Pizza Hut's AI system caused 'cascading' problems and $100M in damages, franchisee alleges in new suit

2026-05-18 22:56 UTC

The complaint says DoorDash drivers began waiting to batch multiple orders together after gaining virtual visibility into kitchen systems, allowing them to see when pizzas would come out of the oven. Instead of immediately leaving with a completed order, the suit claims drivers waited “up to fifteen (15) minutes” for additional deliveries, increasing the time between when a pizza is removed from the oven rack and when it leaves the building to be delivered. That delay slowed deliveries, disappointed customers, and caused a sharp drop in sales, the suit says. The lawsuit also alleges Dashers could see tip amounts and whether orders were cash payments, making some drivers less likely to accept certain deliveries.

Replies (13)

@some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 2026-05-19 03:22

Someone finally out-pizza’d the hut!

Open ##2855260
@x_pikl_x@lemmy.world 2026-05-19 02:47

Pizza Hut and Donatos around here both have approximately 5 customers a day. Me and my wife are sure they’re both fonts for money laundering.

Open ##2862799
@NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 2026-05-18 22:57

It doesn’t seem like AI is actually the problem here, as any new tech system could have given that kind of visibility to the DoorDash drivers and resulted in this problem, but either way, it’s an interesting fail, where a maybe good idea, falls apart because of human behaviour.

Open ##2864572
@SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today 2026-05-19 05:29

Pizza hut should be a fucking textbook case study on how to run a much-beloved brand into the ground. Quiznos might be slightly worse- they were in financial trouble so their brilliant solution was let’s fuck over our franchisees. I’ll give you 3 guesses how that worked out, but you’ll only need one.

Open ##2865714
@Exec@pawb.social 2026-05-19 05:50

Reading the comments here, y’all don’t have insulated bags given by the delivery company over there in the US?!

Open ##2866949
@Flower@sh.itjust.works 2026-05-19 06:56

These drivers are their own business and they’re just maximizing revenue according to market incentives, just like any other business. So Pizza Hut has enshittified themselves. Well done. I guess it looked a lot better in the excel sheet and presentation.

Open ##2870458
@Zarxrax@lemmy.world 2026-05-18 23:04

Wtf, pizza hut doesn’t employ their own delivery drivers anymore? Sounds like they are complaining because they outsourced delivery and now they don’t like how the work is getting done.

Open ##2871989
@frightful5680@lemmy.world 2026-05-19 10:47

I was hoping there’s some kind of free exploit thing with the AI to give myself free pizza.

Open ##2881781
@floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-05-19 10:55

All about the efficiency, nothing about the efficacy.

Open ##2882815
@ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2026-05-19 11:19

For context, here is an actual Uber Eats offer to a driver from 5 days ago:

Open ##2884995
@MehBlah@lemmy.world 2026-05-19 19:12

Last time I ordered from them. I selected pick up and waited until a few minutes before the time was up to leave to get it. When I got there on their screen it showed my name and ready. I waited an additional twenty minutes to get my pizza. Don’t know if the people working there marked it completed or if it was their system but I haven’t been back in a while.

Open ##2888513
@Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 2026-05-19 15:40

Fire the executives responsible.

Open ##2897285
@Corvidae@lemmy.world 2026-05-20 01:23

While it may not work well for everyone, this is my solution: How To Make Pizza Hut’s Pan Pizza At Home | Allrecipes - YouTube

Open ##2900645