Chatbots at the drive-thru are just the beginning

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about how AI is seeping into our daily lives, follow Emma Roth. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. Chatbots at the drive-thru are just the beginning May AI take your order? Chatbots at the drive-thru are just the beginning May AI take your order? How it started In 2021, McDonald’s became one of the first major fast-food chains to greet customers with an AI chatbot at the drive-thru. It started small, deploying the voice-ordering technology at 10 of its locations in Chicago. McDonald’s developed its drive-thru tech after acquiring Apprente, a startup focused on voice-based, conversational technology in 2019, and later worked with IBM to scale automated ordering. This was only the beginning of the AI drive-thru. Checkers and Rally’s teamed up with the AI company Presto to put a chatbot at all corporate-owned drive-thrus in the US in 2022, with the goal of selling more food and drinks to customers and improving order accuracy. The company also said the tech will “free up staff for more people-dependent areas of their business.” Wendy’s and Taco Bell followed suit. In 2023, Wendy’s launched its “FreshAI” chatbot at one of its drive-thrus in Columbus, Ohio in 2023. The company worked with Google to develop an AI chatbot trained on the franchise’s lingo, so it understands that a “milkshake” is a “Frosty” and that a “JBC” is a “junior bacon cheeseburger.” Wendy’s began expanding the technology months after its launch, saying that it got orders right without employee intervention 86 percent of the time. Taco Bell had been testing its Voice AI drive-thru around the same time and later announced plans to expand the technology to hundreds of locations in the US by the end of 2024. Similar to other fast food chains, Taco Bell pitched the idea as a way to reduce the task load for employees and slash drive-thru wait times. Other chains began trying out the technology as well, including Panera Bread, White Castle, Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s, Panda Express, and Popeyes. How it’s going By now, you might’ve encountered at least one AI chatbot at one of your local fast-food chains. I spoke to one at Checkers, where a human quickly took over after I was told one of the sandwiches I tried to order was out of stock. Even as companies continue to expand their use of AI drive-thrus, customers aren’t exactly fans of it. A January 2025 survey conducted by YouGov found that 55 percent of Americans would prefer a human to take their order at the drive-thru, compared to 21 percent who had no preference, and 4 percent who would rather use an AI chatbot. That generally lukewarm response may be having an impact on some franchises, as McDonald’s ended its partnership with IBM in 2024. One year later, Taco Bell chief digital officer Dane Mathews told The…