Meet ‘Bo-Linda,’ Bojangles’ AI drive-thru order-taker (free version)
Meet ‘Bo-Linda,’ Bojangles’ AI drive-thru order-taker (free version)
Plus: Cato fails to get insurer to pay for Covid; Larry Toppman reviews 'Company'; Wells Fargo workers file for union election; Fines issued in SouthPark fire; Superintendent restricts 'explicit' book
Good morning! Today is Wednesday, November 22, 2023. You’re reading The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.
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Today’s Charlotte Ledger is sponsored by Company | Blumenthal Performing Arts (blumenthalarts.org): The Tony Award winning musical COMPANY “strikes like a lightning bolt.” It’s Bobbie’s 35th birthday party, and all her friends keep asking, isn’t it time to settle down and start a family? As Bobbie searches for answers, she discovers why being single, being married, and being alive in the 21st-century could drive a person crazy.
Editor’s note: This is a shorter, free version of The Charlotte Ledger sent to people on our free sign-up list. The complete version for paying members went out 15 minutes ago. It included:
The complete article examining Bojangles’ use of “Bo-Linda,” its new AI voice bot that is taking chicken orders at a growing number of Charlotte-area drive-thrus. In the name of journalistic inquiry, our Cristina Bolling ordered a chicken supreme combo, and she recounts the experience and assesses how Bo-Linda performed. (She also tells readers how AI fits into the fast-food industry.) And take our exclusive members-only poll: Are you on Team Bo-Linda … or do you want to talk to a human for your drive-thru orders?
A you’ll-read-it-only-here piece detailing Cato Corp.’s attempt to get its insurer to pay for Covid-related losses — by suing its insurer for not covering what it said was “physical loss or damage” to its property by the virus. There was a new court ruling yesterday.
Our round-up of top news from other sources. Our team scours dozens of websites daily to provide Ledger readers a digest of topics they should know about, which saves you time. We screen out the nonsense and clickbait and give you the good stuff, like unionization efforts at Wells Fargo, gerrymandering lawsuits and CMS’ superintendent ordering a novel out of school libraries because of its “explicit, graphic sexual nature.”
This Thanksgiving, you can gobble up knowledge and stay stuffed with insights as a Charlotte Ledger subscriber. You get unlimited access to news and insights you can’t find elsewhere — information that makes you smarter about Charlotte.
Paid subscriptions to The Ledger are $9/month or $99/year, and you receive full access to every edition by email and on our website, including the complete Wednesday and Friday issues and our Tuesday Ways of Life newsletter. Details here.
Charlotte-based Bojangles is testing a voice chatbot to take orders of chicken; ‘Would you like to Bo-size that?’ robotic voice asks
Watch and listen as The Ledger’s Cristina Bolling orders a “chicken supremes” meal from Bo-Linda, the AI working the drive-thru at the Bojangles in the Waverly shopping center in south Charlotte.
by Cristina Bolling
She’s been on the job for only a few months. She usually gets the drive-thru orders right.
She’s diligent and pleasant, and her bosses think she has a bright future. Oh, and her coworkers seem to like her.
“Bo-Linda” is the new AI voice bot that’s taking orders at drive-thrus at an expanding number of Bojangles locations. You can expect to see more of her around town soon, joining the likes of virtual personalities associated with other companies — such as Bank of America’s “Erica” and Wells Fargo’s “Fargo,” who are digital financial assistants.
Bo-Linda debuted at a Bojangles on South Tryon Street near Arrowood Road in southwest Charlotte, and she’s been working at a second Charlotte location, in the Waverly shopping center in south Charlotte, for about four months, Bojangles spokeswoman Stacey McCray said in an email to The Ledger.
There are 10 locations with Bo-Linda taking drive-thru orders, and another five are coming online soon, McCray said. There are about 800 Bojangles in the U.S.
Cristina Bolling is managing editor of The Charlotte Ledger. Reach her at cristina@cltledger.com.
➡️ Want to learn more about AI? Check out The Ledger’s “Future of AI” series that ran earlier this year, with articles on a range of topics examining how local businesses are using artificial intelligence.
