Pizza Hut Partners With Amazon to Let People Order Food Just by Speaking

Starting tomorrow, people will be able to order Pizza Hut for delivery without picking up the phone or even lifting a finger. Months after Domino’s announced a partnership with Amazon, Pizza Hut has unveiled its own ordering service through the Amazon Echo, with both pizza chains virtually ensuring Alexa becomes everyone’s new best friend — at least when they’re hungry.

Alexa could already offer restaurant recommendations, and now it’s adding the ability to facilitate pizza deliveries. Much like the Domino’s setup, the new Pizza Hut integration, referred to as a “skill,” means people can use commands like "Alexa, ask Pizza Hut for a pizza," to place an order. A request to “ask Pizza Hut” (or “open,” “tell,” or “use”) will enable the skill, and from there users can “start a delivery,” “re-order my last order,” or “order a favorite.” Other (reasonable) variations will work as well, and customers can order either carryout or delivery.

With the voice command, users can choose from a handful of select menu items from Pizza Hut, such as pepperoni, cheese, veggie lover’s, meat lover’s, and supreme pizzas, plus breadsticks, cinnamon sticks, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mist Twist, and Mountain Dew.

Alexa can link to a user’s Pizza Hut account, and when it comes time to pay for the order, customers can decide whether to use a saved credit card or pay by cash. Alexa will confirm the payment method at checkout. Aside from the Echo, customers can enable the Pizza Hut skill on the Echo Dot, Amazon Tap, Amazon Fire TV, and Fire tablets.

Much like pizza competitor Domino’s, this is just the latest in a string of technology leaps Pizza Hut has made recently, including the introduction of robots in China, an order-facilitating temporary tattoo, and integrations with Facebook Messenger and Twitter direct message. Who knows where these pizza companies will turn next as they continue to innovate.

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