The once familiar symphony of human voices taking fast-food orders is rapidly being augmented, and in some cases replaced, by the smooth, often unnervingly pleasant, cadence of artificial intelligence. Kristen Charpentier’s recent experience at a Dairy Queen drive-thru in Cary, North Carolina, served as a subtle yet significant indicator of this burgeoning trend. Her initial impression of the AI’s voice was its almost unnatural politeness. "There was no communication delay or weirdness to it. It felt completely natural," Charpentier told WIRED, "But just a little too pleasant to be human." This perfectly polite, yet subtly robotic, demeanor, complete with unsolicited suggestions for extra Snickers to complement her Blizzard, struck her as unusual. Having worked in a similar role as a teenager, Charpentier recognized the subtle divergence from typical human interaction. Her suspicion was confirmed when the drive-thru employee revealed that she had indeed been served by an AI-powered ordering system.
This encounter is far from isolated. According to Intouch Insight’s annual Drive Thru Survey, the adoption of voice AI technology in U.S. fast-food drive-thrus has steadily climbed. In 2024, approximately 4 percent of fast-food locations incorporated this technology. This figure saw a modest increase to 5 percent last year, with early research suggesting a current ascent to 6 percent. For many customers, the initial AI-driven order often comes as a surprise, frequently documented and shared across social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat. However, the novelty is quickly fading, with automated ordering systems poised to become the new operational standard at a growing number of establishments.
A Rapid Expansion Across Major Chains
The integration of AI into drive-thru operations is accelerating at a significant pace. Taco Bell, a prominent player in the fast-food landscape, announced in July the deployment of AI across 890 of its drive-thru lanes, representing over 10 percent of its total U.S. locations. Dairy Queen is also expanding its AI footprint, implementing the technology in 25 states with the long-term vision of equipping all its restaurants. White Castle has embraced AI to such an extent that 12 percent of its locations now feature an AI named "Julia" for order taking, with all new openings incorporating this system as a default.
Sarah Beckett, vice president of sales and marketing at Intouch Insight, observes that brands that have made substantial investments and conducted extensive testing over the past three years are now prepared for large-scale implementation. "The technology has gotten to a point where they are ready to go," Beckett stated, "They’re going to start scaling this massively." This strategic shift signals a pivotal moment, marking the twilight of the traditional headset-wearing drive-thru employee and ushering in the era of the AI drive-thru.
The Genesis of the AI Drive-Thru
The modern AI drive-thru narrative arguably began in 2019 when McDonald’s acquired Apprente, a startup specializing in AI-driven drive-thru technology. This strategic move led to the establishment of McD Tech Labs, a dedicated division focused on advancing the company’s AI capabilities. The subsequent surge in drive-thru demand, exacerbated by the global pandemic, spurred other major fast-food chains to explore their own AI integrations. Del Taco and Dairy Queen partnered with Presto, while Panda Express and White Castle collaborated with SoundHound. Taco Bell aligned with Nvidia and Omilia. At the time, press releases from these companies painted AI as the future of the drive-thru, promising enhanced speed, improved accuracy, and superior upselling capabilities compared to human employees.
The Reality Check: Early Stumbles and Public Scrutiny
However, the initial rollout of AI in drive-thrus was not without its significant challenges and public missteps. A search of "AI drive-thru" on social media in 2023 revealed a series of often humorous, and sometimes frustrating, technological failures. Viral videos captured instances such as a McDonald’s AI mistakenly adding 260 Chicken McNuggets to an order, leading to panicked customer reactions, and another where AI added bacon to an ice cream order. Customers also actively sought to test the limits of these systems, with one notable example involving an individual ordering 18,000 cups of water at a Taco Bell.
Beyond these headline-grabbing incidents, more subtle but equally impactful issues emerged. While the ideal scenario envisioned AI agents operating seamlessly and invisibly, akin to highly efficient and polite employees, Intouch Insight’s research indicated that AI drive-thrus often fell short in terms of friendliness and order accuracy when compared to human counterparts. The inherent difficulty for automated systems in understanding diverse accents and dialects necessitated the continued presence of human employees on headsets for intervention. While the complex flow of a fast-food order is intuitive for human workers, early AI agents struggled to navigate these intricate processes effectively.
Michael Schatzberg, co-founder of Branded Hospitality, a firm that invests in food-service technology companies, highlighted the unintended consequences. "The restaurants ended up spending more time smoothing over the problem they created," Schatzberg remarked. "Everyone was like, ‘This is the worst.’ Stop. Get the people back with the headsets." This sentiment led some companies to reconsider their AI investments. Branded Hospitality divested its early AI drive-thru holdings, and Del Taco, in 2024, rolled back its AI drive-thru pilot program. McDonald’s, after selling its McD Tech Labs division to IBM, eventually discontinued its AI drive-thru initiative altogether.
