McDonald’s to pause AI-powered drive-thru orders after reported issues

Jun 17, 20245:28 PM EDT
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McDonald’s has halted its AI-powered drive-thru orders.

The fast food giant had been testing the initiative for the past two years in partnership with IBM at 100 U.S. restaurants. McDonald’s says the AI system will be removed from the locations by the end of July.

In a statement to CNBC, McDonald’s USA said its work with IBM has “given us the confidence that a voice ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants’ future.” The company added that it sees “tremendous opportunity in advancing our restaurant technology and will continue to evaluate long-term, scalable solutions that will help us make an informed decision on a future voice ordering solution by the end of the year.”

Of course, it’s not surprising that McDonald’s would want to be publicly bullish about such initiatives, but CNBC reports that the IBM testing suffered from some hiccups. In particular, the publication, citing two sources, notes that McDonald’s and IBM’s AI ordering solution had issues interpreting different accents and dialects, thus affecting order accuracy. McDonald’s, for its part, declined to comment to CNBC on these reported issues.

And that’s just behind the scenes. On TikTok, people have posted videos of snafus with the AI-powered McDonald’s drive-thrus, including one location incorrectly thinking a customer had ordered hundreds of dollars of chicken nuggets. Another customer was given an ice cream topped with bacon. Naturally, McDonald’s didn’t address any of these issues, either.

Given McDonald’s major international presence, it doesn’t exactly bode well for this technology if it’s already having trouble picking up Americans’ voices, let alone customers in all kinds of overseas countries.

In any event, McDonald’s is pressing on with a variety of AI initiatives, as it outlined last year. This includes leveraging AI to improve its mobile app, loyalty program, self-service kiosks and more.

Of course, McDonald’s is far from the only fast food company looking to AI, either. Earlier this month, Yum Brands, the owner of the likes of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, revealed that it’s begun using AI in drive-thrus, among other initiatives.

Image credit: McDonald’s

Source: CNBC