February 9, 2026
Friday nights force pizza shops into impossible tradeoffs. Phones ring nonstop, staff choose between answering calls or making food, and every unanswered ring is an order heading somewhere else. Pizza AI has matured past basic call answering and can now handle full orders with custom toppings, secure payments, and rush-hour volume without putting anyone on hold. The difference between tools today comes down to real delivery needs like order accuracy, POS depth, call concurrency, and how quickly you can get live. If your phone line feels like the weakest link in your operation, this breakdown shows which pizza AI services actually hold up when demand peaks.
TLDR:
AI answering services are voice-based AI systems that handle phone calls, take delivery and pickup orders, process payments, and answer customer questions without human staff. For pizza restaurants, these systems work as a 24/7 digital employee on the phone line.
A considerable share of pizza orders still arrive through phone calls, and many shops miss a meaningful portion of incoming calls during peak hours due to staffing constraints. AI answering services pick up every call instantly, take complete orders with modifications, collect payment details securely, and send tickets directly to your kitchen or POS.
We assessed each service against the specific demands of pizza delivery operations. Here's what mattered most:
Pizza shops face unique challenges: high call volumes during narrow windows, complicated customizations on every order, and thin margins where every missed call hurts.
| Service | Full Order Taking | POS Integrations | Concurrent Calls | Payment Processing | Deployment Time | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loman | Complete orders with toppings, modifications, and special instructions, upsell suggestions | Native integration with Toast, SpotOn, Square, Clover, Aloha, Olo | Unlimited simultaneous calls | Secure PCI-compliant processing | Under 24 hours | Pizza delivery operations needing rapid deployment and peak-hour call capacity |
| Certus AI | Full order taking with upsell suggestions | Over 45 POS systems | 24/7 availability | PCI-compliant processing | Not specified | Small mom and pop restaurants |
| VOICEplug AI | Omnichannel ordering across phone, drive-thru, and kiosk | Major restaurant POS systems with real-time sync | Multi-channel automation | Integrated payment processing | 2-4 weeks for POS setup | Enterprise QSR chains with drive-thru and multiple ordering channels |
| ConverseNow | Voice AI ordering for phone and drive-thru | Restaurant POS integration | Simultaneous multi-channel processing | Integrated processing | 2-4 weeks for POS setup | QSR chains with heavy drive-thru traffic needing dual-channel automation |
| SoundHound AI | Basic order taking and customer inquiries | Square POS only | Instant call answering with no hold times | Direct Square payment integration | Weeks to Months | Restaurants using Square POS wanting straightforward phone answering |
| Slang.ai | Primarily reservations + guest inquiries; ordering capabilities vary by setup (often routes guests to online ordering) | Limited integration | Basic call handling | Not included | Weeks to Months | Fine dining establishments focused on reservation management |
| Kea | Full order taking with customization and upselling | Over 11 POS systems including Toast, Square, Clover | Phone ordering automation | PCI-compliant with human-in-the-loop support | Quick deployment with self-service setup | Small to medium pizza chains comfortable with self-service tech configuration |
Loman is built particularly for restaurant phone operations, with full order-taking for delivery and pickup, native integrations with POS systems like Toast, Square, Clover, Aloha, and Olo, and 24/7 availability that handles unlimited simultaneous calls. The system processes secure payments, manages OpenTable reservations, and includes multilingual support. Most pizza shops go live in under 24 hours. Loman captures up to 22% more revenue from previously missed calls through intelligent upselling and eliminates manual order entry by syncing directly with kitchen workflows.
Certus handles calls 24/7 with support for English, Spanish, and French. The service takes orders, processes deliveries, and suggests upsells while connecting to over 45 POS systems. Payment processing meets PCI compliance standards.
Good for: Multi-location groups needing multilingual support and broad POS compatibility.
Limitation: Certus relies on third-party AI infrastructure, which may introduce dependencies that affect customization and latency control.
VOICEplug AI is a conversational voice assistant that automates ordering across phone, drive-thru, kiosk, and specialized restaurant channels. The system supports omnichannel order automation for pizza and QSR menus, integrates with OpenTable across multiple countries for reservation handling, and offers personalized upselling based on customer preferences and order history. VOICEplug also connects with major restaurant POS systems to route orders in real time across different ordering surfaces.
Good for: Enterprise restaurant chains operating drive-thru locations alongside delivery services that need voice automation across multiple ordering channels.
Limitation: The emphasis on omnichannel coverage, including drive-thru and kiosk, targets larger QSR operations with complex setups and can be cost-prohibitive for single-location pizzerias or delivery-focused shops.
ConverseNow is a voice AI assistant built to automate high-volume ordering across drive-thru and phone channels for quick-service restaurants. The system processes multiple orders simultaneously, applies upselling logic, and connects with restaurant POS systems to support same-store sales growth. POS integration typically requires a longer setup window, often taking two to four weeks depending on configuration and scale.
