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Productivity

Mcdonald’s fires its AI drive-thru cashiers

The fast food giant is ending robot its drive-thru experiment after some viral fails.

Mcdonald’s fires its AI drive-thru cashiers
Joe Giddens - PA Images/Getty Images
By
Sam Klebanov
17 June 2024
Less than a 3 min read
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AI drive-thrus are getting sent to the same dingy dungeon where Ronald McDonald has been confined for the past few years. McDonald’s will ax the AI voice ordering system it’s been testing at over 100 drive-thru locations through a partnership with IBM established in 2021, Restaurant Business reported.

The decision could be related to some AI-powered incompetence: TikTok is flooded with videos of McD’s drive-thru AI messing up in ways that a human would never. For example, one customer got nine sweet teas added to her order despite requesting just one after the AI picked up on audio from a neighboring drive-thru station.

Making fast food faster

Despite AI’s recent epic fails and product rollbacks by Big Tech, many fast-food brands are embracing the nascent tech to boost efficiency.

  • Wendy’s is looking to expand its AI partnership with Google Cloud after robot cashiers shaved 22 seconds off average order times at one of the locations where they were piloted.

  • McDonald’s is teaming up with Google to implement the AI chatbot Ask Pickles to guide employees through tasks, according to Bloomberg.

Looking ahead…McD’s won’t promise that you’ll never have to order from a robot again: It plans to continue exploring voice-activated AI technology.—SK

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