The What

For two years, McDonald's had been experimenting with "Automated Order Taking" (AOT) for drive-through orders at 100 of their restaurants. At least for the time being, the experiment is over.

They had been working with IBM on the endeavor. They'll be "shut off in all restaurants currently testing it no later than July 26, 2024." But in their statements, McDonald's has hinted that they still like the idea and will likely be trying it with another technology partner.

For their part, IBM says they plan on partnering with other fast-food chains. Me-ow.

Several other fast food chains already have AI for order taking, including Hardee's, Taco Johns, Dunkin, Wendy's, Checkers, etc. Take a look at that list, by the way. It's the RC Cola runners up of the industry.


Why is McDonald's canceling the order?

A Guardian article summed it up nicely, "While companies have touted AI as the future of the fast-food industry, these technologies have also resulted in viral videos and media coverage documenting when they get orders wrong. McDonald's drive-thru AI failures circulated on TikTok last year after several videos purported to show the system adding erroneous items like butter packets or multiplying how many items were ordered."

The AI really isn't quite ready for prime time. Of all drive-through order systems, apparently the AI companies/services actually uses oversees workers to get involved in "AI-first" interactions around 70% of the time.

One of the biggest issues was the AI's inability to understand or interpret different accents and dialects, affecting order accuracy. There has been several well-documented studies and reports of AI having a racial bias in both facial recognition (Vox article) and voice recognition (NY Times article).

Those biases aren't necessarily intentionally racist, but just a by-product of lack of diversity in development and testing environments.


When Will This Return?

Of course, AI assisted food ordering will be back at McDonald's. They didn't say they don't like the idea or are not excited about the technology. It's just this current iteration didn't work well enough.

Par for the course as far as I'm concerned. We're living in a nearly-improved age. There are so many technologies we officially currently have but are far from perfect. Video on demand is not where it's going to be in the future (you'll truly be able to get everything, and from one source). Self-driving cars are here, but not really.

Improvements to everything are coming, and likely to the point where many current jobs become obsolete which is a very real problem for the future, but it's still for the future. Those of us who are skeptical of this future at least this week can celebrate setbacks like this McDonald's announcement with some good old fashioned schadenfreude.