Pizza Hut Offers Pepper, MasterPass to Asian Markets

Pepper, the humanoid robot from SoftCard and Aldebaran Robotics, is set to become the “face” of POS terminals, able to accept payments via Mastercard’s MasterPass digital wallet at Pizza Hut locations across several Asian markets beginning later this year.

The $1,600 Pepper was originally designed for companionship and convenience; for Pizza Hut, the robot takes on the roles of waiter and cashier. Through a specific app, Pizza Hut customers connect to Pepper with just a tap of their phone or by scanning a QR code. From there, Pepper will be able to pull up past favorites, make recommendations, take and place the customer’s order, and accept payment.

This is not the first partnership between payments and pizza: in 2015, Visa, Accenture and Pizza Hut showcased the connected car at TRANSACT 15, and in 2014, Domino’s was an early Google Wallet adopter. The pizza industry’s interest in new payments technologies makes sense — pizza is a global convenience-food favorite — and the payments industry is making it easier than ever for customers to enjoy.