McDonald’s makes major change to drive-thrus after mishaps go viral

McDonald’s is eliminating AI chatbots from its drive-thru after accidents involving the technology went viral.

The company is phasing out the program, which it has been testing for two years, and will remove the controversial technology from more than 100 locations that use it.

The fast food giant entered into a partnership with technology company IBM in 2021 to test the program. But it will now end it ‘no later than July 26’, Restaurant business reported.

McDonald’s told the publication that the purpose of the test was to determine whether automated voice orders can speed up service, simplify operations and create an improved experience for customers.

However, fast food fans have documented their failed orders at the drive-thru, where the AI ​​chatbot adds unwanted items or fails to understand simple requests.

Despite ending the program, McDonald’s hasn’t dismissed the idea of ​​using AI for ordering in the future and suggested it could find a new technology partner.

“While there have been successes to date, we believe there is an opportunity to explore voice ordering solutions more broadly,” Mason Smoot, chief restaurant officer for McDonald’s USA, said in the email to franchisees seen by Restaurant Business.

Smoot said the company will continue to evaluate its plans to make an informed decision on a future voice ordering solution by the end of the year.

McDonald’s has taken a more cautious approach to using AI at its drive-thrus, even as other companies have implemented the technology.

Checkers and Rally’s, Hardee’s, Carl’s Jr., Krystal, Wendy’s, Dunkin and Taco Johns are testing or have implemented the technology in their drive-thru locations, the outlet reported.

But there are questions about the accuracy of speech recognition technology.

That’s what Chris Kempczinski, CEO of McDonald’s, said CNBC in 2021, the technology was accurate about 85 percent of the time, but staffers still had to intervene and assist on about one in five orders.

But videos of customers struggling to fulfill their orders have gone viral on TikTok.

One video, captioned “fighting the McDonald’s robot,” showed a woman trying to order a bottle of water and a cup of vanilla ice cream.

Instead, she had wrongly placed four packets of butter and four packets of ketchup on the order.

Another showed two people laughing hysterically as the AI ​​chatbot added more than 2,000 McNuggets to their order, totaling more than $200.

The fast food industry has long seen automation as a way to cut costs and eliminate the need for a worker – whether it means allowing a restaurant to operate with fewer employees or reallocating staff to other tasks .

Apps, mobile ordering and automated in-store kiosks have become commonplace in many fast-food restaurants, including McDonald’s.

McDonald’s started using AI technology in its restaurants back in 2019 National restaurant news.

This included the installation of 700 menu boards that use AI to automate the upselling of menu items based on time of day, trending items and weather.

The rising costs of food and labor have forced restaurants across the country to close.

The introduction of a $20 per hour minimum wage in California earlier this year has also increased pressure on fast-food restaurants in the state.

As a result, many companies are turning to technology as a way to cut costs.

When the law was introduced in April, a Burger King franchisee with 140 restaurants on the West Coast said he planned to use digital kiosks at all locations within two months.

Until the pay increase, he planned to roll them out over the next five to 10 years.