Jack in the Box to Use AI for Planning New Fast-Food Locations

Fast-food chain Jack in the Box is teaming up with an AI location intelligence startup to predict where it should open future locations to maximize sales and customer traffic.

The San Diego, California-based chain is partnering with SiteZeus, which uses AI to help companies pick locations through white space analysis, to identify optimal markets to enter as well as forecast the area’s sales.

"SiteZeus allows us to focus on strategic growth in new and existing markets by harnessing all the power that AI has to offer," said Tim Linderman, Jack in the Box’s chief development officer, in a statement.

"SiteZeus' white-space analysis will help us prioritize growth opportunities and quickly enable us to guide franchisees toward the best opportunities," he added.

The startup claimed that its sales forecasts have helped Jack in the Box “quickly pinpoint promising sites to outpace competitors in the fight for prime real estate.”

SiteZeus is using data modeling to improve its understanding of factors that lead to a store’s success to develop regional strategies.

“The key selling points for us were the speed with which SiteZeus was able to create and validate a model and the ability to update that model as often as we’d like,” said Jason Scarborough, lead financial analyst at Jack in the Box, in statement.

Jack in the Box is one of the largest hamburger fast-food chains in the U.S., with more than 2,180 restaurants in 21 states. It also owns Del Taco, the second largest Mexican-American U.S. fast-food chain with 600 locations in 15 states.