Introducing TacoBot, a totally new and completely intelligent way to order food together on Slack. We created TacoBot with an artificial intelligence engine, so it can talk to everyone in a group at the same time and understand natural language like a real human. TacoBot introduced a new kind of social ordering, and it did so in true Taco Bell fashion, with clever, culturally relevant replies. For example, tell TacoBot you’re drunk and, like a good friend, it’ll add a cup of water to your order. Ask it about dating on Tinder, and you’ll get a quick, quirky reply.

In the end, TacoBot e-commercized the top coworking platform on the planet and, by doing so, invented an entirely new way for people to order food together.

The TacoBot is a Slack bot that lets you order food directly on the platform. It was built with an artificial intelligence engine and a nerdy, pop-cultural personality. It understands natural language and interacts like a real live human. Users can quickly customize and place their orders by simply chatting with the TacoBot. For example, “One soft taco with extra cheese, bacon, and no lettuce” will add it to cart. When done, “checkout” will finalize the order and handle payment right on Slack. TacoBot also coordinates group orders between friends on Slack. Users can simply ask “who is in for lunch?” and tag their friends. The bot will make sure everyone gets invited and will place their orders.

On April 5, 2016, TacoBot launched as a private beta program with exclusive partners: Giphy, SAV Studios, Fullscreen, FoodBeast, and Thought Catalog.

Taco Bell became the first food brand on Slack to offer food ordering directly on the platform, achieving one of its main business goals.

The idea was a “small bet” investment of $40,000. Its debut generated over one billion earned media impressions, with an estimated ad value of over $10 million.

There was a tremendous response from press and social media. The DRUM! said, “It’s certainly the future of food ordering for businesses…” Wired asked if “The future of work is… ordering Taco Bell through Slack?” The Verge compared Taco Bell to tech giants like Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon, saying “… TacoBot is getting in on the ground floor.” This helped position Taco Bell as a technology leader and extended its mission to foster new kinds of social food experiences.

Taco Bell also invited interested teams to join the wait list to get their hands on the TacoBot. Over 1,200 teams joined.

Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing the way people interact with the world around them. With TacoBot, Taco Bell has proven itself a pioneer in the space. More than just a new way to order, TacoBot for Slack puts the brand at the intersection of people's most important relationships -- their coworkers and friends. TacoBot was built to make group ordering easier and more fun, and ultimately increase sales conversions. It’s a first, but also a service built to scale across other platforms helping to change where people shop and how they fundamentally interact with machines.

One of Taco Bell’s missions is to be available anywhere, anytime, to help foster social food experiences. In short, we want people to enjoy our food together.

Slack got our attention because it’s one of the fastest-growing communication platforms of all time. Teams spend 10 hours a day connected to the platform, on average. Slack was not only quickly becoming a new way to work, but also a new way to engage socially.

We thought, what if we could invent a new way to order together on the platform that makes everything easier for teams? By introducing e-commerce on Slack, we created an opportunity for Taco Bell to invent a whole new kind of social ordering and to create an innovation halo for the brand.

Taco Bell has always believed its food is best enjoyed with other people. More people eat at its restaurants with friends than any other quick-service restaurant. The brand is social by nature. And Taco Bell has been an early adopter on social platforms like Twitter and Snapchat.

Now the brand was looking to innovate new ways to engage with fans and bring Taco Bell to new places – to foster new kinds of social food experiences. With the rapid rise of Slack in 2015 – a platform that lets people communicate and collaborate smarter – Taco Bell saw a unique opportunity for a whole new kind of social ordering experience.