McDonald’s Pulls the Plug on A.I. Drive-Through Ordering
TikTok videos indicate that the system has seen its share of blunders.
Jeff Greenberg/Getty Images
Sometimes experiments don’t go as planned. After two years, McDonald’s is concluding its test of A.I.-driven automated-order taking in drive-throughs. The technology, which was in place at more than 100 restaurants, will be removed from all of them by late next month, the industry trade publication Restaurant Business reported Friday. The test run began in 2021 in partnership with IBM, but has, according to social media, led to quite a few ordering blunders.
“After a thoughtful review, McDonald’s has decided to end our current partnership with IBM on AOT and the technology will be shut off in all restaurants currently testing it no later than July 26, 2024,” Mason Smoot, chief restaurant officer for McDonald’s USA, said in a company email, according to Restaurant Business.
However, McDonald’s is still leaving the door open to other forays into Artificial Intelligence-driven technology moving forward, saying that the test run had yielded “many learnings.”
“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 this week in a statement provided to several press outlets, adding that evaluation is ongoing to “make an informed decision on a future voice ordering solution by the end of the year.”
When McDonald’s partnership with IBM kicked off in 2021, the company said it was hoping to “determine if an automated voice ordering solution could simplify operations for crew, and create a faster, improved” customer experience, according to Today.
Judging from a handful of viral TikTok’s, that answer was “no.”
“You added bacon to my ice cream. I don’t want bacon,” said one person who documented their interaction with the A.I. ordering system at McDonald’s in a July 2022 video that collected more than 300,000 views. Eventually, a real person broke in to take the customer’s order for two ice creams.
Curiously, another TikToker also shared a video showing difficulty ordering two vanilla ice cream cones, although in their case the A.I. order taker seemed to want to give them hot fudge rather than bacon, which at least makes a bit more sense.
The bacon-ice cream person again had an unsuccessful interaction with the A.I. system while trying to order a Mountain Dew with his meal. A real worker ultimately informed the guy that McDonald’s doesn’t carry Mountain Dew. “Is there something else you would like to drink?” the worker asked and then sorted out the order as, perhaps, only an actual human could do.
To be fair, some people documented success with their A.I.-enabled ordering.
Regardless, soon enough, for now at least, there’ll be a real person at the McDonald’s drive-through taking your Grandma McFlurry order. Hold the bacon.
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