indicator.
About Joe Park
Joe Park, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Yum! Brands, discussed the company's use of artificial intelligence in an interview published on April 26, 2025. He stated that Yum! Brands views technology as playing a role in nearly every part of a customer's journey, aiming to create frictionless ordering, easier operations for team members, and more profitable businesses for franchisees. Park noted that the company's digital sales mix grew from 19% pre-COVID to over 50% currently, and he described the company as "probably more like an e-commerce company than a traditional brick and mortar." He outlined a technology philosophy of starting with a business problem first, then partnering with operations and marketing teams to address metrics such as order accuracy, customer satisfaction, and speed of service. Park highlighted the company's partnership with Nvidia to accelerate its AI ambitions, and noted that all 7,000 Taco Bell locations already have two edge computers in each store, allowing AI to run within the restaurant rather than in the cloud. He said that voice AI in Taco Bell drive-thrus has been received positively by team members, who report it helps them multitask. Park stated that Yum! Brands builds technology that is core to restaurant operations, such as kitchen management, but partners with leading companies for bleeding-edge innovations like large language models. He also said the company is not pursuing dynamic pricing, believing that area still requires human knowhow due to promotions and customer demographics.