Good for: Quick-service restaurant chains with heavy drive-thru traffic that need voice automation across both drive-thru lanes and phone lines.
Limitation: The product focuses on drive-thru automation for large QSR brands, making it a weaker fit for delivery-focused pizza operations that need fast deployment and do not operate drive-thru infrastructure.
SoundHound provides voice ordering technology for restaurants, primarily focused on structured ordering flows and basic customer inquiries. The system answers every call and processes payments directly into Square's POS system. It eliminates call hold times during peak hours and handles basic FAQs for menu items and restaurant information.
Good for: Restaurants already using Square POS that want a straightforward phone answering solution with basic order-taking capabilities.
Limitation: SoundHound's integration is built around Square's POS system, limiting flexibility for restaurants using other systems like Toast, Clover, Aloha, or Olo. The system also lacks reservation management and multilingual support, which many pizza operations need for delivery coordination across different customer bases.
Slang.ai provides voice AI for restaurants with a focus on reservation management and basic call handling instead of full order completion. The system answers inbound calls, confirms reservations, and responds to common questions about hours, directions, and menu items, reducing interruptions for front-of-house staff.
Good for: Restaurants where reservations and informational calls make up the majority of phone traffic, such as fine dining or reservation-driven concepts.
Limitation: Slang.ai does not support complete order taking with menu customizations, payment processing, or POS syncing, making it a poor fit for pizza delivery operations that rely on high-volume phone orders, complex toppings, and transaction completion.
Kea is a voice AI assistant that acts as a virtual cashier for restaurant phone ordering with a self-service setup option. The service offers integration with over 11 POS systems including Toast, Square, and Clover. Their approach includes order customization, upselling, and PCI-compliant payment processing with human-in-the-loop support. They recently launched Text AI for conversational SMS ordering.
Good for: Small to medium pizza chains and independent operators comfortable with self-service tech setup who want quick deployment.
Limitation: The self-service model requires operators to handle their own setup and configuration, which may lead to suboptimal AI training without dedicated implementation support.
Pizza delivery restaurants need AI that can survive Friday night chaos, not systems built for drive-thru lanes or reservation-only dining. Every call brings custom toppings, crust choices, special instructions, delivery questions, and payment friction, and missing even a small percentage of those calls adds up fast. Loman was built particularly for phone-dependent restaurants like pizza shops, where inbound calls drive a meaningful share of revenue and accuracy matters as much as speed.
Loman answers every call 24/7 and takes complete pickup and delivery orders with all modifications, processes secure credit-card payments, and sends clean tickets straight into your POS and kitchen workflow. The system integrates natively with leading restaurant POS systems including Toast, Square, Clover, SpotOn, Aloha, Olo, and Stream, eliminating manual entry during rushes. It handles unlimited simultaneous calls, supports multilingual conversations, can simplify repeat orders when prior order context is available, and uses smart upselling prompts to increase average ticket size without slowing the line.
Unlike AI tools that focus only on reservations or require weeks of setup, Loman is a turnkey Pizza AI solution designed for fast deployment and real revenue recovery. Most restaurants go live in under 24 hours with white-glove onboarding, predictable software pricing, and a single dashboard to track calls, orders, payments, and missed revenue recapture. For pizza delivery operations that want fewer missed calls, cleaner tickets, lower labor pressure, and higher phone-order conversion during peak hours, Loman fits the job end to end.
Self-service works if you're comfortable with tech configuration and want to go live in an hour, but may result in suboptimal AI training. White-glove setup provides guided menu training, POS connection, and optimization testing, typically launching you in 24 hours to a few days with better accuracy from day one.
Yes, but capabilities vary. Full restaurant-specific AI systems can process complete orders with crust types, topping modifications, size selections, and special instructions, then sync clean tickets to your kitchen. Basic AI systems may only handle reservations and simple FAQs without true order-taking.
Drive-thru AI focuses on fast lane automation and kiosk integration for large QSR chains with 2-4 week implementations. Delivery-focused AI handles phone order complexity, processes payments over the line, manages delivery logistics, and typically deploys in under a day for restaurants without drive-thru infrastructure.
Pizza delivery revenue depends on what happens during the busiest 90 minutes of the night, not slow periods when phones are quiet. Pizza AI works when it turns every inbound call into a completed order instead of a missed opportunity, handling custom toppings, payments, and rush-hour volume without slowing the kitchen down. The strongest systems connect directly to your POS, send clean tickets to the line, and remove the need for staff to juggle phones during service. When Pizza AI takes over the repetitive work on the phone, order accuracy improves, tickets move faster, and your team stays focused on food instead of hold music.
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