- McDonald’s ends artificial intelligence at its drive-thrus.
- The fast food chain will no longer collaborate with IBM on its automated order taker.
- McDonald’s will still look at ways to incorporate AI into its systems.
If you’re a fan of the ubiquitous McDonald’s drive-thru, you may have encountered the fast food chain’s artificial intelligence-powered Automated Order Taker. The system has been in place at more than 100 of the restaurant’s locations across the US but will be unceremoniously discontinued in July.
The order taker’s concept was to use AI to listen to voice orders at drive-thrus and process individual orders, with the goal of speeding up processes and simplifying operations. The AOT system was conducted with tech giant IBM, but neither company gave an official explanation for the program’s ending.
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However, according to a report from CNBC, the technology had its flaws. The outlet reports that AOT had trouble interpreting different accents and dialects, which led to knock-on problems with order accuracy.
Despite ending the IBM partnership, McDonald’s remains optimistic about the future of AI in its drive-thrus. “As we move forward, our work with IBM has given us the confidence that a voice ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants’ future,” McDonald’s said in a statement. The company plans to continue evaluating scalable, long-term solutions and aims to make an informed decision by the end of the year.
In a statement, IBM acknowledged the test’s conclusion but noted ongoing discussions and pilots with other quick-service restaurant clients interested in AOT technology.
This move follows McDonald’s sale of its McD Labs technology, formerly Apprente, to IBM in 2021, and its predictive ordering technology, Dynamic Yield, to Mastercard later that same year. While the company’s future AI plans are currently under wraps, a new partnership with Alphabet’s Google, announced in December, has drawn significant interest. Neither McDonald’s nor Google has disclosed specifics about the collaboration.