Resurgence and Refinement: The Second Wave of AI Adoption
Despite these early setbacks, not all fast-food chains abandoned their AI drive-thru endeavors. Many, including Dairy Queen, White Castle, and Taco Bell, quietly continued to refine and expand their AI testing. For these companies, AI represented not just a technological advancement but also the embodiment of fast food’s core promise: to deliver sustenance with ever-increasing speed and decreasing cost.
Jamie Richardson, chief marketing officer at White Castle, noted that after four years of partnership with SoundHound AI, their AI drive-thrus have demonstrably smoothed out employee shifts and accelerated service times. Intouch Insight data supports this, indicating that AI drive-thrus, on average, outperform the industry by 21 seconds per order. Richardson also downplayed the impact of viral AI disasters, suggesting they are often overblown. White Castle’s strategy, he explained, focuses on incremental improvements rather than the pursuit of an infallible AI, asserting, "It wasn’t bad at the start. It’s gotten so much better as time has gone on."
This sentiment of progress and refinement appears to be driving a renewed wave of AI adoption across the fast-food industry. In addition to the planned expansions by Taco Bell and Dairy Queen, McDonald’s announced in the summer its renewed exploration of AI-powered ordering, this time in partnership with Google. This pilot program, currently underway at five U.S. locations, features an AI capable of taking orders in both English and Spanish.
Schatzberg of Branded Hospitality, now partnering with Arc, a voice AI drive-thru company serving chains like Jack’s and Pollo Campero, believes the current iteration of AI drive-thrus addresses the shortcomings of its predecessors. "AI drive-thru 1.0 was a flop," he conceded. "But now? Companies have evolved, technology has evolved, and they’re like—we can fix a lot of those problems."
The Human Element: Concerns and Counterpoints
Yet, not all customers are convinced. Schereé Reed described his experience with an automated voice at a Wendy’s in Virginia as "bewildered." He found himself anticipating a human takeover that never materialized, leading to a sense of unease about the dehumanizing potential of such technology. "I worry a lot about the ways that relying more and more on AI actually removes us from our human connections, like our ability to make community," Reed shared.
This concern for human connection is a sentiment echoed by some brands that prioritize customer service. Chick-fil-A consistently ranks high in drive-thru friendliness according to Intouch Insight, despite its notoriously long wait times, and has shown no inclination to replace human employees with AI. Similarly, rapidly growing coffee chains like Dutch Bros and 7Brew have also opted to forgo AI in their drive-thru operations. Nick Chavez, chief marketing officer at 7Brew, articulated this philosophy, stating, "For us, hospitality starts with genuine human connection, and that’s something our guests consistently tell us they value."
For customers like Reed, the value of a personal interaction remains paramount. "I want to be able to say hi to a human being," he expressed. While White Castle offers customers the option to speak with a human employee at any time, Richardson argues that "Julia" has fostered positive relationships, even among staff. White Castle’s recognition on Fortune’s top 20 list of best workplaces in retail last year, Richardson suggests, is partly attributable to its balanced approach to drive-thru technology.
Economic Imperatives and Future Potential
Executives within the fast-food industry maintain that AI is not a direct job replacement for drive-thru workers. Data thus far appears to support this claim. The majority of drive-thru roles involve multitasking, and the cost and complexity of fully automating tasks like cashiering and cooking remain significant hurdles. White Castle’s employment figures have remained stable throughout its AI implementation, and Taco Bell has reported higher employee retention rates at locations utilizing voice AI.
The primary economic benefit for fast-food chains lies in AI’s proficiency in suggestive selling, or upselling. Intouch Insight’s survey found that AI drive-thru agents engage in upselling 71 percent of the time, compared to the industry average of 58 percent. Encouraging customers to add a Diet Coke or extra Snickers can incrementally boost profit margins without alienating customers. AI’s persistent and, some might say, shameless approach to upselling is a key driver of this strategy.
The future potential of AI-equipped drive-thrus extends beyond immediate sales gains. In the near future, these systems may be capable of processing orders in numerous languages, recognizing individual customers as their vehicles approach, and offering personalized recommendations based on extensive data profiles. Imagine arriving at a fast-food restaurant and receiving a tailored discount on a milkshake, not because it’s a general promotion, but because the AI has calculated a statistically higher likelihood of you purchasing dessert on a specific day of the week.
"We never want to seem creepy," Richardson emphasized, acknowledging the fine line between helpful personalization and intrusive surveillance.
For customers like Reed, the unsettling implications are already a concern. However, Charpentier views the AI drive-thru as a positive development, a sentiment shared by the majority of customers, with Intouch Insight reporting a 97 percent satisfaction rate for the technology. Reflecting on her past experience as a drive-thru employee, Charpentier stated that she would have welcomed an AI colleague. "I think it’s a great thing," she concluded. "There’s room for human error, and I’m sure there’s going to be room for AI error. But I think, as we’ve all seen with the advent of AI, there is more consistency with AI than there is in humans." This perspective highlights a growing acceptance of AI’s potential for reliability and efficiency, even as the debate continues over its impact on human connection and the future of work.