Court says clothing retailer Cato can’t force insurer to pay for Covid losses
The N.C. Court of Appeals has ruled against Cato Corp. in a lawsuit in which the Charlotte-based clothing retail chain was attempting to get its insurer to cover losses related to Covid.
According to court documents, Cato — which operates more than 1,300 stores in 36 states — bought a commercial property insurance policy in 2019 from Zurich American Insurance Co. that covered “direct physical loss or damage” to company property.
Cato sued Zurich American in 2021, claiming that
🎭 Theater review: Chilly, clever production reimagines 'Company' in unsettling ways
Ledger arts critic Lawrence Toppman got a first look Tuesday night at the touring production of “Company,” which runs through Sunday at the Belk Theater.
In his review for The Ledger, Toppman writes:
The curtain rises on a woman who enters a tiny kitchen, literally a room inside a box, on her 35th birthday. She drinks, something she will do to excess throughout the play. Figures emerge, murmuring like worried ghosts, from the mists outside her barren abode.
Later, under the pretext of concern for the still-single Bobbie, these friends will show up as her chattering advisors, nagging consciences, even spastic puppets who wear odd party hats — possibly dunce caps, possibly suggesting pawns in a chess game — who flail around the stage so threateningly that she crawls under a table to hide.
No wonder Bobbie, the protagonist of “Company,” remains commitment-phobic. The five manic couples who hover around her suggest the kind of commitment that leads to an asylum.
Director Marianne Elliott won a Tony for her reimagining of the 1970 Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical, now at Belk Theater in the Broadway Lights season.
Check out Toppman’s full review, with information if you want to go:
🎧 New podcast: Understanding Charlotte’s restaurant scene
It’s the holiday season and a busy time of year for many restaurants. And on the latest episode of The Charlotte Ledger Podcast, we discuss the state of restaurants in the Charlotte area with expert Kristen Wile of Unpretentious Palate, a digital subscription-based publication that covers the local restaurant scene and provides independent restaurant reviews.
Wile and Ledger editor Tony Mecia discuss how Charlotte restaurants are evolving, some of the challenges they face, how to pick a restaurant in a time when social media and influencers might present less-than-realistic views of reality, and how restaurants in Charlotte differ from those in other cities. Wile also shares some of her picks for Charlotte’s most underrated restaurants.
The Charlotte Ledger Podcast features conversations on local topics including business, nonprofits, education and more. It’s available on major podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Check it out!
💬 Learn Gen Z lingo for Thanksgiving with the aid of our Teen Talk Cheat Sheet
Don’t miss your chance to be the cool relative at Thanksgiving dinner: The Ledger’s Teen Talk Thanksgiving Cheat Sheet is back for another year, with all the lingo you need to convince loved ones that you care enough to learn their language.
May you and your family have the most bussin’ Thanksgiving dinner of all time!
You might be interested in these Charlotte events
Events submitted by readers to The Ledger’s events board:
SUNDAY, NOV. 26: Museum Store Sunday, Physical locations: 1-5 p.m., online all day; The Mint Museum, The Mint Museum Uptown, & Online. Get ready for Museum Store Sunday! Forget Black Friday, The Mint Museum Store is offering 30% off sale items on the Sunday after Thanksgiving! Be Thoughtful, Shop Artful.
SUNDAY, DEC. 3: Queen City Nerve’s 2023 Best in the Nest Party, 3-8 p.m. at Norfolk Hall, 2905 Griffith Street, Charlotte. Join us in celebrating all of our 2023 Best in the Nest winners, and our five-year anniversary as Queen City Nerve! Expect an evening full of live music, live art, art galleries, drinks, amazing food, and many other great experiences. Tickets are $35 to $85.
◼️ Check out the full Ledger events board.
➡️ List your event on the Ledger events board.
In brief
A roundup of top Charlotte news from other sources:
Programming note: Ledger editor Tony Mecia appears as a guest on 90.7 WFAE at 6:40 a.m. and 8:40 a.m. on Thursdays for a discussion of the week’s local business news in the station’s “BizWorthy” segment. Audio and transcripts are also available online.
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Business manager: Brie Chrisman, BC Creative