NEW YORK — Robotic kitchen startup AniAi has taken burger cooking precision to a new level with its revolutionary artificial intelligence (AI) technology, AlphaCloud.
Alpha Cloud uses cutting-edge visual sensors built into its flagship robotic grill, the Alpha Grill, to capture real-time images of before and after cooking of patties. Alpha Cloud then transmits this visual data to Aniai's cloud-based OS, which uses AI technology to analyze and score the “doneness” of each patty's surface.
This technology not only ensures each patty is cooked to perfection, but also addresses common challenges like uneven cooking and undercooking. By integrating Alpha Cloud into their kitchens, burger restaurants can achieve a level of patty consistency and quality never before achieved.
“We are automating quality control for quick-service restaurants. Now, instead of incurring the prohibitive costs of flying a QA team around the world to analyze patties on-site, Alpha Cloud centrally analyzes every cooked patty in real time,” says Minsu Ji, CTO of Aniai.
In addition to improving food quality in real time, Alpha Cloud also enables restaurant managers to optimize kitchen operations with a detailed analytics dashboard that provides historical information on Alpha Grill status, cooking quantities by time, and recipes. This aspect of Alpha Cloud is particularly appealing to quick-service restaurants looking to improve their service delivery in a competitive market.
Aniai launched Alpha Cloud to more than 60,000 attendees at the National Restaurant Association Show, the world's largest restaurant trade show, in early May. For the second consecutive year, Aniai received a Kitchen Innovations (KI) Award, presented by a panel of expert judges who recognize solutions that contribute to automation, efficiency, safety and sustainability in the foodservice industry.
“Alpha Cloud's KI win demonstrates that we're solving a very important problem facing burger restaurants,” says Gunpil Hwang, CEO of Aniai. “Burger patties can cook differently under the same cooking conditions (temperature, time) due to external and unpredictable factors. With Alpha Cloud, we're not just advancing kitchen technology, we're setting a new standard for what restaurant food should be. Our solution ensures that every burger patty meets high quality standards, resulting in increased customer satisfaction.”
Aniai recently raised $12 million in a pre-series A round, and is betting on a future where technology will help solve many of the problems facing the foodservice industry. When Alpha Cloud goes live early next year, burger joints will be able to solve one very real and costly problem: getting better control over undercooked patties and taking food quality to the next level.
About Aniai (Aniai)
Founded in 2020 and based in New York City, Aniai is a global innovator in automation and AI in foodservice. The company's mission is to enable restaurants to improve kitchen operations by providing intelligent solutions that increase productivity and improve quality and service.
Aniai's flagship product, the Alpha Grill, improves the employee experience by automating many routine, repetitive tasks, such as grill cleaning and cooking time management, allowing restaurant team members to focus on creating high-quality burgers. The semi-autonomous grill features a high-speed cooking system with a double-sided grill that can cook up to 200 patties per hour and also has an innovative self-cleaning feature.
