- McDonald's is ending its AI ordering partnership with IBM
- That's after much video evidence of customer AI ordering mishaps
- But the McDonald's experience won't stop other restaurants from trying AI ordering
Artificial Intelligence (AI) food ordering technology isn’t going to be telling McDonald's fry guys to “fire it” again anytime soon after many ridiculous drive-through order errors highlighted by customers in viral social media posts.
The fast food giant is removing the AI-powered voice recognition ordering technology from more than 100 restaurants where the tools were being tested by the end of July, the BBC reports. McDonald's partnered with IBM in July 2021 to roll out the AI ordering technology in its drive-throughs. For now, however, Mickey D's is ripping them out and replacing them with minimum-wage humans.
Multiple customers on TikTok, YouTube, and X/Twitter have posted videos of AI order mishaps. Customers reported McNugget overloads and ice cream overflowing with — yum! — bacon!
Therefore, McDonald's “has decided to end our current partnership with IBM on [Automated Order Taking (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 at McDonalds said in an internal email, seen by trade publication Restaurant Business.
McDonald's said they will try again with AI. For now, however, humans will take your order.
That doesn’t mean that other fast food joints aren’t also trying AI ordering. Wendy’s (with Google Cloud), Carl Jr’s, and Popeyes are attempting to replace feeble human meat sacks with fancy AI voice agents.
So, look forward to fries with everything again soon! Even ice cream!