Artificial Intelligence to Take Drive Through Orders at 500 Locations

What Happened?

Thanks to a recent deal between chip maker Nvidia and fast-food giant Yum! Brands, artificial intelligence (AI) will be taking drive through orders at over 500 locations. 

Yum! Issued a statement saying “Looking ahead, Yum! is expanding AI to help team members manage complex tasks, including AI agents that plan, reason and act to assist across restaurants.” 

The exact locations or restaurants that will use the new technology were not provided by Nvidia or Yum!, but the AI rollout at drive-throughs is slated to begin in April.

Why it Matters

The new AI ordering technology has already been successfully used at select Pizza Hut and Taco Bell locations. In addition to simply taking orders, the new AI incorporates advanced language models employing emotional comprehension and personalized customer interactions to provide customers with a higher level of service. 

Wendy’s CEO Kirk Tanner said the new AI enabled approach to drive throughs “improves the customer experience and enables some labor efficiencies in our restaurants.” 

Rather than replacing humans with AI, the new approach combines the two allowing AI programs to take orders while the human workers focus more or preparing the meals and running the restaurant. 

Restaurant executives who have used the new program believe it increases both efficiency and productivity without leading to personnel cutbacks.

Some customers however have expressed frustration with the new AI ordering systems. A few have posted on social media saying they would actively avoid going to locations with the new AI systems.

Though many customers who were critical of the new AI drive through systems indicated their concern was that AI was replacing humans, not that the AI programs were unable to take their orders efficiently. 

The restaurant industry has been experimenting with ways to incorporate AI in their business model for several years. Some restaurants in San Francisco claim to have fully robotic kitchens capable of completing customer orders without any human labor.

While fully automated restaurants haven’t become commonplace, initiatives like the deal between Nvidia and Yum! could help move the industry closer to a future where restaurants are no longer fully operated by people. 

The Nvidia–Yum! initiative sees AI as a new tool for human workers to use or work in concert with rather than as a long-term replacement for human labor.

In much the same way that restaurants gradually incorporated telephones and computers, advocates say in the future AI will become just another tool that human workers use everyday to accomplish their tasks. 

How it Affects You

Tech companies and a host of industries are constantly looking for new ways to apply AI.

It’s possible in the near future the fast food experience will change from fully human operated, to a hybrid model where humans and AI work together.