Following significant staffing shortages, fast food restaurants are tentatively embracing artificially intelligent drive-thru bots. Staple chains such as Wendy’s, Del Taco, Hardee’s, and Carl’s Jr. are looking at the labor market and choosing to leap toward the future.
Over 3.3 million Americans work fast food jobs, and with the rise of AI bots, the drive-thru worker could be at risk of becoming an endangered species.
Some experts, such as Krishna Gupta — chief executive at Presto, the company leading the drive-thru bots — predict that these bots will soon replace human workers.
“In three years I don’t think there’s going to be any human taking an order in any drive-through in the U.S.,” Krishna Gupta told Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal.
In terms of upselling and efficiency, Presto’s bots outperform human workers on just about every statistical metric, according to the company’s website. Presto boasts 95 percent automated order completion, $3,000 per month in labor savings for businesses, and an extra $4,500 from upsell features.
Testing an AI Drive-Thru
Stern tested an AI drive-thru bot at a Hardee’s location in Maryland — and was pleasantly surprised by the results. She measured the bot’s ability as a drive-thru worker according to three metrics — speech recognition, natural language processing, and humanness.
The bot received a passing grade on the first two metrics and (naturally) failed it on the third:
This AI is very good at the basics of drive-thru order taking. But, like most applications of AI right now, this is a way to help humans, rather than fully replace them. A human still has to babysit this bot. But of course this tech is going to get better, and more companies will give in to making AI a part of their workforce.
While some companies might hope to boost their performance using drive-thru chatbots, Forbes contributor Ana Faguy notes that the bots still struggle with order accuracy:
The use of chatbots has already faced some obstacles in the fast food industry due to the technology’s imperfect response. A BTIG survey obtained by Restaurant Dive in 2022 found that at 24 Illinois McDonald’s restaurants, the accuracy rate of the drive-thru technology was in the “low 80% range.” Those inaccuracies have been captured by some customers and posted to social media. One TikTok user shared her experience of an AI-powered drive-thru McDonald’s lane capturing both her order and the order of a customer in the drive-thru lane next to hers.
If the technology can make good on its cost-saving claims, an AI drive-thru bot may become the norm. But for companies that want to maintain specific standards of human interaction in customer service, today’s bots are a couple of patties short of a burger.
Elizabeth Crawford is a rising senior at Hillsdale College studying politics. A member of The American Spectator’s 2023 intern class, Elizabeth enjoys drinking good tea and plans to pursue a career in journalism.
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