McDonald’s Ends AI Drive-Thru Experiment with IBM Amidst Industry Shift: What’s Next?

 

Food giant McDonald's is reportedly ending its global partnership with IBM in tests for AI-powered drive-thru tech. IBM has been testing its AI-powered, automated order takers at select McDonald's drive-thrus since 2021. Now, though, the partnership is coming to an end.

While this does mark the end of McDonald's current automated order taker test with IBM, the company did hint at potential future AI drive-thru initiatives. Chicago-based McDonald's expressed interest in exploring voice ordering solutions more broadly, touting its ongoing evaluations. The restaurant chain will decide on a future voice ordering solution by year's end.

This move places them among other fast food chains scrambling to integrate AI into their operations, seeking ways to boost efficiency and cut costs. Wendy's has partnered with Google Cloud to develop "Wendy's FreshAI" chatbot technology. On the other hand, White Castle is rolling out sound-powered AI from SoundHound AI. It expects to be in more than 100 locations before the end of 2024. Other chains such as Panera, Arby's, and Popeye's are also using voice assistant tech, including OpenCity's "Tori," to quicken ordering.

Internationally, Popeyes U.K. just launched its first AI-powered drive-thru, called "Al," with an accuracy rate reportedly at 97 percent during a pilot phase.

However, across the years, McDonald's AI order taker, developed in association with IBM, was infamous for misprocessed orders and mistakes documented over social media. It was said to have problems understanding different regional accents and dialects.

Though McDonald's refused to comment or admit that the automated order taker had accuracy problems, IBM rose to its defense by saying that the technology was pretty quick and accurate even under awfully demanding circumstances.

Looking ahead, IBM indicated ongoing discussions and pilot programs with other quick-serve restaurant clients interested in similar automated order technologies.

The automated order technology at McDonald's locations testing the technology will be deactivated by July 26, 2024, according to a memo shared with Restaurant Business and CNBC.

Buttressing their statement of ending the AI drive-thru partnership, both McDonald's and IBM have reiterated that they will continue collaborating on other work. It points out that McDonald's has continued to use IBM products throughout its global system and referred to a recent multiyear agreement with Google Cloud focusing on using generative AI for restaurant operations around the world.