In the nearly three years since McDonald’s announced that it was partnering with IBM to develop a drive-through order taker powered by artificial intelligence, videos popped up on social media showing confused and frustrated customers trying to correct comically inaccurate meals.
“Stop! Stop! Stop!” two
friends screamed with humorous anguish on a Tiktok video as an A.I.
drive-through misunderstands their order, tallying up 240, 250 and then 260
Chicken McNuggets.
In other videos, the A.I.
rings up a customer for nine iced teas instead of one, fails to explain why a
customer could not order Mountain Dew and thought another wanted to add bacon
to his ice cream.
So when McDonald’s
announced in a June 13 internal email, obtained by the trade publication
Restaurant Business, that it was ending its partnership with IBM and shutting
down its A.I. tests at more than 100 U.S. drive-throughs, customers who had
interacted with the service were probably not shocked.
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The decision to abandon the IBM deal comes as many
other businesses, including its competitors, are investing in A.I. But it
exemplifies some of the challenges companies are facing as they jockey to
unlock the revolutionary technology’s potential.
Other fast-food companies have had success with A.I.
ordering. Last year, Wendy’s formed a partnership with Google Cloud to
build out its A.I. drive-through system. Carl’s Jr. and Taco John’s have
hired Presto, a voice A.I. firm for restaurants. Panda Express has
approximately 30 automated order takers at its windows through a partnership
with the voice A.I. firm SoundHound AI.
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